Getting Back to Normal

Thanks again everyone, for everything--it's been a roller coaster these past few days, but life goes on. Cyndi wanted me to tell you that she's read everyone's comments and thoughts, and appreciates them, but as you can imagine, she hasn't really had time to sit down at the computer and respond.

Anyhow, where are we now...

Well, I'm right in the middle of my weekend, and I've had a fairly good day off. After getting some much-needed rest, I puttered around the house a bit and then had a wonderful conversation with Angy that went on so long that it damn near killed my cell phone. But it was just what I needed because we always end up laughing our asses off about the silliest stuff.

After the phone call, I was starving because I hadn't eaten anything except two bags of microwaved popcorn in the past two days. The offerings in the employee dining room sucked ass on Monday night, and I didn't have much in the cupboard here at the house. So when hunger finally overtook laziness around 7:00 pm last night, I put some shoes on and headed to the grocery store.

I only got a few things, but I ended up making a pretty damn good sandwich for dinner--an idea that Mamasan planted the idea in my head earlier in the weekend. I got some fresh onion rolls from the bakery, Dijon mustard, some Boar's Head premium roast beef, and some sliced baby Swiss cheese. I put it all together open-faced under the broiler and let it get all toasty and melty, and oh my gawd was it good!

Unfortunately, I forgot to get any coleslaw while at the deli counter, so y'all can just chill on that can o' worms. I had to make do with cool ranch Doritos instead.

But an interesting thing happened at the grocery store. When I first got to the deli counter, there were about six people waiting, and there was some sort of controversy over who's turn it was, so I just moved on and kept shopping. I came back about ten minutes later, and everyone was gone. So I gave the guy behind the counter a smile and cracked some minor joke which seemed to make his day.

I told him that I wanted about three-quarters of a pound of the Boar's Head beef, and he gave me a side-to-side glance and motioned me to come closer. In a lowered voice he said "Man, you're the first person all night that's been nice to me, so I'm gonna give you the good stuff for the same price as the store brand. Don't tell anybody in here..."

Wow, I was shocked, but I agreed to his conditions, and he gave me a full pound of the premium stuff for five bucks less than it should've cost. As he handed it over the counter to me, I thanked him, and the last thing he said to me was quite profound, and gave me a moment's pause as I walked away.

See? It always pays to be nice to people, because you never know where your blessings will come from.

Who knew there was such a wise old sage working behind the deli counter at the grocery store, but it's a very true statement nonetheless. I guess it just goes to show that you can find wisdom in the most unexpected places. With that, I picked up a few other necessities (coffee, creamer, and pack of those strangely addicting chocolate chunk pecan cookies), and came home to make my sandwich.

After dinner, the weather was so nice compared to how cold it's been, that I put on some swim trunks, loaded up my Poor Man's Cocktail Shaker with rum and Coke (a Lexan sports bottle with a screw-on top), grabbed a fine Cuban cigar, and headed out to the jacuzzi for an hour of relaxation and introspection.

It was just what I needed.

When I got back to the house, I found Rob puttering around in the kitchen, so of course we sat down to watch four or five episodes of Jeopardy that we'd recorded earlier in the week. (Seriously--nobody knew that the Panama Canal was considered the greatest engineering feat in the world in the 1910's? WTF? Morons.)

Anyhow, that's how I spent my Tuesday. Today, Chris and I are talking about having lunch at, wait--you'll never guess--Grimaldi's, and afterwards I'm going to try and repeat a vehicular miracle that I performed last Wednesday. I have to go pick up some pants at the alterations shop, and last week when I dropped them off, I drove down Eastern Avenue all the way from Horizon Ridge to Sunset without hitting a single stoplight. That's like five miles in Vegas traffic, and I swear there is a stoplight like every 400 yards.

I was so proud of the feat that I was tempted to call Ripley's. Or at least the local news channel. I probably made the trip faster than an ambulance does with it's siren and all of it's lights flashing. I seriously doubt that it can ever be repeated, because traffic in this town sucks, especially on that stretch of road. But the funny thing was, I only noticed I had a chance to make history because when I turned the corner from Horizon Ridge to get onto Eastern, a bottle of aspirin came out of my center console and was rolling around by my feet, and I told myself I'd reach down and grab it at the next stoplight.

Well, I didn't stop again until I pulled up in front of the alterations shop.

We'll see how it goes this afternoon, but I'm not expecting lightning to strike twice. I'll just be happy to be face down in a 16-inch circle of sausage-and-olive happiness. After that, I won't care how bad the traffic is.

Mikey