Work stuff:

(a) It was Lioness's birthday today and one of the younger employees GOT HER A PLANT TO REPLACE THE DEAD PLANT. That's so cute. He doesn't even know her very well since he's new--well, I assume they are probably on chat a LOT in this job, anyway.

(b) Melinda called when I was in the middle of Intense Work Project. I need to try to remember to call her tomorrow because today was not happening (see below).

(c) We had Another Conversation About Coming Back To Work and bottom line, nobody knows what's going on. I was amused that Lioness said that the seminar we watched last week "had seven people and was still muzzy." Yup. Even though Grandboss was all "don't sit back and wait for us to decide," uh...isn't that what is going to happen? Because I am pretty sure that since I will forever be stuck on Public Service Team, I don't get to decide that no, I don't want to come back in person. Ahem.

(d) I hung out with Eva during lunch and she has long Covid...or at least she doesn't feel well and it seems to have gotten worse in the last month and they can't find anything else wrong with her. It sounds like she feels like crap from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily for some reason. She said she was doing research on long haul Covid support groups on Reddit and apparently taking Pepcid helps, and then she was all, shouldn't the doctors know more, should I really be having to self-research this on the Internet? GOOD POINT.

IT'S KARAOKE DAY!!!! I didn't activate the group text (what's the point, I was just gonna get annoyed at flakiness) but I did get a text from Stephanie, so that was a yay.

The miracle of karaoke is back. I wore tie-dye, as did Jim. I tried to sneak up from behind him to surprise him, but Ashley saw me first and yelled out. Hahahah.

(I'm presuming everyone around has gotten all their shots. Because I did the most hugging I've done in over a year, of course. I also, despite hardly walking around at all that day, managed to do 6000 steps IN DANCE ALONE, apparently.)

It was Ashley's 21st birthday and a vast improvement from last year's drive-by. She had a bunch of friends over and I really hit it off with one of them, Rae, who is also a colorful dresser and likes to dance. Insta-friends, yay! I ordered bacon fried rice and it was DELICIOUS. Perfectly done this time. I also gave Ashley a handmade lei for her birthday. Walt seriously gave her $100 and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. D'awww.

And just as Ashley asked, "Where's everybody else? Where's Scott and Robert?" and I was about to go AWKWARD, I HAVE NO IDEA IF ANYONE WILL EVER SHOW UP OR EVER SHOW UP AGAIN, NOBODY COMMITTED TO ANYTHING, Robert and Janene showed up!!! Huzzah! I gave them both the "I am not throwing away my shot" pins and they were very happy to get them. Yay. Large hugs were had by all. Janene's been teaching online and figuring out how to do that, Robert has done a few shows here and there but wants live theater back, he said they were intending on doing Midsummer Night's Dream. Hm, I will have to see if I can ah, fit that in. No idea on the director for it, though.

Robert said Sarah wasn't coming tonight--kids, whatever else--and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to ask her this weekend either, sigh. He did say that he texted Scott and Scott supposedly said he'd come around sevenish. To which I was all, well, you can probably guess what I thought. Of course he didn't show up AND I AM TOTALLY FINE WITH THAT, At the end of the night everyone was all, "It was almost a full reunion except for Scott and Sarah" and I was all, well, they're the flakiest, what are you going to do there. (Clearly I tried to restrain myself on my commentary, but I fear sometime my New Attitude may leak out. Oh, whatever. We all know they are the flakiest.)

I did "Hot N' Cold" (YUP) and "Poker Face" on my own tonight. And some duets with others (see below). Rae asked me and Ashley to join her for more Katy Perry.

Anyway, almost all of the old karaoke gang was back! Walt and Cathy, Stephanie, Billy, Patty...I had a long intense talk with Patty at the end of the night. (I usually can't remember her name, I want to call her Tess after a former coworker of mine for the resemblance--she said she calls me "Fanny Pack Girl," so hahahah there!) She told me she lost her best friend and her father within 30 hours in August and things have been rough, but she was so happy to see me there. Also apparently she tells others about me and calls me "the girl who gives no fucks." OH MY.

Frank is back. I did wonder if his house burned down during the fires because I heard it hit Lake Berryessa and yup, he said he lost everything, both homes AND HIS PLANES, got to watch the whole thing blow up in front of him because he barely got away. Poor guy. Yes, we did "Cake By The Ocean" later. Hopefully we get to sing with Stephanie next week, fingers crossed.

They were out of pineapple cider, but they had lemon drop, which Janene recommended. I will need to drink earlier in the future--I finally got to the bar end of the place circa 6:15 and that was rather intense stuff, so I finished it at 6:40 and then waited around two hours to drive home. Mostly I just chatted with people and helped Jim pack up equipment. Ashley had lemon drop too, she said she had her mom pick what to drink. Jim noted that during the pandemic he's been teaching Ashley Texas Hold 'Em online--"so I'm a good parent, I teach my kid to drink and play poker."

Anyway, I hugged a lot of people and it was good to have everyone back and in some weird respects it was almost like the bad year never happened even though we were literally doing karaoke differently in outside space and all that. (Janene said it felt like five years.) So I guess reconnecting with the circumstantial friends has gone well today!

This is the most normal again. Other than having to mask up to get food and alcohol in the bar, it was pretty much As Usual. A few people wore masks but otherwise...eh....Hopefully everyone's vaxxed, or at least everyone I asked directly said they were.

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