Posts Tagged ‘La Cabana’

  1. I need adult supervision, Part II

    March 8, 2009 by ChiaLynn

    Last night, after Be the Marriage wrapped, NovySan (who’d spent the better part of the afternoon wrestling with the water heater) said, “I need carnitas. Can you drive?”

    Of course I could. I’ll never turn down a trip to La Cabana.

    Since NovySan was parked behind me, we had to take his car. Like me, NovySan drives a classic Bug, and like mine, it’s got its little quirks. For instance, the only way to adjust the driver’s seat is to slide it forward, then fix it in place with a screwdriver. Well, it doesn’t have to be a screwdriver – but there’s a screwdriver in the map pocket that works very well for the purpose. It can be tricky in the dark, even using your husband’s cell phone as a flashlight (via the excellent TorchButton app), especially when said husband’s sunglasses keep falling out of the map pocket he keeps the screwdriver in. I got it done, though, released the park brake (maybe some other time I’ll talk about the day I didn’t do that, and drove 10 miles with the damned thing on), put the car in reverse, and started to back out of the driveway.

    ***CRUNCH***

    “What was that?” NovySan asked.

    “Your fucking sunglasses,” I replied. I could feel the tears starting. “I swear I put them back in the map pocket.”

    “I hope they weren’t my favorite ones,” he said.

    “I’m sure they were.”

    I was right. They were his favorites. But they weren’t the ones from the map pocket. I had gotten those put away. And so now I don’t know if there’d been two sets of sunglasses in the map pocket, and I didn’t notice when the first pair fell out, or if they’d been next to the seat and fallen out when I opened the door. Either way, they were smashed, and I owe him a new pair of shades.

    Edit: I should note that NovySan wasn’t that upset about his sunglasses. In fact, I was so upset about the sunglasses (because I do get frustrated with myself when I do stupid shit, like running over my husband’s sunglasses) that he had to go to some trouble to tell me that he wasn’t. “It’s okay,” he said. “The sunglasses don’t matter, because I was just sodomized by the Buddha, and so I’ve reached enlightenment.” That was just the beginning. There was more. By the end of it, I was laughing so hard I almost had to pull over. And dinner was excellent, as well.

    Category I Need Adult Supervision, Love | Tags: ,,, | 5 Comments

  2. The belated birthday post

    June 12, 2008 by ChiaLynn

    XML Cake
    (XML Cake courtesy of one of the IT guys at work – actually, he’s the only one at work who noticed it was my birthday.)

    As Lisa and Melanie noted, Tuesday was my birthday.

    “You didn’t blog on your birthday!” Novy said Tuesday afternoon.

    “No, but I’m going to,” I said. It’s taken two days, but here it is – the belated birthday blog.

    Tuesday morning – birthday emails from my mother (telling me she’ll call me later) and my brother (asking what I’m up to for the day). I told him I’d wanted to take the day off, but had just a bit too much work. “I might be able to work a short day, though,” I said. (Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.)

    Around 11, Mom called, and promised not to sing. (My mother is funny. And she likes to think she can’t sing.)

    At 12:30, I took myself (and Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother) out to lunch at Maxwell’s Cafe, then went to the Venice Grind for chocolate chip cookies and kick-ass iced chai. (The brewed kind, not the blended kind. They fill their own tea bags. I love that place.)

    “Sounds like a good birthday so far,” Novy said, via IM, when I got back.

    “So far, it is,” I agreed. “Despite the client bugging me for an update on a job he ordered Friday.” (Our normal turnaround’s 8-10 business days; we’ve told him he can have it in 4-5, but dude, 2?).

    At 3, the mail came. And in the mail, there was a notice that my health insurance had been canceled. Um, what? I called my manager. He promised to get back to me. “It’s just a clerical error,” Novy told me. “They’ll get it sorted out.” Well, yes. He was right. I’m not sure whose side the fault was on, but somehow, everyone’s insurance was canceled – and then reinstated, on the same day. There was no actual interruption of coverage, but legally, they only have to tell you when your insurance is canceled. They don’t have to tell you it’s been reinstated.

    Brief panic averted, I went back to work. Got a heads-up there’d be some work coming in from another department. That’s fine; I’m not that busy right now. A little past 4, I see that it’s not just some work. It’s a lot of work. And all of it’s due by the end of the week, because most of it came in last week and they’re just now getting around to sending it out.

    This does not make me happy.

    So instead of taking off early, I work late, which also means I miss class. And when I’ve done as much as I can stand, I finish my last assignment for American Art History. (One of the online classes I took through SMC this semester.) I was almost done when Novy came home.

    “I turned the oven on,” I told him. (Tuesday night is pizza night, because we both get home late.)

    He turned it off, and took me to La Cabana for margaritas and Mexican food.

    It was a pretty good birthday after all.

    Category Eat, Drink & Be Merry, Holidays, Random Babbling | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments