After I cut off my hair (again) I got so much grief (again). But I did it to let my natural grey hair grow out, again, like last time. But now that a few inches of hair have grown back, now that I pin it back on my good side, the left side, now I suddenly get compliments on my hair. Really? Three inches of hair makes that big of a difference? FFS. You people are tough.
I had the most amazing conversation with my Lyft driver. A nice young man from Russia. During the 15 minute car ride home from work, forgetting how fucked up our American/Russian leaders are, we just talked about traveling and how much we both like winters, that is, until it drops below ten degrees. If this were glasses of wine over the Malibu bluff we would be having a successful first date. People who are into winter, who grew up with winter, who have the cold of winter in their bones, always seem to be okay with the temperature dropping down to ten degrees. That’s the cut off temp, ten degrees. Who knows why. It’s a mystery. But nine degrees and there better be an Irish coffee in front of me! My Lyft driver and I talked about Sweden, Minnesota, Moscow (where he’s from), Alaska, Germany, Japan’s overnight train sleeper capsules, Siberia, and the Trans Siberian Railway (the 14 day train ride from Moscow to Beijing). I’ve blogged about the Trans Siberian Railway before. I really, REALLY want to go. 14 days on a train from Moscow to Beijing. I absolutely love traveling by train. Clears my head.
I haven’t gotten my glasses yet. I picked up a pair of ready readers, for reading of course, with the prescribed magnification by the optometrist, but I still need the bifocals. I’m supposed to be wearing provisions but I’ve read they are hard lenses to adjust to. Provisions are three prescriptions in one lense. The bottom part of the lens for reading, the middle part of the lens for clearing the blur directly in front of you, and the top part of the lens for magnification/clearing of what’s more than 20 feet in front of you. And all three areas of the lens have different prescriptions. I can’t see anything clearly 20 feet in front of me unless it’s the size of a car and even that’s blurry. Supposedly provisions are designed to enhance where your eyes naturally move to see things, but what if your eyes avert? Divert? Avert? Mine do constantly. Plus they’re just so expensive for one pair. Do you know how many sunglasses I have worn in five years? I’m not allowed nice sunglasses. I lose sunglasses like a negligent parent loses their kid at the grocery store.
The search for glasses continues.
Regarding work, all’s I can say at this time is, I can’t work for Chef Rodriguez during the week with two messed up wrists and a bad back. My weekend job is just too physically demanding.
I’m so messed up on Mondays recovering from my weekend job I’m literally in too much pain to leave the house. I’m currently wearing wrist splints as I’m writing this. I mean, I have carpal in both wrists as it is. If forced to choose, if one job has to go, it’s the rehab job sad to say. All my years working in the food industry, Chef Rodriguez is probably my favorite chef, next to his then sous chef Andy P(filipino last name I’m not even going to try). I’ll work wherever Chef Rodriguez works. – More about work later.
AND ANOTHER THING
Work/life balance is everything. As I said above, my days off work can’t be spent recuperating from work.
I’m still apartment hunting. FML.
I finally retrieved my art from Aramis. I want to draw again. Two messed up wrists and legally blind without glasses. Should be a great drawing.
Sex with men:
Sex with women:
Seems I’ll be watching this on my computer.
Three months later and my hair is starting to grow back. Which is all coming along much quicker than the storyline in Game Of Thrones. Holy shit.
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After watching season 1 of House Of The Dragon, I started binge watching GOT. I last left off at Season 3, episode 4, and that was the best show of the series so far. GOT just moves along so very slowly. I watch hockey for the speed, strength, and skills of the game. Mostly the speed. And occasional fights. That’s how I’m hoping GOT gets… soon. Very soon. Too much gratuitous sex and violence. Where’s the story?
CLERKS III. Did I miss it in theaters already? It was playing only at 7:00pm about a month ago but nowhere near me. The showtimes never opened up more than that. And now it’s only playing in Cerritos. Cerritos! The gateway between LA & OC. Pick a team, Cerritos. Pick a team! You can’t be both Sharks Ducks and Kings.
ALSO
White collar cattle farm factories all have to go. I agree with you there. Farms not factories. Those milking machines are pure torture on the cows. If you can’t get your cows milked by hand you’re a useless farmer. The prairie didn’t use torture milking machines. They hired farm HANDS. Hands, bitch. Learn how to use your hands. More farms. Free range. No feeding grates. No closed tight pens. Learn how to build barns and fences you bunch of lazy fucks. That said, WTF are these kids doing?
