Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Author: Ellen S______

  • Eye contact: the best part of the on-site

    Two teams have merged and I have a new co-worker who shares some of my personality traits. She speaks up about the brutal truths. Of course she prefaces them with a prologue about how we’re all working toward the same goal, she means it with the greatest respect, blah, but still the same honesty. We…

  • TWIL: New version of Cape Fear

    I managed to avoid watching the 1962 film version of Cape Fear by hiding in my Mom’s womb. Once I was out I continued avoiding it until a few years ago, when I saw it as a part of our Film Noir binge. Then there was the 1991 remake by Martin Scorsese. I read it…

  • A second chance at Choir! Choir! Choir!

    Remember the Choir! Choir! Choir concert I passed up in February because it was in a sketchy neighborhood? There’s another one December 17 in the entertainment distict in Chicago. Hotel right next door! Obama museum open! December in Chicago! Woo!

  • The “end” of the underwear box saga …

    My room is small and is easily cluttered, so everything on the desk has to earn its place, and the underwear box had lost its novelty. I was tossing it in the trash when I saw this on the back. Underwear box has earned his keep and lives on another day.

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 5/7/2026

    Well, the remaining errors stared me in the face and I realized I had to correct them. The bottom left and right of the lampshade have always been wrong and the size and slant of the glow on the wall was wrong. So this is the previous … This is the progress … And this…

  • I don’t know how to respond to that

    Things have been quiet here at the house. I think I said two sentences to Gary today, both regarding imminent house maintenance work. Neither sentence was hostile. This is what I call progress. A few weeks ago he complained about his health, and I knew: So I said, “I don’t know how to respond to…

  • Shout outs

    Today was another one of our required attendance days at the office. Again, I got to see fifty people in person whom I haven’t been with for ages. It’s usually very gratifying and I feel seen. This time I felt far too seen. All these things are true. Had it stopped there I might have…

  • Baby steps in Gary’s health

    Well, directly after our physical two weeks ago Gary scoffed at the GP’s recommendation that Gary see the dermatologist again. Maddening. Just a few days ago he said he’d go back to the dermatologist, then ten minutes later he revoked that, then ten minutes later reversed his revocation, then started to take it back again…

  • TWIL: Confabulation

    Confabulation, per Wikipedia: a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage. It’s called “honest lying” because the memory is there — it just shouldn’t be. It troubles me for two reasons. Gary has been showing…

  • [SPOILER] Live blogging the Kentucky derby

    As always, I begin by referencing the first horse race I ever saw. The first race I saw was the best horse race of all time. No other can surpass it. Secretariat goes from almost last to [SPOILER]winning by 25 lengths. I still feel this is what a normal horse race looks like. It never…