Yay lisah!! Happy birthday t!

Went to the lawyer. This whole “dads estate” thing is going to be longer and more complicated than I would like (and cost more money), especially given that he had a will and most of the money he has is already set up to go to us kids on his death. But still there’s lists and accounts and probate (and fees) and taxes and since he owns land elsewhere we need a lawyer in that state and ugh. And setting up a bank account for the estate so we can pay the taxes and the lawyer and stuff…bleh.

Happy birthday -t!!

I thought the half time show was amazing.. I was thinking the Seahawks kicker should have gotten MVP until I saw someone do a breakdown ...with graphs ...of how dominate Kenneth Walker was. I'll have to find it and link it because it was a gloriously geeky thing.

My main take away from the ads is that companies are *desperate* for us to adopt AI. Oh and the Ring thing is really creepy especially because they contract with Flock which is police surveillance.

At work this morning I had the most neurodivergent exchange with some co workers. K (who helped me with Cheeto and had become a friend) asked me if I thought she had ADHD and I responded "yeah..." Like it was trick question. She said her therapist brought it up and she was shocked I thought so . But I was like...but I have it too and I just get along better with neurodivergent people and I just assumed you did . And someone else chimed in and then it was kod of a breakdown of ADHD and asking her some questions. I asked her if she could read things she found boring and had no interest in and she was like "yeah I mean I read the first chapters and then the last so I can kind of geta summary..." And C started giggling she's like "my daughter does that ..."

The funniest part was when I said something about being on medication and K goes ".. you're on medication?" With this slight disbelief and my response "and imagine what I'm like without it !". She said she was going to take a poll.

Which led to another co worker saying she's pretty sure she is autistic because of certain things and her score on some self test. I asked her how she felt about big forks and she visibly shuddered and was like "No!"

All I'm going to say is that I think Wal Maer ends up attracting a lot of neurodivergent people to work there and also a lot of queer people. At least at the associate level. And the people who really thrive are neurodivergent even if they don't realize it.

Happy birthday, minus t!

Congratulations, lisah! I hope it stretches out for months.

I had Greek yogurt with granola for breakfast, and the new granola (Cherry Delight) was yummy.

I have to clean house and the Guinea Pig cage today as my niece is arriving from Georgia tomorrow.

Really looking forward to having her here. I'm already planning on taking her to Breadbelly for lunch, which is a bakery with a Korean fusion slant. They have the most delicious sandwich called The Shrimpwich which has a fried shrimp patty. Mmmmm....

Rainy yesterday and today, but allegedly sunny for Crystal's arrival.

Woohoo, lisah!

Ugh, meara, I thought the will and all that was to avoid needing all the wrangling and lawyer hiring and so forth. Best wishes it goes a smoothly as possible.

I would like to see the Walker graphs, askye. I was sure hearing his name a lot! I always enjoy it when the kicker is the highest scorer, though, I was really rooting for him to get a record.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I have to run a meeting in about an hour and it would be hard to overstate how much I do not want to be working today. I am disproportionately annoyed that the People department apparently has an automated birthday email sent out from the award site that has replaced milestone gifts and rewards but it does not come with any, like, award. it's just a link to the site for no reason. So tempted to put "why isn't everyone pelting me with joy" as my slack status but I suspect it would not go over well. I shouldn't complain, my actual cubicle mate coworkers gave me a stalk of bamboo which will hopefully survive in our windowless office. Anyway, so great that I can rely on getting some joy here :)

Now for my ethical dilemma, do I go to Starbucks for my free birthday treat? I believe the strike is still going, but free thing!

Happy, Happy Birthday, -t! And a wish for a year with many delights.

lisah! That's awesome! I hope it morphs into the exact situation you're looking for.

Askye, that's a great set of exchanges at work.

meara, my sister dealt with all of that for us (and it was just one trust, divided evenly) on my mother's death, and it was a LOT of work. In fact, I made sure my other sister and I paid her an "estate handling" fee for all the time it took. She would only take half the "standard" percentage, but she def went above and beyond. It basically came down to, "I am going to report you, Wells Fargo, to the OCC if you hold onto this money for one more second. We've jumped through your hoops; release the funds."

tl;dr -- estate stuff is such a pain, and I'm sending you good vibes for competent lawyers, etc.

Well, it wasn't awkward at writing class the way I thought, but it might still be, because maybe the guy didn't come back.(A lot of people had a conflict with yesterday, actually, so maybe he forgot something.) I have never felt so torn between "Wait...I was trying to help you." and, I'll confess it here, a certain blend of trash talk "Huh...guess we know who *really* needs the special parking spaces," and maybe, a tiny bit of Marcie-like wonder that I could have had this power all along and nobody ever told me.(Heh, heh. Cool. Unless it's not?) Should I have let him have the whole "hit a nerve" thing? Because I didn't want to because I had this whole point that Stereotypes are Bad(unless bowling on the Simpsons) and, as someone who grew up sensitive and female, basically no good can come from focusing on any alleged "hurt feelings" of mine.(discussions of ableism do often end with the "perpetrator" wondering if I'd found the right therapist, the love of a good man--where's my dad in all this? Etc. "He's a shit, Kevin, but it didn't disable me." when really the point is that crap is too stale to even touch my real feelings about healing or whatever.) On the other hand, it wouldn't have been my first time on that boring merry-go-round, and some of my point got lost anyway...should I have just femmed out for the good of the group? I tend to think of myself as, you know, Mistress Cellophane, right? Nobody knows I'm there--guess I need to stop that, either way. And the instructor did back me up.

But I'm also fifty-two, and kind of fresh out of "little lady" energy--it's always been an awkward fit, on its best day. which probably peaked at the same time as, say Tears for Fears. Six weeks isn't long, but it might be if we would play out some psychodrama. Lisa, good news on the job front. happy birthday, t Hope the estate stuff resolves smoothly.

Congrats, Lisah!

Sorry about all the estate stuff, meara. I was my dad’s executor and it was a lot, even though he also had a will and everything was just getting split between my sister and me. It took a bit over a year to finalize. I still have some of the paperwork in a back closet. Not sure why—it’s not like my sister is going to demand an audit 17 years on.

Man, James Van Der Beek died. People who are younger than me shouldn't do that.

What's the format of the class, erika? Do you all look at everyone's work and then share the primary reviewer's comments? I don't know that I have anything useful to say, but I'm curious how it's run.