Presently, I’m looking for a Starbucks to see a man about making my glasses while I drink a Pumpkin spice thingy.
Only…
The two Starbucks nearest to me right now, according to Google maps, aren’t motherfucking there anymore! Pumpkin Spice, why you mock me so?! Goddamn you onlyfans! Goddamn you for giving kids a better chance to earn more than minimum wage! And by “kids” I mean anyone under 35. If you’re under 35 years of age, you’re a kid, to me anyway.
5:00pm
My eyeglass place is closed. They closed at 4pm. Shit. FML! Tomorrow then.
I found a Starbucks! Life is good again. I’m so easy. Pumpkin spice. First time having it. Good. Good.
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As I mentioned, yesterday I saw the optometrist. He confirmed the fitness test eye exam. “Without corrective lenses you’re legally blind. Just get glasses, you'll be fine.” Doc wrote out a prescription and handed it to me. Somehow I managed to grab the prescription on the first try, not because of my shitty vision, but on account of just 15 minutes earlier his tech dilated my eyes.
I had no idea the optometrist office was going to dilate my eyes. I could have used that information the day before as how I couldn’t see shit as I stumbled out of their office. Luckily my dear grumpy friend generously offered to pick me up when he heard my eyes were dilated. Crossing the street was fun! Good times.
I used to wonder how I’m still alive after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Now that I’m 98% sober (I still have maybe two drinks a month) - but now that I am mostly sober I wonder how I’m still alive what/with eye doctors, employers, taxes, insurance, and general cost of living.
I still haven’t figured out which fucked my life worse, being a delinquent, or being an upstanding citizen?
Finding a place to shop for eyeglasses is the new thorn in my side. The ho’s at Visionworld thought I would pay $600+ for a pair of progressives. No, bitches. Peddle your wares someplace else. My brother gets his glasses at Zenni online, and a friend suggested Warby Parker. I fully expected to pay around $100-170 but I REFUSE to pay $600+. If you’re paying $600 for progressive lenses then you must also be shopping at Erewhon and/or Whole Foods. If you can afford to pay $12 for one stick of butter then congrats, you’re doing well.
I have begun fast-forwarding GOT episodes. Too much gratuitous sex. Too much sword fighting.
No Dragons. No Tyrion. Fast-forward.
It seems I am returning to Hollywood.
After all this time.
Full circle.
I said back in 1995 I was done with tattoos but…
Full circle.
Fuck.
I’m watching House Of The Dragon with a friend. And because of this I began binge watching (Game Of Thrones) GOT on my days off. Prior to now I had only seen one episode of GOT. A roommate in Las Vegas in 2017 had me watch one episode with him and I just couldn’t get into it. I was ready to call it quits now after three episodes but I managed to sit through the first season. Tomorrow I start season 2. I’m also binge watching The Kominsky Method, on Netflix. On season two. Absolutely brilliant. Love it. And of course I put on my makeup every day to MrBallen podcast. Music? What’s music? I would love to see a concert, live music, only now I fear the music would just be too loud.
As I blogged earlier (scroll down) I started a new job a month ago contracted at a rehab center, and I’m also back (back again) working for Chef Rodriguez three days a week.
Companies, government branches, and religious sects got wise. It’s cheaper to renovate a wing on one floor into a kitchen and hire professional chefs & crew, than it is to order take out and catering. Prisons now have private chefs, as do airlines, churches, hospitals, and old folks homes. Good for food workers, bad for restaurants. That’s why I support local restaurants whenever I can. And tip out at least 20%. Usually more. If my order is $14 I’m still tipping out $7 that’s my bare minimum. People who tip $2 for a $14 sandwich should learn how to assemble a sandwich at home. Bro, it starts with your choice of bread…
That said, I rarely go out to eat anymore. Not if I’m paying $1,000 per 100 square foot for a roof over my head. I could rent a farm house in Minnesota for the cost of a Los Angeles studio apartment but then I wouldn’t get the nice yearly weather and that’s really what we’re paying for. I’m falling apart much quicker than I originally thought I would so unless I meet a Mister Farmer Brown, there will be no Mrs Farmer Brown. (Sigh)
I have at least 20 more years of work before I can retire. Who thinks I’ll make it? Hands?
I’m teaching the cats to bring me sushi.
Tamago. Good. Good. I like Tamago.
