Friday morning it was cold, I was tired, and there were about a dozen things I wanted to do more than stand on a cold train platform to go to my old job.
As it turned out that wasn't gonna happen anyhow. Those red dots are delayed trains up and down the entire line.
So, I got in my car instead. My nice warm car, where I could spend my whole commute talking to my brother on the phone.
It's good to have options.
My awesome friend William Little once again delighted and surprised me. He's done some pretty sweet things for me before, like make me my own beer, and give me a box of spoons, for when I'm out of them.
This time he sent me a wicked cool pair of socks. He told me that they were so I could have support as I went on job interviews.
As I told him last night, I plan to wear them to my first day of work at my new job.
How did I get so lucky to have such a kind, thoughtful, supportive friend?
I just recently finished re-reading (well, listening actually) to the audiobook of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land which is a book I have alternatively loved, loathed, and loved again over the years since I first read it.
(The emotional change is because I have changed as a person. There was a time in my life I thought it was sentimental nonsense. That time is long past. I'm still not thrilled with how the book handles homosexuality, which is to sweep it under the rug. I do like what it has to say about polyamory, sex positivity, and a liberal mindset though.)
The book is about many things, but chiefly, it's about a human being who is born on Mars, and comes to earth as a stranger, to learn about our world as an immigrant. He is human, but he doesn't know what it means to be human. Although the book starts on Mars, it's really a book about Earth.
Humans living on or being born on Mars are just so much science fiction, right?
Nope.
That's not a scene from a movie. It's what was on the news when I got off my train yesterday. It's real.
24 people are going to go colonize Mars.
This boggles my mind. It's not like Heinlein's book, either. There's no return trip. This is a one-way trip. Apparently they leave in 2024, just nine years from now. That sounds like a long time, but it isn't. I'm thrilled this is real. I can't believe I'm alive to see this happen.
It snowed so much on Monday that I had a snow day on Tuesday.
Other than shoveling out my car (with a neighbor's borrowed shovel, which I was super grateful for), and taking Missy to the movies, we did a whole lot of nothing.
That was a good thing. I needed a day of not doing much anything.
I'm in the last two weeks of my old job, before I start my new job, and I hadn't planned to take any down time between them.
Mother nature apparently thought that was not a very good idea, and told me otherwise.
I'm grateful for it.
So yesterday, during my holiday, I went to go see my friends Peanut (and her husband, Mr. Peanut), and their adorable two month old baby, who for privacy and cuteness reasons, I will refer to as Macadamia.
She's an adorable baby. She really seems to dig me, too.
It's a big deal to me that Peanut trusts me with her most precious creation.
This is a trend that's continued today, in a different way.
I have a good friend who's the super creative sort, Michael. He's a gifted writer, film maker, and many other things besides. He's been itching for a long while to create a podcast which mingles the best of old-time radio, science fiction, and a quirky sensibility for the world around us.
Today, that podcast has been born. It's the Managlitch City Underground. I've known about the project for a while, been privileged to test-listen to it some, and give feedback to its awesome creator and performer. You might notice a character in there who possibly, maybe, might have something to do with me.
It's awesome.
I'm so grateful my friends trust me with their babies.
It's awesome.
