After having yesterday off I’ve decided I need more 3-day weekends and fewer 5-day work weeks. Help me figure out how to make that happen!

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It’s Armageddon here in Southern California. It started raining Sunday afternoon and hasn’t let up since. And I think Gracie is going to have a nervous breakdown.

She’s not great with loud or startling sounds, and although I knew she wasn’t a fan of wind, I had no idea that heavy rain was terrifying to her. At 5:00 yesterday morning she woke me, jumped up on the bed, stood over me, and panted heavily and whined. When I got her off the bed, she paced and whined for hours. I couldn’t console her.

It got worse throughout the day. The harder it rained the faster she paced. I couldn’t move a centimeter without her moving with me. When I was in the shower she camped out on the bath mat right outside of the shower with her face pushed through the curtain. She needed to keep me in her site at all times. At one point she was so freaked out she nudged the closet door open—a trick that would have been impressive if she weren’t so insane and the closet doors weren’t full-length mirrors—and tried to wedge herself in there.

For her own safety I dragged her big wire crate out of the garage and set it up with a huge blanket over it to give her a secure place to hide.

It’s supposed to rain for the next five days. I think it’s going to be a long week.

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Why do people sit right next to someone at a restaurant or bar when the entire place is empty?

Today I went to a local Mexican restaurant and sat at the bar to have lunch. It’s not a bar-bar—you can’t order drinks—it’s just a bar that overlooks the kitchen area. The restaurant was pretty quiet so I had my pick of places to sit so I sat at the far end of the bar. There were 11 stools wide open to the left of me. I got my food, opened my Kindle and spread out just a little—enough that I could have a little elbow room—and some dude walked up, put his tray in the spot next to me, slid my Kindle over to make more room for himself (HE. SLID. MY. KINDLE. Who touches strangers’ electronics??) and settles in.

Really?

You have 11 other seats to choose from and you sit right next to me. And you have to gall to touch my Kindle. This is the same person who sits RIGHT. IN. FRONT. OF. ME. at an otherwise empty movie theater.

To add insult to injury, he smacked his lips when he ate. “Smack. Smack. Slurp. Smack.” At one point I put my fork down, turn to face him and openly stared at him.

“What?” he said.

I caught myself, stopped myself from saying something, gathered my stuff together and left.

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For more Randomness, go over to The Un Mom.