A seething mass of turgid drama.

I've been fighting a cold (and losing). Not major, but a dry cough and now some congestion. Last night I took cough syrup, and when I woke myself up with a bout of coughing, the wife persuaded me to take an additional half dose since it had clearly worn off. This meant that I was slow getting up - which I knew was likely to be the case, but was probably a good tradeoff for not sitting up in bed coughing for a few hours.

Anyway, I moved slowly enough that I actually missed the backup bus that gets me into the office slightly early instead of significantly early. (shrug) Then I discovered that the wife had borrowed my transit card and not put it back. One upside to missing that bus: I had plenty of time to walk the block back to the house and get the card.

In other news, a couple years ago I bought a single malt advent calendar. It was great fun and I even bought a bottle of one afterwards. I didn't repeat last year but I did this year, and apparently that was a mistake -- I am still enjoying the 1 oz bottles, but I have fallen a week behind with the cold and general malaise and I may not go back to it until January. This goes in the file of "do not repeat unless/until you are genuinely excited about it".

Miss Beatrice woke me up around 12:30 AM with a series of extended "help me" yowls. She didn't have a hairball; I think she just wanted attention. Of course I had to get up and check.

Eventually I got back to sleep, but didn't sleep well the rest of the morning. Dragging today.
ETA: the lounge coffee was decaf, which I found out after I made a cup. That's cruel.

I didn't get to bed late, or sleep badly as far as I know. But the second cup of coffee didn't change my fatigue level any. A third is right out...

Short version: I am going "blah blah blah," not that I was blah about the event.
( blah say )

I am tired today. Not sore, but weary from being social and a bit wrung out from the whole thing. I would have liked to take today off but after last week's vacation, I can't justify that. So I should get back to work.

I lay awake for an hour early morning. This made it hard to get out of bed and I was a bit slow in my morning prep. I had a pile of work waiting so I decided to not make my standard cup of coffee so I could catch the early bus and get to the office earlier, and then catch up with mediocre coffee in the work lounge. I don't want to make this a habit as I am trying to ignore the free work coffee, but it seemed a worthwhile thing for today and it wouldn't be a second cup after all. That worked; I walked to the bus stop one minute before it arrived, and then my BART transfer was near-instant. BOOM! Nice prioritizing, me.

When I went to the lounge, the coffee machine was out of order.

For my birthday, we went to see an Irish sketch comedy troupe that was in town. We saw them around the same time last year and apparently their tour was successful enough to 1) do another one; 2) play larger venues, including Carnegie Hall. In SF they booked the Warfield and it seemed mostly full.

We drove to the area - I didn't want to deal with getting a late-night Sunday cab - found some sketchy parking (it's all sketchy around there; we should have used one of the hotel lots), and went to a regional Italian pizza place for dinner. They call it "pinsa", and it's more flatbread-based. Think the '80s Stouffer's pizza... but much better. Plenty of customers even on a Sunday night. If it was local to us I could see hitting it for happy hour.

This year I was able to get better seats for the show. We were in the second row, about 10' from the stage. This did mean a bit of neck-craning but also meant we were in the interaction zone. The show was good - mostly short sketches but they started with some audience questions that they mined throughout the whole show. Early on they started making fun of San Francisco for having multiple names: "You use Frisco!" and we all booed. "And San Fran." We booed again. "What do you use as a short name then?" "The City." "Oh, that's not pretentious. But you do hate Los Angeles." We cheered.

I did yell out one thing during their last skit that was a callback to one of their questions, and got smirks as they incorporated it.

A fun evening, but we didn't get home until 10:30 so I am listless today. I should probably fortify up with a second cup of coffee.

Miss Beatrice joined me on the bed shortly after the wife did. As is the custom, she pawed at the blanket until I assumed the proper position on my back. Then I could give her pets and rubs and she flopped beside my hip.

She actually stayed there for about four hours! Long enough that I was able to change sleeping positions without hassle. (Bea did cuddle further in to keep contact.)

It wasn't colder last night, so I will take this as a pure win.

Our Caidan friend Claudia is in town for the annual Salesfarce convention, and she was free last night. Getting together anywhere close to downtown is a fool's errand this week so the curvy upstairs neighbor suggested our local Fronch bistro, which is pretty good without being too pricy.

We had good chattage and dinner. She is feeling uninspired by the SCA the same way we are. Two data points are not a trend, but.

I am dragging significantly today, which is not due to the one glass of wine I had - perhaps eating an hour later is responsible?

Shortly after the wife came to bed, Beatrice jumped up on my side and did her usual "scratch the blanket to tell the monkey to roll over" thing. Usually she settles at my hip where I can only scritch the base of her tail. But this time she wanted more and actively sought out chin scritches. With purring and drooling.

Even better, she stayed all through the night. I'd like to think she's showing that she can love me too, but it may just have been because it was colder and I am a good heater.

This early morning's dream: I was a laid-off news analyst. I got hired to recap news in ancient Rome, where I was set up as a time-traveler. Everything was in the stop-motion style of Robot Chicken dolls, but it was all real in dream logic. I was having some difficulty because I was supposed to recap for millennials, so I had to make everything very short and funny. But they didn't have any knowledge of the history or context, so I ended up having to tell the entire story anyway.

Also weirdly, every single person there was also a modern time-traveler trying (usually badly) to fit in - one example being the snack seller dude in a T-shirt, baseball cap, and sunglasses, with a toga made from a fitted sheet.

My subconscious is weird.