I didn’t get as much sleep Monday night as I tried. Kept waking up for the first half of my planned time. Finally got like two solid, uninterrupted hours before waking up at 3:00 Tuesday for some reason. I figured that was it, so I lounged for half an hour and got ready to go.
Got to the parking lot at Kewalo just past 4:00. Lots of parking. Darn it. Walked to Starbucks for a caramel macchiato (redeemed some stars) and a breakfast wrap. Wandered back to Kewalo and enjoyed both near the water as the sun came up. It was nice.
Jumped in the water shortly after sunrise. It was very nice. I swam longer and faster than I’ve gone in some time. I’m okay with taking it easy since it’s more about quality time than actual exercise, but now that I’m not walking I think a more concerted effort to push myself is called for. I wouldn’t win any races. Still, I remember where I started thirteenish years ago when I first made this part of my life again, and it makes me feel really, really good.
I drove to my mom’s house to drop off her birthday gift and to chat for a while. My parents live in a two-story house, but downstairs is just the garage, laundry, and entrance. All the actual living space is upstairs, so we chatted with me downstairs and them upstairs. The dog came down to say hi a couple of times.
My mom’s gift was thirty-five pounds of Japanese rice from Rice Factory. It’s pricey stuff, but my mom really likes it. I also took my mom and dad the remaining half of the lemon chess pie.
Got to work a little late and took vacation hours to cover it. The workday passed rather quickly. I did some website stuff, writing the copy for the “we’re hiring!” page, then made plans for those interviews I need.
I wrote myself a pass on the Beast for Tuesday night, opting instead for dinner and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a rental from Amazon. I’m planning to review the new third movie for the staff newsletter, and wanted to review the first two films first. It’s been thirty years since I saw the original. It’s such a stupid movie.
I’d completely forgotten that Clarence Clemons and Jane Weidlin are in it. That was the highlight for me.
The movie ate up my free time, and the cleanup took me past my intended bedtime.
On the way back from my parents’ house, I was pretty ravenous, despite the coffee and breakfast wrap, so I hit the Wendy’s drive-through. I’ve been kind of fascinated by fast-food breakfasts I haven’t tried, ever since that first Taco Bell morning. I won’t say what I ordered because it’s embarrassing, but it was pretty good. Standard breakfast-sandwich stuff but with a fried chicken sandwich option most places don’t have.
I don’t understand why these joints don’t have a breakfast hamburger. I was hoping to see that at Wendy’s, since their hamburger is the best-tasting of the fast food joints around here. One huge advantage for Wendy’s is the seasoned breakfast potatoes, which are basically steak fries given the curly fries treatment. A huge improvement on curly fries, but I’d honestly rather have just regular steak fries.
That was was second breakfast and lunch. It was a lot of food. Dinner was a modest-sized bowl of angel hair pasta. I used a canned sauce and added dried minced garlic, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, vodka, and gorgonzola. It came out great, especially when I added a drizzle of good olive oil.
I’ve got a lot of half-consumed bottles of alcohol in my cabinet, and I need some cabinet space, so I’m trying to use stuff up. This vodka usually goes into food anyway. Absolut is kind of gross. It tastes waxy to me, but it’s good in food. A restaurant I used to enjoy made a pink sauce with marinara and vodka, which is where I got the idea. Good stuff.
Got to bed at around 11:00 and was asleep before midnight.
I texted the writing partner and apologized for procrastinating on reviewing her work. Sent a former coworker, a victim of Bloody Wednesday, a job link in case he hadn’t already seen it (he had). Traded texts with Penny about helping me with my podcast, which now I’m having second thoughts about. I mean I’m having second thoughts about this modified format which isn’t what I had in mind, pre-pandemic.
Sent Ali a photo of Kewalo under the near-full moon. A nice photo. She said she misses this place.
Oh, and I FB messaged a former student. When I was decluttering Monday evening, I found something belonging to his mother, and was pretty sure she’d want it back. We’re not FB friends (I don’t initiate social media friendships with students; I let them decide how they want to relate to me post-graduation), so I wrote “Sorry to bug you, but I have to ask you a little question. Nothing scary, I promise.”
He responded, “Yo Mr. D. What’s up?”
Warmed my heart, the way this thirty-one-year-old still calls me Mr. D and didn’t have any problems communicating with me the way he once did when he was fourteen. The last words he messaged me were, “That would be great. Thanks Mr. D.”
The last four years or so of my career, the students got away from “Mr. D” and called me by my name. Which seemed natural and fine. But I do look fondly on those years when I was an initial.
The days peel away, each not very different from the one before. I knew this was going to happen, which is one reason I committed to journaling this stuff when lockdown began. It’s a way for me to keep track of things that are important, and to identify signs of falling into bad ruts. The messaging helps. Tuesday evening it helped a little more than usual.
If you need something like it, add me to your rotation of connections. Just drop a comment and we’ll work something out.