September and Earwigs!

I found out this week that my day job has given my office a September 20 return to work date. We've been working from home since last March and the WFH days will soon come to an end. I know many folks haven't had the luxury of being able to work from home and I know they probably won't have much sympathy for me, but I dread returning to the office. Getting back on public transit, using a community bathroom and kitchen...these things all depress me. Ugh. Well, I'd better try to enjoy the remaining weeks I have to work from home and take advantage of it.

In other depressing news, I've got earwigs in my place. They're somehow getting in from the outside and I don't like it. Ortho Home Defense to the rescue! I've never had earwigs in the nearly three years that I've lived here. I've been reading up on earwigs and they're probably moving indoors due to the dry weather we've been having lately. I see them around the back door of my building and they're clearly making their way inside. They need to pack it in and head back outdoors or face death by foot or Ortho. Ugh again and gross. When I was a kid, I would put on my gym shoes (yes, gym shoes, not sneakers--I'm from Michigan) and go outside to step on ants up and down the walkway of our house. As an adult, I don't seek out bugs to step on, but I do feel proper footwear is needed to squash bugs. I have to put on a shoe that will do the job. Not a flip flop or a house shoe. I need a good killing shoe and I make sure I have a pair handy to do the job.

Screenwriting? Nah.

I've been taking an online screenwriting class for the past few weeks through a local community college. I signed up for the course because I wanted to learn how to write a screenplay. I wanted to learn the format and what you need to know about the pacing, etc. I'm not planning to write a screenplay, but I wanted to know how to write one in case I decided one day to actually write one. Well, the class didn't go as planned. I'm actually still taking it, but almost done. It just didn't cover what I wanted to learn. Some of the lessons were helpful, but a lot of them involved the instructor posting messages about movies he liked that I hadn't seen (like Juno and MASH). The class just turned out to be kind of a disappointment, but it did convince me that I should probably just stick to writing books. I'm too old and too set in my ways to learn an entirely different format of writing. Maybe if I had been younger and took this up, I'd be more open to it. But now, nah. If someone ever wants to option one of my books for the screen, I'd be happy to sit back and let someone else write the script...probably.

Trying to Care

In my day job, I feel like people are constantly contacting me to do something, ask questions, give advice, solve problems, whatever and I'm often glad to provide assistance if I can. However, sometimes, I just feel like saying, "I don't give two fucks about this. Stop contacting me!" Of course I can't say that or I'd be out of a job (and I need my job), but I'm pretty burned out at the moment. I'll be taking some much-needed time off in a couple of weeks to decompress. 

It's hard to try and care about something that you don't care about. Right now, a lot of folks on my day job are wound up about returning to the office since we've been working from home since last March. Personally, I don't want to go back to the office for a variety of reasons. Yes, I'm fully vaccinated, but I don't want to sit in close quarters with folks all day with people who might not be vaccinated. And what about folks with young kids who can't be vaccinated? I also don't want to get back onto public transit. Ugh. I also don't really care for a lot of the people I had to share space with at the office. (Not folks I worked directly with, but another "team" on the other side of the floor. Ugh again.) I also like being able to use my own bathroom in my own home and eat from my own kitchen. The list goes on. However, if I'm forced to go back to being a commuter, then I'll do what I have to do or get another job that enables me to either work from home or work closer to home so I can drive and avoid public transit. But I said all of this to say that when someone complained to me recently about not wanting to go back to work and listed all the reasons why, I listened, but I didn't really care. I care about my own issues, but not so much about someone else's. Is that selfish? Sure, but Kim Davis is concerned about Kim Davis right now. Sorry...not sorry.

I'm also finding it hard to care about Lin Manuel-Miranda (overrated), In the Heights (not interested), Chrissy Teigan (irksome), the Royal Family (ugly inside and out), and many other things that seem to consuming the news cycle these days. 

What a Dick!

I just read an article on the Washington Post's site where a guy dumped 80,000 pennies at his ex-wife's house for his last child support payment. All I could think of after reading this story was, What a dick! Even if you've got issues with your ex (which this guy clearly has), why do that to your kids? The mother and kids donated the money to a women's shelter (and good for them for doing that), but it still doesn't dismiss the fact that the father here is a dick. Grow up already, man! You made kids. You got divorced. Support your kids (and not with pennies)!

I was talking with my sister recently about our father and how grateful I am that we have a decent father. Do I agree with my father on everything? Of course not, but he's a good guy overall and I'm glad to have him. I hear horror stories from people about their fathers being straight up dicks or people who don't know their father at all. One of my cousins found out through Ancestry.com that the man she thought was her father wasn't her father at all and now both of her parents are dead and she has no idea who her biological father is. How awful is that? Her parents never divorced and they both took this secret to the grave. Even if your dad is a jerk, in jail, dead, whatever, I think you still deserve to know who that man is.  

As another father's day rolls around in a few weeks, I will be making a call to my dad to tell him how much I appreciate him being there for me. Maybe I should also thank him for not being a dick and for paying the court-ordered child support he had to pay for me and my sister after he and my mother divorced. Thanks, Dad!

Halston (the Documentary and the Netflix Series)

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I watched both the Halston documentary and the Halston Netflix series. Both were interesting (although I liked the documentary more than the series). Halston really did recreate himself. It was sad to watch him self-destruct, as so many creative people tend to do. Also, a lot of creative folks often need someone to reign them in because, while they're very talented, they often lack the ability to run a business (as was the case with Halston). He just kept spending money and no one was watching the bottom line for years. So much excess! After a while, he went into business ventures that brought him a lot of money, but he sold his name away in the process. He couldn't even use his own name on anything when he died. How sad is that? The documentary allowed you to see the real Halston and hear his voice. The Netflix series gave you the Ryan Murphy-version of Halston: the debauchery, the glamour, the ugliness. I've been critical of Murphy's stuff in the past (because a lot of the Netflix stuff has been no bueno), but this one wasn't bad. I wasn't crazy about Ewan McGregor being cast in the lead role simply because I didn't think he had the right look for Halston, but he's a good actor. 

I really didn't know anything about Halston (the man or his business) until I watched these shows. I don't even remember him creating a line of clothing for JC Penney (that helped to lead to his downfall, unfortunately). Now there are so many high-end designers who do deals with lower-priced stores that it's not unusual. Look at Michael Kors. You can buy his bags at TJ Maxx! Vera Wang sells stuff at Kohl's! Gloria Vanderbilt sold her name and never got it back before she died. Her jeans used to be high-end and now you can find her stuff at discount stores. But that's what happens when you make that kind of big-money deal.