PETTING ZOO PARTY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll start with the fun and furry stuff first, shall we?

My now-former coworker Teresa is retiring early (after 17 years, she's probably in her 50's) because her husband retired last month and she's not going to leave him alone and presumably, she financially can. (Alas, as a permanently single person, I'll have to keep on going for 20+ years at minimum.) She found a lady named Morgan who has a PORTABLE PETTING ZOO https://allaboutafarm.com/ that she bought from a lady three years ago. "Best side hustle," she said. I did talk to Morgan quite a bit since I sat in the portable pen with the animals a lot and she was very nice and fun. She has an animal science degree, is a vet tech, just got married on Saturday and was just back from her honeymoon, and lives on a farm with even more animals than she brought here. Which was two goats, two ducks (not into petting), two chickens, and three ADORABLE BUNNIES who were the best fuzzy furballs. Marshmallow, Cinnamon, and I think the third one was Mochi? And one of the ducks was Sushi? I didn't write this down and should have, but Mochi HAD A BOW OVER HER EARS AND IT WAS SO CUUUUUUUUTE. They were very sweet.

Some former coworkers came in--my old boss Julie, who is a sweetie, my old boss Ali (didn't really get to talk to her), one of the former second in commands who was all "what happened to your glasses?" (legit, I said pandemic). Lioness came by and had a good time and seemed cheerful about her job. I did hear Adventure Girl say that she "missed the chaos" of our office and the advising job she'd had "was so quiet all the time!" I find this hard to believe because advising jobs sound zooey to me, but I guess that at least somewhat answers the mystery of why she left that after six months. There was one pregnant lady nobody recognized (Lioness was all "who IS that?!") and it turns out we just know her over email. (She said the last time she was pregnant, she kept working while starting labor because "I had 20 of these to do and if I waited, they'd have to set everything up for someone else to do it, so I might as well do it....") It was also Bring Your Dog Day, so several coworkers brought their pups for the first time. Christine brought her dog Fritz, who was the office mascot pre-pandemic and everyone was very happy to reunite with him, but especially Teresa.

They also got a very good GiantOrg catering company I hadn't heard of before (new?) that served absolutely delicious, light Greek-ish appetizers--pot stickers, rolls, stuff like that, gluten-free/vegan stuff that was delicious. Teresa's husband Jeff is a notoriously good cook and he brought the cake---vegan chocolate and lemon polenta, which I had three pieces of. It was very yummy. Teresa said this sure beat people with a microphone giving speeches.

Off-topic and yet related, I did something bizarre this morning: I woke up at like 3:30 a.m. again for no good reason again and was reading shit on the Internet again, and found this "72 hour twin flame test" idea.

I haven't really talked about this here yet, both because it's fucking awful and because I'm writing an rant series about it on my weird-hippie-shit-only blog (not exactly one for main audiences, also not posted yet), but after all of the fucking shenanigans that have gone on over the years with Scott, I have unfortunately, depressingly, come to the conclusion that (say it in a Jeff Foxworthy voice) we might be ##@#@^$# twin flames. This is a concept I despise and do not want to admit to because I think it's crackpot, but sometimes crackpot stuff can be true, unfortunately the combinations of age difference + magic shit and signs happening + him running and me not-quite chasing are pretty fucking textbook to this shitty concept. (Hence the rant writing in progress.)

So circa 6 a.m. I get the bright idea to try this blog post idea of asking for clear signs (unlike the author, I didn't specify any specific sign, I figure the universe can figure it out because it's been doing that so far) as to whether or not he is, within 72 hours, and also asked for a bonus sign indicating that we'll get together, or otherwise indicate if it won't work out and if I should move on.

