Starting the Long Weekend Early

I know it's only Friday and I know today is still officially a workday. Nothing like a bunch of emails from some on my team to remind me. Friday is still Friday and I start early to (a) lock in a tee time for next Sunday (b) get a Daily Pass for Lisa for her first school drop off of the year. Hey, it's not like she has forgotten right? Actually, she called me first thing, not about the pass but because she is still complaining about feeling yukky and although she tested negative for COVID just last Tuesday, she wanted to get tested again. I don't know why she's asking me as if she needs my approval. I told her to simply get it done is all and to drop Johnnie off at school. With that came the litany of stuff she needed to do, again why she is telling me I don't know. All I can offer is to watch the dog if she was so inclined to drop her off. In the meantime, I did have one thing I wanted to get done today. I wanted to CLEAN MY APARTMENT. And so to get things kickstarted, I cleaned the toilet first thing, just so I can at least get to the dirtiest areas in my space. And so I got that done even BEFORE I had breakfast. And then of course there's the whole kitchen to do. But not before I cook myself whatever else I plan on cooking because once I do that, I do not plan on cooking much for the rest of the weekend. And so it was that I got busy on the floors on both the bathroom and the kitchen. They hadn't been scrubbed since Thanksgiving. And when I got done with that, and got done with the oven and microwave and the kitchen counter, I actually felt a sense of accomplishment. I got half the place CLEAN! I have the entire weekend to finish up actually. And so with that I looked forward to just kicking back after lunch. I had leftover spaghetti and I actually ate so much I thought I was going to take a nap immediately after. That's when I get another call from Lisa. This one to be filed under MANUFACTURED DRAMA. Under this file would be the time she found fleas on Claire. This time apparently she is dealing with an infestation of mosquito larvae. I was puzzled at first. After all, the only still water she had in her apartment was the turtle tank and she hadn't had a mosquito infestation in previous years. And I thought those things happened in the summer anyway. But nope, she insisted that now she has to have a crisis on her hands. I told her I would help kill them if that was her solution. I would not DARE offer a solution of my own, not even if asked. We were supposed to have pizza dinner tonight anyway. And OBTW her 2nd COVID test this week came back negative too. "Am I being neurotic?" she had to ask. I could NOT answer her, not without laughing anyway.

And so it was that I prepared to go to her house later on and deal with mosquito larvae, concerned only because Johnnie just puffs up when he gets bitten by mosquitos. Can't have that.  Hey, I simply let the day finish out satisfied that I had at least gotten started with my house cleaning and tanked the rest of the afternoon.  I made no plans for the 3-day weekend of course. I looked back on last year's entry and it was pretty much the same thing. About the only notable thing we used to do back in the day was play golf with Dexter LOL. Anyway I was prepared to spend my Friday night doing Lisa yet another favor and being taken for granted for doing a good deed. It would turn out that I would get spared from all that. And it would be Lisa's parents that would bail me out of it. THEY decided they were coming over to help Lisa with her mosquito problem. Which means I am off the hook! I guess I don't get to see Johnnie tonight which is ok because Lisa asked me to watch him tomorrow anyway. THAT works for me! And so all of a sudden I have my Friday back. What to do?! First things first is to decide what to do for dinner. And for whatever reason I had it in my mind to get shrimp egg foo young from First Szechuan, that Chinese place not even half a block from our old apartment in Westwood. I can't even count how many times I would eat this specific dish from that specific restaurant when we lived here! It's been 5+ years since we moved and so it's been that much time since I've eaten here. Used to be Johnnie and I were here all the time and the servers gushed all over him as a baby. It remains one of my happy places with Happy memories. How about that Christmas Day when we ate here before we drove to Santa Barbara with Silvia and fam. It was the only place open LOL. Anyway, time travelling aside, the dish wasn't exactly like I remembered, this one seemed like it had been out and been cooked for a while. It wasn't that fresh. But it was still ok. It was the memory that made me feel good.  And so it was that with the Egg Foo Young, and episodes from the Book of Boba Fett, I ushered in the long 3-day MLK weekend. Man, is January really halfway over already?