Yeah I'm so antsy I am going out my mind But that doesn't fit into the design

 Well, today was the day, the day Operation AtomiCat finally begins.

I got up later than I wanted to, but still managed to make my egg in a basket and my coffee.

I set my hair (to limited success). My hair was too wet still and my driver was early. I had never ordered my own ride share before (I am a 'pay my friends' or a taxi type of person), but my driver was VERY nice and they loved cats!

Beatrice was pretty pissed off, though.

Beatrice was dropped off safely with her friends at SAGE and her mom spent a lot of money and then walked very sadly to the train station. Beatrice took this all better than I did.

This yellow building complex is still for sale and I STILL want it.

The best library ever.

One of the things that keeps me sane is finding magic in everyday things and acting as though I am a cute little character on some magical little quest adventure.

When I worked in San Mateo a decade ago (😱🙀) I used to take CalTrain all of the time. It was expensive for me (and still is!!!), but I did it because it was safer and faster than the bus on most days. Taking it these days is just taking it for fun. I do get a little pang in my heart as I whiz by all of the old stations I used to either pass or frequent. I get a little sad thinking about that era--about Evan and Grandma having just passed away, the miserable job I hated that wore my body into the ground, the feeling lost all of the time, thinking about being in love with someone and not realizing it,--etc. bad memory lane personified.

Anyway, as far as transit, goes, I think CalTrain is a fascination to me. It's a commuter rail line that used to be run by Amtrak and is a traditional CHOO CHOO kind of train, and transfers to buses and lighter rails, streetcars and BART (which is the rapid transit). I actually really like the trolleybus, light rail,  and streetcar-types of transit more than BART, but CalTrain has all of these quaint little train stations. Like too bad they are all basically dumps now, because they are sure cute in theory.

I mean, just LOOK at that!

There was some night-blooming jasmine, and it made me miss/ think of my grandma. I like to think she was with me today in some way or another.

 Hahaha, way to get with the time change there, Redwood City.

I was going to wear little red clogs today, but since my Lyft was early, I had to just slap these on. Not even back with me a week and they have already been coming to my rescue.

I wore my new skirt, but my outfit wasn't as cute or as flattering as I had hoped. :(

I am sure that trains all over the world have these little stairs to a loft section, but the ones on CalTrain just feel magical (don't @ me, okay?!)

The view from my little perch!

I know you can't tell because I have masks on, but I am VERY EXCITED!

Those mountains in the distance, tho. ❇❈

Just like the old days, I transferred at the Millbrae station to BART, which is across the platform and through a separate turnstile. I had forgotten about the gorgeous art than the Millbrae BART has.

I love this one of an Ohlone woman.

Very unpopular opinion--we still need payphones, but I would not use this one.

Your resident sweaty and stressed out little elf taking advantage of this cool glass wall.

When the train comes out of here, it's never not terrifying.

Something that I used to do every day that was stressful and mundane feels differently now that I did it as a mini quest. I don't miss going down to San Mateo every day, though. I do not miss that. But just as a one-day day-venture type of thing? Sure, that was fun. (I mean, as fun as trying to navigate these complicated and barely-working hellscapes fronting as mass transit can be.)

I ate this entire pork katsu in less than 5 minutes.

I haven't been going out very much lately for many reasons. One of those is because I have wanted to stay in with Beatrice as much as possible. The other is that everything is so expensive. Taking the trains is SO expensive. It's like 10 bucks one way! (From Daly City --because the buses don't even go straight to Colma anymore!!!-- to Millbrae is $4.40, and then Millbrae to like San Mateo or Redwood City is $3.20--only because they are in the same fare zone!). The buses don't run! Like it's not even fun just to go out and faff around because you're in the hole like $15-25 dollars just to get there and then, what?! Spend MORE money there?! 😨😩😫 Maybe this weekend because I don't have my opera lessons and I am not supposed to be around my cat anyway, that maybe I will go out just to be out of the house and away from my awful family (who have, as I have mentioned, been SO SENSITIVE AND SUPPORTIVE DURING THIS HORRIBLE TIME ! 😜😂).

Also, please let us take a moment to bask in the glow of the cute that was my outfit yesterday.