the girly who shall end all girls

i am not currently over the Rockies, i am in a hotel room in Glen Burnie, MD for my sins.

as is apparently the rule now, severe weather on the east coast turned a three hour highway trip (from central PA to BWI) into seven, complete with highway closures and detours onto unplowed roads. my brother B is in the other bed, snoring. he is the hero of the day, driving in horrible conditions, helping me to decide when to give up on making the flight and call the airline, and getting us into a hotel. as it was, it was so fucking close...i would have arrived at the airport exactly as the plane was taking off.

i was supposed to have tomorrow at home to decompress. i was supposed to walk the dog and go out for breakfast and take a nap and cry as much as i needed to.

* * *

i did everything i was here to do: got Dad to his last specialist appointments, moved him out of skilled nursing near Pittsburgh and into assisted living near State College, did all the errands and shopping required, set up all the electronics, moved a refrigerator, made five hats, replaced the blinds in the office, knit a gift for a physical therapist, cleaned the sewing room, hung a quilt and art on the walls, sat in on meetings with the assisted living director and a call with the attorney, and made Mom a roll of bias binding. i also tore up the frostbitten marigolds.*

i drove a lot, and i sat through a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies. (remember when Stuff White People Like was a thing? those movies, wow. they deserve a post.)

i am not entirely ready to talk much about how Dad is doing, but i will note that he is not suffering from dementia and for that i am deeply grateful. Mom is doing pretty well, considering, and i enjoyed visiting with her and we managed to not yell at each other too much. (we have a lot in common, which makes conflict inevitable.)

i miss C so much, and i am carefully avoiding looking at work stuff.

and trying not to be angry that i can't go home on time. again.

*i like to look at plants, but i don't like gardening, especially going out in the cold rain to pull up dying plants with mushy leaves.

i've been wanting to write more here, but March was a very bad month. April is much better.

***

i generally stay away from the entertainment media cycle, but i do like to indulge in the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour. it's a bunch of smart people talking about movies and books and whatnot. i don't always agree with them, but they are entertaining and occasionally turn me onto something new.

my favorite bit is that they always wrap up with "Things that are making me happy this week".

...which is how i ended up watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. the linked review captures most of it, but might be misleading in that we are never laughing *at* Kimmy - we are laughing *with* her as she delights in subway rides and discovering how an automatic faucet sensor works. there's also a thread of profound rage underneath her efforts to win by living well. i don't think that the later episodes work as well as the early ones, but i do think that they're set up well for the second season.

it was exactly the thing i needed at the moment i needed it.* the earworm theme song has become a bit of a mantra for me.

***
i relocated to a new desk at work. so far, it's good. i get more sun, i'm beside a whiteboard, people can get to me easily, but i'm not on the highway to a popular meeting room. i'm surrounded by developers, who are mostly quiet and focused - unless you want to know Cheryl's birthday. logic problem is to programmer as cardboard box is to cat.

***
Norwescon was restorative and good. we decided to take it easy and enjoy being away from home. i went to a lot of science panels, and we spent Saturday night lolling in the hotel room eating room service and watching soccer on tv. i bid on and won a piece from the artist guest of honor. i knit 2/3 of a sock.

***
i've seen three episodes of Daredevil so far. i'm pleased. it's kind of odd to be going to the television format for more realistic violence, but okay. (i love that i watched a blood-spattered superhero show with a bunch of women while knitting and eating vegetarian stew over polenta.)

***
i finally got to make up a cancelled happy hour date with scarlettina. C and i spent nerd night out with samildanach and joyful_storm. i helped knitta P find a graceful way to end her shawl with the yarn she had left. my Exalted character assassinated someone. we're officially debt-free (again). C landed a long-term game writing contract and got to tell his technical editing gig to fuck off. i made mimerki watch all of Raising Arizona. i got buhrger hugs and played games. there are a bunch of other plans in the works.

April. i don't want to jinx anything, but it's looking better.

*and i watched the first episode on my phone while stuck on the bus home during the fish truck trafficpocalypse because i live in the future.