Trying to simplify, as events continue to arrive

This is the time of year where, because work demands are up (it's time to promote people) that I explicitly try not to have a lot of personal projects going. Many things have been finishing up and I'm not replacing them.

Some projects fit together, though, like deciding to get a move on with the tattoo so that it will be healed before I travel. To that end, I had a surprisingly chill appointment with a tattoo artist on Tuesday evening. I was expecting a lot of gatekeeping followed by a lot of design modification, but he just took a look at my art and was like "yup, I could do that" and we made an appointment for the sitting. I looked over his IG and he does a few styles; he's not a specialist in my style or anything, but maybe what he specializes in is doing what people want. I'm counting on the simplicity of my design to make it okay. It's not complex, just needs a steady hand, and this guy's been in business for a long time. Random related web surfing taught me that tattoo artists now learn by practicing on synthetic skin, made for the purpose... this place also sells tattooable dolls and yellow duckies. So you see, we've all learned something today.

Other things happened:

• SB403 made it to the governor's desk. It's not signed yet but he seems unlikely to veto.


• The kitten turned 1 year old. Kitten no longer?


• My marriage turned 20 years old... definitely kitten no longer. We went out to a nice dinner for it (and this is how I found out that my new Fluevog boots really want to slice up my ankles, which is definitely fixable but annoying).


• The FDA approved the new COVID vaccine, the CDC recommended it, and I have my shot lined up. Ironically, the squirrel's kid now has covid (mild) and I wouldn't be surprised if I got exposed to that already on Tuesday night, but I continue to not be sick.


• There were various late nights working on a promotion packet for one of my "loaner" direct reports. While this has been annoying, his real manager texted me to thank me, and said he thought that my writeup was fair and accurate. We won't get the promo, but the note made me feel good.


• Peter Gabriel concert on Thursday! We went with one of the bug's bandmates (bug gave him a minifig of the bass player) and it was lovely, though we were out late. I know it might be his last tour. Someone in the line said "why is everyone here so old?" which is pretty close to what the bug said about the people at our anniversary restaurant. I laughed.


• There were more layoffs at Zillian, this time about 1/3 of the recruiting department. They got my friend, the one recruiter I had a just-social monthly coffee with and who had a baby in July, and they aren't respecting the rest of her maternity leave, which makes me squinch my face. Ugh. Work has felt good lately, overall, in its way, but the company... sometimes I want to let it all burn down.

This has all been stimulating. I was pretty overstimulated by Friday and have had only one really chill evening and good night of sleep. Ironically, the squirrel ended up with a spare ticket to Janelle Monae and so it appears there's ANOTHER big concert for me tomorrow. It will be good and I know I won't regret going, but I'm going to chill as much as I can until then. ETA: no concert after all, and I am okay with it. The Joy Of Missing Out is real!