Prince Harry married her to piss off his family. The ceremony alone was a giant dumpster fire. I love weddings and what I imagined/hoped to be a beautiful elegant royal wedding was instead something I’d expect to see in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, circa 2005.
In about 4 weeks or less I'm hopefully in my own apartment. 300 square feet for $3,000 a month and I'll be eating cans of soup over the sink, but hey it'll be mine.
I can't thank my friends enough for keeping me alive.
I invited a fella, an older buddy of Armis's, out for coffee, but given my limited time off now, two jobs and whatnot, the next day I was available didn't work for him. And he actually said, "When I get back in town perhaps. Please advise."
Please advise?
Is this how old people talk to each other?
Fires. Smashings. Robbings. Break-ins. Break-outs. It’s a country gone to hell in a handbasket. (I said it that way for the boomers.)
True love, unconditional love, is something you had before the year 2000. Back when people still had dignity and compassion for themselves and each other. Back when you loved something because it moved you, not just for the likes. Right as the hatred for one mad man can tear a country apart, so can the mutual love for another make a country whole. I’m talking about Elvis, of course. I wish I could have seen Elvis in concert. I bet it was a fun show.
Minimum wage in California should be $20 an hour. There. I said it. Why?
REPUBLICANS: “People need to go back to work!”
ALSO REPUBLICANS: “Minimum wage work is meant for teenagers! Not adults!”
ALSO REPUBLICANS: “Why the hell is my local Starbucks and CVS closed?!”
TEENAGERS: (Be like, and make way more money than you!)
It’s not our world anymore Boomers, and Gen X’ers. It’s their world. We just haven’t died yet. YET. I’ve already outlived four of my childhood friends. I’m simply waiting my turn.
Minimum wage work is now for Boomers and Gen X’ers. Guys like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made it possible for young people to earn without leaving their houses. And that’s what really pisses you off, isn’t it?
“In my day we had to walk five miles to school, in two feet of snow, uphill, both ways!” – Welp, guess what, kids today DON’T. They school at home, they work at home, they shop at home, they workout at home, they BUY homes for their cats and dogs. It’s their world now.
“Depression is on the rise!” – More so among male Boomers I imagine. They want mates that don’t exist anymore. And most have no clue how to operate mobile devices. And the women, meh, they’re perfectly content with cats, Wheel Of Fortune, and knitting. Oh wait. Maybe that’s just me.
Do I understand kids today? Not really.
More importantly, I don't care that I don’t understand them. It doesn’t bother me if a half dozen girls get together for lunch and stare into their phones. And I’ve since learned to live with standing in an unnecessary line at Starbucks because no one buys coffee for their friends.
I paid a $20 fine in Hollywood back in the day for jaywalking. I walked across the street (Hollywood blvd & Wilcox area) when the hand sign started flashing, and two cops on bicycles dinged their police bicycle bells at me and gave me a jaywalking ticket. It seems they’ve done away with jaywalking in some parts of California. Finally.
As for me, I’m still working my EVS tech job on the weekends, and just yesterday I reconnected with a Hollywood executive chef I worked with ten plus years ago. I stopped working for him when the powers that be broke up the band Yoko Ono style when they felt our crew was getting too unruly. And now we’re back together with some of the wrecking crew. Older Wiser.
Between the two jobs I’m sure to find a workplace romance. There is a 30-something physician at my tech-rehab job that finds his way onto my floor (8 floors down from the physicians floor) every Sunday. Slumming. All good.
Tomorrow I will meet up with my chef friend to hammer out the details of my return working for him. – It’s a chapter in my food book I’ll finish one day. My friend stole me from another executive chef in Studio City, same company, a week after I finished training with that guy. The situation got so heated that the executive chef from Studio City, who trained me, followed me to Hollywood to have it out with me and my (now) long time executive chef-friend in his dining room. And if you’ve never seen (film) BURNT, petty rivalry between chefs is a real thing that has no limits. I was hired in Studio City to be a dining room coordinator, and I left that chef to be a server in Hollywood because I liked the crew, executive chef, and dining room, better. You see boys and girls, when you take a lesser paying/status gig because you like an executive chef and crew better, someone’s ego will just fucking… watch (film) BURNT. If for no other reason because it has Daniel Bruhl in it.
Other than that, I drank a beer yesterday. My first drink in almost three weeks. My social life is having staring contests with a friend's cat.
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I really will finish my food book. One day.
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