Sorry for waiting so late in the day to post an update, but I was gone all day long, then immediately fell asleep for almost two hours as soon as I got home today. Since then, I've been on the phone and what-not. But now, I'm all yours!
I couldn't sleep at all last night, don't know why, but I only got about three or four hours worth. Of course, my phone rang about 15 minutes before my alarm went off--thanks Mamasan... So I crawled out of bed and got ready for the day, and left the house at nine to go pick up Marcie. On the way out the door, I saw that a couple of donations had arrived in the mail, so I grabbed them off the entry table and headed out. When I got to her place, we took a little tour around the estate, looking at all of the stacked boxes and stuff that was ready to go. Luckily we both have pickup trucks...
But we didn't hang around the house very long--we had stuff to do. When she got in my truck, I told her that she had mail showing up at my house, so I gave her the two envelopes. Enclosed was another fifty bucks for The Marcie Fund. Of course, she was very humbled and thankful.
The first item on the agenda was to head over to Friendly Donuts on Boulder Highway for breakfast. After eating there, I doubt I'll ever patronize a Krispy Kreme or a Dunkin' Donuts again. We ordered three donuts to share--one apple fritter, one bear claw, and one creme-filled popover--and I got some milk while she went with the Starbucks Frappuccino. I think we paid nine bucks even for breakfast.
Friendly's is a tiny mom-and-pop joint, and we got the last available table. Of course, now that Marcie is a regular reader of this site, she's always asking me if I have my camera available to take pics of the food (I still take a ration of shiat from her for never posting a picture of my breakfast from the O-House. But that's coming soon, I promise!). So here it is--our tray of donut happiness:
And since Marcie missed her calling as a Price Is Right girl, he she is, showing off the goods:
Of course, I'm probably in the doghouse now for posting her pic without makeup, but then again, I wasn't wearing any, either. But you gotta respect an apple fritter that is as big as your head.
The donuts, of course, were oh-my-god good, but very filling. We got one complete one consumed, half of another one, and then one 'finger' of the bear claw. The rest went with us in a take-home bag. I think next time we go there, we'll pick up a couple to go, then head over to Saxby's Coffee on Horizon Ridge and eat 'em there--more comfy, more quiet, and I'm guessing the coffee is a little better, too.
After breakfast, we headed over to the bank. Luckily we both do our checking at Washington Mutual, so I wrote her a check for $1400, and she immediately deposited it into her account. The look on her face when I gave it to her was just priceless. I wish I would've had my camera handy right then. I'll write more about it later this weekend, but you folks have done a great, wonderful thing. I can't thank you enough! You gave Marcie her smile back, and that just made my whole week. Words can't describe how it made me feel, and I'm sure she felt a hundred times better. I could see the stress from her shoulders evaporate almost immediately.
Once the financial housekeeping was done, we headed over to the storage place to rent a unit. It took a bit longer than I expected--we got a full-on tour of the facilities, and once all the paperwork was completed, she paid for a couple of months in advance--one less thing to worry about next month.
After that chore was done, we decided to go back to the one apartment complex that had already basically approved her, as she was tired of looking and decided to just settle there and take a short-term lease. It's not the nicest place in the nicest neighborhood, but it's clean and quiet, and it's hers and she'll be safe there, free from the god-awful situation she'd been enduring for the past several months. I'm guessing her situation will improve even more over the next couple of months, and she'll get out of there this summer.
Once we took a look at her new apartment, we went back to the office to do the application paperwork. They ended up waiving the application fee, and totally ignored the whole pet issue and fees (Marcie has a little kitty cat that's making the move too). I'm guessing that they wanted somebody responsible and trustworthy in the place, so they bent the rules a little bit to get her application approved. We then we ran back over to the bank to get a cashiers check for the deposits and rent and such, and now she's good until April 1st. She signs the lease first thing in the morning and our goal is to get her completely moved on Friday so that she never has to spend another night in the hell-house with that punk-ass loser.
Again, everything took a little longer than anticipated, and by then it was noon. We had plans to meet up with one of the gals she used to work with over on the other side of town at one o'clock, so we took off and headed to Big Dog's Brewpub over on west Sahara. We took Boulder Highway all the way down to Sahara, and then across the Strip to the restaurant--I think it took us almost 45 minutes to get there.
As soon as we got a table, our waitress appeared, and Marcie decided she needed a cocktail. She went with a spicy bloody mary, while I had Captain and Coke. Her friend (Terrie, I think her name is--I'm terrible about remembering names) texted and said she was on her way. Miss M wanted some garlic fries as an appetizer, so we ordered that and an Arnold Palmer for her soon-to-arrive friend. I was a little disappointed with my cocktail when it arrived--instead of lime, there was a huge lemon wedge in it. WTF? Being a trooper, I somehow managed to choke it down, but after that, I changed up to straight Coke.
The garlic fries were very good--Marcie wanted me to try them because she knew that I don't generally like fries, but I have to say, I was impressed. When Terrie (I hope that's her name) showed up, she also ordered some cheese curds. Having been to Wisconsin only once in my entire life, I've never had cheese curds. But they were good--kinda like really heavy deep-fried mozzarella nuggets, but not made out of mozz, and not served with marinara--these came with ranch dressing and also a sour cream/dill sauce for dipping. Very good, but filling.
The gals ordered a large Big Dog salad to share, and I ordered a 'small' taco salad. In case you need some visual stimulation, here ya go:
Again, I had my camera handy, but forgot about taking pics until somebody reminded me. But this is the Big Dog Salad, after Terrie scooped out about a third of it onto another plate. Seriously, the thing was a monster.
And here is my taco salad, minus a couple of bites. It was damn good, even better than the ones at Taco Bell. High praise, indeed...
But we had a nice lunch and a nice visit, and it was good to see Marcie able to relax and re-connect with her friend. It's been a really tough week, and I think a little vacation from her daily stress level was just what she needed. I mostly just ate and listened, letting the gals catch up, but I had an enjoyable time nonetheless.
As much as we wanted to, we couldn't hang out and linger over drinks and conversation all afternoon--Terrie had to go back to work, and Marcie and I had to get back over to Hendertucky. (Her term, not mine, for the part of town she's moving to).
By the time we made the trek back from the west side, the junior high had just let out for the day and we found her oldest riding his skateboard out in front of the school. So we picked him up and headed back to her place. But we put the errands on hold at that point, as she had to go down to the elementary school and pick up her youngest who now has the cold Marcie was fighting earlier in the week. So we said goodbye, and I told her to call me later if she wanted to get some stuff moved over to the storage unit.
As soon as I got home, I collapsed into bed and caught me a perfectly relaxing two-hour nap. I sent her a text when I woke up, seeing if she wanted to get a head start on tomorrow's chores, but she called me back saying that she put the kids to work and they got a big load of stuff in storage already and that she was gonna do a little grocery shopping and call it a night.
I was cool with that, even though doing crummy stuff like moving heavy boxes and furniture with her is more appealing than doing nothing without her, but she'd had a very long day and needed the rest. Our plan for tomorrow is to start moving all the furniture at 10 am, and then keep going until it's all done. I'm guessing that around the time we finish up and I'm good and tired, the folks in the poker room will call me up asking me to work. So I probably won't be spending much time at the keyboard tomorrow.
Catch ya this weekend--
Mikey
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