It's Funny

Last night, out of the blue, I was asked to come to dinner at my boyfriends house. He said he was fixing hot dogs and french fries and that the hot dogs were spicy which I probably wouldn't like, but I was welcome to watch the world series there with him anyway. He knows I like baseball. I could have easily did without these games tho. Tampa and Phili? Not teams in the western states like me, so I don't care so much who's playing or wins this year. He likes sports though, so it's something we can do together.

Usually we try to plan ahead for those things because of his work schedule and my commute, but this dinner idea was O.K. All I had planned to do last night was return the headlight bulbs I couldn't install by myself the night before after I discovered that my passenger side low beam was dead while driving home on the 101 freeway. I had taken "the back way" AKA 118 W, 23 S, 101E, 5S to get around my need to travel upon the 118 E because there was two traffic accidents that the CHP stopped traffic for to clear off of the freeway at about 4PM. I got home 3+ hours later, tired, road weary and mad that I had to deal with the light. I rousted my son to go with me to Kragen to buy the bulb once I looked up the model number in my owner's manual. I then got home, gathered my tools, and tried for over an hour and a half to install the sucker. After that ordeal decided I did not have the strength in my hands nor the proper tools to get the job done. The next day (thursday morning), I drove to work in the dark using my high beams almost all the way there.

I was going to ask Robert to help install the bulb for me or at least provide a tool that I did not have and his strong hands to get the trim piece off that runs over each headlight assembly. But I figured I was tired and he more so, so I didn't mind paying to get it fixed. First, I tried Jiffy Lube because I know they provide that service, but because of the dangnabit trim piece again, they said "no". They did confirmed with me that there was a Chevy dealer in town though. So I went to the Chevy dealer in Simi Valley (William Morris Chevrolet, at First Street and the 118) at lunch break. They were great and changed out my headlight bulb in like 20 minutes flat. So, happy my headlight is now fixed, I drove home with confidence that I wouldn't get a fix-it ticket. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Robert's house.

He made me a Cape Codder with so much liquor in it I couldn't drink it. I'm a tiny person, so it doesn't take me that much alcohol before I start to feel it. He dumps the drink and makes me another. This time - it's right and I tell him so. Robert, this one is good. I can taste the sting of the liquor but it still tastes like cranberries. Yum.

And so I try to calm my nerves by sitting down on the couch and then move to curl up in the chair and sipping my drink while playing with his little white fluff of a dog named Igloo and watching the game which is now in the 6th inning, but all I want to really do is eat. It's after 7PM and I'm hungry. So I interject myself into the dining area then the kitchen to see if there is anything I can do to speed this production up. I talked to him about accouterments to the hot dog on the phone earlier. Do you have relish? No. Do you have dill pickles? Yes. O.K., so dice up some dill pickles for me and that will be perfect - that's what I do at home. Do you have onions? Yes. Cut those up, too. Do you have mustard? Yes.

But when I go to get the condiments out of the refrigerator, there is no mustard. All I find is ketchup which is not allowed on my hot dogs, a ton of hot sauce which again is not allowed on my hot dogs, honey mustard, which only belongs in salad dressing and goes with chicken strips and an institutional sized jar of mayonnaise. I'm in hell. I had to go to the store to get mustard.

So I hopped into the go mobile and on the way decide where to acquire the mustard. Can I get it at Rod's Liquor Store? No, it's not a market. Do I know of any market within walking distance from his house? No. I could have gone to Fresh & Easy, but will they have the mustard I like? I don't know. I've only shopped there once and and really is only good for quick, fresh stuff. So the next store down the road, the one I actually am familiar with is Ralph's. Good old Ralph's. I grab a hand basket and go. I end up getting toothbrushes on sale 2 for 1 because the one I has put at Robert's needed to be tossed, two things of Eclipse gum for my purse, a jar of French's mustard, and a jar of Gulden's Golden spicy brown mustard. I also looked for kosher hot dogs to save myself from having to eat the spicy ones, but my luck, the only thing sold out in the deli section is the Hebrew National hot dogs I want.

I drove back to Robert's house, put away the mustard and helped him prepare the plates. After finishing the meal, I said to Robert...

It's funny, you know. If you go to my house right now and look in the refrigerator, you'll find probably 5 different kinds of mustard and no mayonnaise and here at your house you have the institutional sized jar of mayonnaise and no mustard. I'm glad I found this out.

After baseball ended with the Tampa Rays winning game two, we watched two shows on the speed channel and fell asleep.

I'll have to make sure I've got mayonnaise on hand when he cooks at my house.