Today's signs happened at the petting zoo about 5-ish hours later: (a) The chickens and ducks--you know how they have little leg bands? These ones had little HEARTS on them. Three hearts (one bird had managed to knock theirs off). (b) One of my coworkers had a dog harness that said "Truelove" right on it. (c) Also, Morgan was looking at her phone at Twin Flame Time and said, "Eleven eleven, make a wish!" and then we had a conversation about seeing the darned numbers. And I should probably mention that I'm getting spammed with ads on the Internet for Scott toilet paper, though that's been going on for a few days now, and no, I wasn't trying to look up TP on the Internet recently :P

As for the rest of the day:

Boring work stuff: did a bunch of emails. Got the monthly project done. We got an email from Interim Big Boss with two things of major interest: (a) a letter about the budget, in which Giant Org claims they are quite broke. This makes me think not good hopes for IBB's supposed off-budget request that I need to get approved. That said, they did approve us to hire three new people/positions, so I guess there's that. And then, (b) he wants to talk to people in more depth about their answers to the work satisfaction survey, with a bunch more meetings to talk about communication/decision making, recognition, "comfort with speaking your mind," the statement on the survey about "at work, I feel cared about as a person," and career opportunities on campus. He said these are optional groups, I dunno there. I certainly Have Thoughts on this topic, but do I feel comfortable saying them? Depends on who the audience is. I think I'd tell him stuff totally alone, but depends on who's in the group there.

Communication: I dunno how to answer this one. I think people are generally doing the best they can, I suppose? Recognition: I am complete shit so this doesn't matter. "Comfort with speaking your mind," um, nuh-uh. That would be an "only if I'm talking to you alone, IBB" thing. Do I feel cared about at work? Yes and no? Not in the "I don't fit this job" way, no, but otherwise, yes, so I dunno. Career opportunities: seriously after looking at job opportunities this week, I think I've applied for everything in the last 10 years. I see the same jobs over and over again. On a related note, I talked to my coworker Christine (currently working here on contract for several years, they keep renewing it but who knows if they'll ever make her permanent) and she said she's applied for all kinds of jobs and not gotten them. INCLUDING IN THE DEPARTMENT SHE WAS IN, and she said the supervisor at the time passed her another job listing... in Fullerton...the day before her interview. That did not make her feel good, and she didn't get the job because "she didn't have enough experience." So, that's really awful. Anyway.... I dunno on how honest I can be about any of that.

I will note that Teresa said that GiantOrg sent her an exit survey, which she seemed to find quite lulzy. "They only asked what they do well and had you select radio buttons, because they know they don't do well." She said what she would have written in was, "They mean well..." which sums it up. This was, of course, also compared to the usual snarky commentary she makes about the survey every year and has gotten blunter and blunter about.

Welp, I have very little to do this weekend. I was supposed to have my first Fred Jones rehearsal tonight, but Kelly canceled it at the last minute (didn't say why) and postponed it until tomorrow. Scheduling these things is already a giant pain. So here I am, drunk on the patio again, texting about how I look like a drunk hot pumpkin to the Shiny Uni's. Good times.

Deep thoughts on entertainment:

I tried listening to Beyonce's new album at work today. Mistake, because half of it is a lot of "motherfucker" or other dirty words and I had to plug in headphones, darn it. I liked some of it but not everything, particularly the early numbers and all the cussing, I dunno, just wasn't working even though I have a dirty mind.

I have been watching every video on YouTube that takes down the new "Persuasion," i.e. Period Piece With 2022 Dialogue Weird Wine Mom Behavior Does Not Work. Still can't decide if I want to watch it to make fun of it or if literally everyone else has already made those same jokes. Suspect I'll just watch more YouTube anyway. * Tonight I wrote a book review and updated ye olde journal for the entire month of June, so go me for getting that tediousness out the door.

I seriously don't have much going on this weekend. I MIGHT have Fred Jones rehearsal early Saturday night (????), I said I'd go to karaoke Saturday night, and then there's B&tB rehearsal again. I really need to dedicate myself to project work. Rae's out of town for the weekend, Dawn's not leaving home much (but doing better on new meds, enough to drive anyway) and I really should rest up before having weekends where I drive to the Bay Area for most of them. (Theoretically.) And I should apply for that job again, though I dunno when I looked at my old job applications and thought "I literally have nothing new to add here."

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