I miss John Peel

I had to let all of the weirdness and craziness of the past five days pass before I wrote.  It had settled right behind my face, making me hurt and ache all over.  


The word re: my job is that I'll get to keep my position because it is regarded essential.  A lot of very nice judges (mine included) argued that the trial court assistants should not have to shoulder this burden alone and offered to take a pay cut themselves and other kind alternatives.  Further, I may not have to suffer a pay cut yet.  YET.  The Administration of Justice (henceforth known as "AOJ") will request that the governor tap into the rainy day fund to float us until Feb. '12, or the next legislative fiscal year.  In the meantime, they will be investigating and trying to sort where all of the money from the AOJ fund has gone and what needs to be done to ensure that this never happens again.  Normally, there is up to a $10 million surplus.  In my opinion, one that I share with my boss and other judges, something ain't right.  Obviously this matter needs to be looked into.  


I feel relieved, naturally.  I'll still be pulling a full paycheck and enjoying benefits.  But, I was ready, man.  I was shopping plane tickets to NYC and was going to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  Because things are really shit right now.  My job isn't 100% secure and this problem will reoccur.  Everything  terrible you hear in the news -- layoffs, no healthcare insurance, losing a home, pay cuts -- this is stuff that is happening to people I know and care about.  I think that Occupy Wall Street summed it up nicely HERE.  Things are coming to a head and, well, we need to go somewhere.  And yeah, it's raw, naive, and the demands are many, unknown, or vague.  But, people have peacefully come together en masse because what else is there to do?  If you don't have a job, going to NYC and risking police brutality or jail doesn't seem like such a big risk.


To add to my exhaustive Friday, we went to the Evelyns/Lemonheads show @ the Rev Room that night.  We caught the last few songs of The Evelyns, and they were alright.  They've changed the line up quite a bit since I've last seen them, so it was an unexpected sound.  I couldn't even get into the second band whose name I've already forgotten, thankfully.  And then there was the Lemonheads.  Evan Dando.  What a weirdo.  I hope that it's a midlife crisis that he's suffering.  Otherwise, what a gross, sad old man.  We shouldn't have gone to that show.  You shouldn't mess with NOstalgia, that stuff is no good.  I'm glad that we supported the Evelyns, and I am glad I got to see the Lemonheads perform "It's A Shame About Ray" and "Rudderless", but the rest of it was a damn embarrassment.  I am, however, amused by how many rednecks love the Lemonheads.  Soft side.


Sigh, here:






After the show, I couldn't fall asleep fast enough, so Saturday would be here.  (I did have a minor set back with my bank that doesn't have an open lobby on Saturday, which is terribly inconvenient for me.  I really need to open a safety deposit box!  But, anyway.)  ATM & I had plans to meet Matt, Summer, Brittany, Steven & Aaron @ Boulevard for coffee and then walk over to the Food Truck Festival.  Having coffee was rad.  Walking around downtown was rad.  However, I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I waited nearly 2.5 hours in line for some shit food.  The turnout far exceeded everyone's expectations and there simply wasn't enough trucks to serve everyone in a timely manner.  Too, you had to buy tickets because they were not accepting cash and we bought $40 worth, so we felt we had to wait in line.  I got sunburned and extremely hangry.  Thankfully, we stuck it out and didn't turn on each other.  There were two redeeming qualities about that whole ordeal: the people we got to hang out with and the weather.  Seriously, Comrades, we owe it to each other to do something fun to make up for the misery that was the Food Truck Fest.  I'm going to have to let FTF sort it before I ever consider going again.  


Brittany, Matt, Summer & Steven:



Aaron & Brittany:



ATM & Aaron:



Walking around downtown:



Me & Matt:



Steven & Aaron holding the collective foodstuffs.  Those strawberry crepes were the best thing we had:



Me, Steven & Summer:



Summer & Brittany:



We made plans to meet up with everyone later that evening, but we were so beat down by Helios, that we couldn't even go out if we wanted.   Sunday was better in that I got things accomplished.  I got up, watched the rainbow show in the living room with the cats, made coffee,  and ate a breakfast prepared by ATM.  We started assembling our bookshelves, but had to abandon the job because we lacked enough decorative Japanese paper to complete it, which is maddening because, UGH, I had to order more, and it arrives by mail, and it's just another week gone by that it's not complete, not to mention that it costs even more money.  What's the old saying?  Measure a billion times, cut once?  


ATM:



Me (photo by ATM):



Monday contributed to my anxiety in that, well, it's Monday for one, but I have this co-worker who is mental and makes me feel mental.  I actually went home for lunch to avoid her, which goes against my not driving to save gas plan.  Today was hardly better (although I did get everyone in my office to pronounce juror as "jurruh" all day), but the fog is lifting and I am feeling much better.  I've been cooking, baking, and clearing away clutter.  





I miss John Peel.