Friday, December 13, 2024

Today was... a long frustrating day.

 Food was not being friendly today, neither was traffic. So this is a long, long description of my day.

So, it all started with me wanting to fix my favorite little quesadilla snack (full recipe on my food blog). Nothing complicated but it started with having to grate more cheese to use. That was a chore right there.

Had to find the cheese first, then Rocky interrupted so I took him out for a walk, leaving the cheese on the counter which got a little too soft but was still okay. Not perfect but just minorly frustrating. Okay so I get that straightened out and then tried to use one of the small pans to warm up the tortilla and it was too big for the pan, it's fit before then realized I bought 'king size' tortillas this time. Okay so in the process of trying to move the tortilla to another pan it pulled apart as it stuck to the pan. SIGH! Okay so chuck that one in the sink and pull out another one.

Okay so while I was cooking the quesadilla, my hands not being very nimble any longer somehow managed to flip the spatula and it ended up on the floor. Not the first time, not the last time but just another checkbox of frustration for trying to get my damn food fixed! FINALLY I was able to get it all together and have my food! We planned on having pizza for a treat from Costco and that brings me to the second half of the fiasco day.

I left as usual to go pick up the boys, traffic was usual, a few idiots on the road but nothing out of the ordinary. Amber said she was going to give them money for gas to give me and one good thing is, I was able to actually go for my usual walk without any problems from my knee. One small twinge but I wasn't over extending or walking too fast. It was a good work out and I feel better about it recovering.

Warning sign number one: the boys were later out of the school than usual which meant that more people were on the same street we take to head away from school. We had to wait a good extra ten minutes for cars to dissipate and of course, the boys were being boys and I had to warn them I could put one of them in the front seat. Second sign, Amber forgot to give them my gas money. Aarrrgh... I messaged her before we even left the school and she answered back Wellman would have it and send one of the boys down when I dropped them off. Okay... only annoying thing on the way to their house was the boys being a bit noisier than usual but that's typical on a Friday. Traffic was light because the university was already off for semester break so no traffic issues there.

My usual route when I have to get gas is, drive to the bank, deposit money, go to costco get gas and the pizza and head for home. Except my brain was working in reverse by this time. I called ahead to the food court while I waited for one of the boys to return with the money which gave me a 20 minute window to pick up. Oops. My brain was stuck on just those two things, pizza and gas so luckily I had enough money in the bank to get both before putting the extra cash in the bank. But what a nightmare!

It had to be because it's Friday and people were going crazy doing last minute shopping even though Christmas isn't for another two weeks. Every turn I made was the wrong one, I had to park further from the food court than ever because every single person that wanted to be at Costco was there. Zero parking within the first two ranks of parking, ridiculous. Never been that busy, so I had to park almost to the gas station on one of the worst rows to park as it's the main aisle to the gas station.

I get my pizza with little incident other than cars and people and all that. By now I realized I was hungry again. I managed to back out of my spot without incident but had to wait a good couple of minutes for traffic to make a break. All right! I was at least close to the gas station. One minor hiccup there, a car in my line, at the pump finished, passenger got in and nothing happened. No tail lights saying they turned on the car... like they were doing something. Luckily another pump opened and I zipped ahead to take it. I looked back at the car and it had the hazard lights on. Huh? Then they turned off and the sound of the engine turning over for like ten seconds and then nothing. Ruh roh.... dead car at the pump. Got my gas, ($35 on the dot) and then get back on the road to the bank.

 Forgot to mention the traffic on the surface street between Costco and the bank. It was even more backed up than usual. I mean.. it's only 3:45 and it's never been this bad. Normal five minute run and it's now going on ten minutes and not even close to the bank. My only hurry was because of the pizza on the back seat of the car. Get to the bank finally, thanks to needing to turn off a side street to take the back way to the bank, put the money in (Thank you Amber!) and on the way home, pizza was definitely cold by now.  I took the wrong direction in the parking lot after the deposit thinking I was going to take the back road and realized my error, turned down an aisle and some ambling shamble of a man stepped out on the other side of a parked van so I didn't see him and had to honk at him. He gestured to me, I gestured back and I went on my way. Grrumble.

Then I remembered the heinous traffic on the main road to the freeway which was only two blocks from me. Oh gods.... okay I know what lane I need to be in, there's no other way to get on that onramp so I managed to get to a stop light and put my signal on so I could shift to the left lane ahead of everyone else. Luckily, it all went smoothly and even the traffic light at the on ramp changed just as I got to it. 

Now for the relatively short freeway ride home and..... I could see the tail lights backing up way, way before my exit. This is like 5 or 6 pm traffic at almost 4 pm, so thankful I know every which way to get from Point A to Point B in my end of town. Got off near the mall and took the main road all the way home. There was traffic. Still. 

By now the pizza is cold, I was hungry and finally got upstairs with it. Ever try to pull apart cold pizza that isn't cut through all the way in the first place? We don't have a pizza cutter, that's on the list of kitchen utensils we need, had to use my big knife and be careful not to cut through the box to the wood table underneath.

I think I had six slices, heating them up in the microwave for 20 seconds was perfect and advised Jon to do the same. 

I treated myself to a third coke. I have to stay up later tonight for something going online I'm involved in directly.

I had to write all this down for posterity because I already vented to Jon about my trials and tribulations on the way home. He was witness to my food fiascos before I left.

Whoooof.


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