@kingrat it feels silly to complain but it also actually lowers my enjoyment of things.

ALSO I am realizing something about myself: I am significantly less likely to go to sports things and concerts now that this is a thing. Like I really have to be super excited about an event to decant things from my everyday bag to a clear plastic bag I hate and be without some of my comfort objects.

maybe that's age, but I'm surprisingly grouchy about it. I guess it'll save me money in tickets though.

I went to my first baseball game in so long that I absolutely didn't realize I couldn't just bring a regular bag. Fortunately my friend is more aware than me because I would have fully gotten turned away.

@kingrat oh good to know! We leave Oakland at 9:30 so I may be asleep before Chico! I'll download stuff now

@kingrat yeah I think we’ll be spending a bunch of time in the observation car.

Any other tips?

@kingrat roommette 😬

I am going on an Amtrak trip tonight! 22 hours to Seattle, in a tiny sleeper car with a friend; hopefully we will still be friends after this trip!

Me, ~2 weeks ago: There's some guy on the news saying Republicans are weird. He kind of looks like Santa Claus.

Me, today: Tim Walz, it's pronounced Walls but I'm sure he'd say, "Call me Tim." I know his family, political, military, and work history. I know his kids' and pets' names. I know he'd want to give me a big hug but only if I was comfortable with it. If I got a flat tire and he was nearby, he'd pause whatever he was doing to change my tire.

@kingrat

Me to the niece and nephew: What if a Republican was the first Harris running for president.

My niece: No. Ew. No.

@kingrat Trust me, if I had more time and energy, I would be ALL OVER THAT.

thank God the first presidential Harris isn't a repub

My niece (9) and nephew (11) are here and they love Beyonce's song Freedom so we watched the Kamala Harris ad with that song. Honestly it gave me goosebumps, it's GOOD. And the kids said, "Oh, she doesn't hate gay people!" (which made me happy and sad both obviously)

So then they asked if we could watch a Trump ad so we did and it is, LITERALLY just a whole bunch of clips of Kamala saying "Bidenomics." that's it.

They spent their entire ad featuring their opponent.

I'm no pundit but, isn't that not super effective?

Anyway, we're all Harrises for Harris and I wish I were a designer; I'd have shirts made.

@kingrat we used to have a truly amazing firefighter who was the homeless liaison and really really empathetic and good at this.

And he died by suicide in January after a lot of years of suffering from PTSD.

@kingrat yeah, totally, and there's no way of knowing till it's too late, and I can't live with that.

@kingrat it's so messed up.

the police being, you know, the police, how often are they going to call the CARES team and not send an officer?

For the last month or so, there has been a car parked on the street in front of my house with a woman who waits in it for up to 8 hours. It seems like maybe someone is going to work and she's waiting for them.

She is missing teeth and possibly has some mental illness, I'm not positive, but she spends the entire time yelling at no one. Like, "Fuck you, all you motherfuckers," is today's mantra.

For HOURS.

I won't call the police because I don't trust them for obvious reasons.

I got excited that there's a new mental health crisis line that you can call to get people appropriate help and not involve the police!

But THEN I found out that you have to call the police dispatcher and THEY decide if armed officers respond or not.

So, there goes that resource.

@kingrat they sure are.

I had barely heard of sticker mule before today and I got on Twitter for a customer service thing (why I still have Twitter) and apparently they are huge trump supporters and willing to drive their business into the ground to support him. It’s wild.

@kingrat I think that’s the better way

@kingrat i mostly just give stuff away but that isn’t going any better

Hell is other people… hell is Facebook marketplace