Paco's Tacos

Tonight I had dinner with my good friend, Missy.

Haven't seen her in a year.

I'm a bad friend.

Usually I'm pretty bad with time: I might not remember that it's been exactly a year since I saw somebody. Sometimes a year feels like a week, or months? I live in a time warp, sometimes. However, we know it's been a year, because her little girl was only six months old at the time. Now? Her kid's a big 18 month old, and I feel like a douche for not visiting more often.

Her daughter is verrry cute, and we spent some time hanging out with the kid and her husband, and wow, that child is sweet. When I got there, I knew she wouldn't remember me, but I was afraid she might cry or get scared when I went over. When I walked in the door, she was in the middle of the laborious task of transferring her plastic alphabet letters, one at a time, from the refrigerator to the washing machine; it just so happened that the door I entered (the kitchen door) was right next to the washer and dryer - I walked in on her holding a big capital letter "F" in her hand. She looked at me, smiled back at me (because if you saw this child, you would smile at her too), placed the "F" on the washer, and plucked off a "D" and handed it to me.

Cute, cute, cute, cute.

We hung out until it was time to put the little girl to bed, then left her and Missy's husband at home, and set off for Paco's.

Oh, what do I care: I gained 1.6 pounds this week. I said "fuck it" quite early in the week when we made these plans, this being the only night that worked for her, and the words "Paco's Tacos" were spoken. Paco's isn't my favorite Mexican restaurant, but it's classic, and dependable. I wish the rice wasn't quite so dry, but still: delicious chile relleno.

It was fun: we may not have seen each other in ages, or even talked, but always being with her is fun, it always makes me feel like a kid again, and we had a grand old time.

...

This has been a really long week. Pat's gone, work's been a bit nuts. I stayed late a couple of nights working on this Excel thing for my boss's boss's bosses (he has two). In other words? the big honchos. We showed them the initial version on Tuesday; by Wednesday afternoon, they'd already come up with additional reports and charts and requested further data... Luckily my boss is going to New Orleans until Wednesday, so I have some breathing room now. I had to ask someone else for the new data, so have been waiting on her (got it right before I left work today to go to Missy's). It can wait until Monday.

I've actually enjoyed my time alone at home. Don't get me wrong: it's nicer with Patrick here! But I've hardly watched any TV, I finally got the kitchen clean; the living room isn't trashed, I cleaned the litter boxes AND vacuumed (Pat's good for cleaning the boxes, but not for sweeping up all the tiny pebbles they kick out or sticks to their tiny feet).

Tomorrow I'm getting another facial (actually, I think I'm getting a body treatment? Some sort of seaweed wrap thing), and the car washed, and sleeping in (obviously these items are not in the right order), and heading down to SM to run "Rhinoceros" again. Speaking of Rhino, here's a link to this week's review from KCRW. And then? Patrick comes home!