T Minus 37: A better day

I forced myself out of bed as soon as my eyes opened for the day. My unfinished nightmares from yesterday needed my attention. I dialed the number for NV Energy. I still failed to get a human being on the phone but I did manage to get into some electronic queue that would eventually lead to a human being calling me - in just under an hour if the estimated queue time proved correct.

Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, my phone rang. A very helpful lady drafted a new letter of good credit and even emailed it to me for approval. Once I told her everything looked good, she faxed it over to Maui Electric. I paced the house for a few minutes before calling Meco to confirm they received the fax. After a couple minutes of checking, they found my letter. The dark skies parted, the sun shone, and the exorbitant deposit was waived. I felt a huge weight lift off my neck. Today was going to be a good day.

Even good days hold bad moments, though. First came what was going to be my breakfast. Yesterday I prepared chicken avocado salad. Yum! I pulled it out of the fridge and...not so good. Something spoiled overnight. It smelled a little weird and tasted...wangy. So, no breakfast before work.

I also failed to get the proof of address letter from the bank. They waited until a few hours after I already started working before calling me to tell me it was ready to be picked up. I'll have to go get it in the morning.

The rest of the day, though, was good. I made myself an iced coffee with a new powder mix I found. You add it to milk. Of course, I needed to first make some milk using the powdered milk I had on hand but it turned out to be not half bad. The "English Toffee" flavor left a little to be desired but it was drinkable.

Iced coffee mix. Just add milk!

I loaded my iced coffee into the cup holder on the Pink Cruiser, stashed my bag in the basket, and headed out. As I pedaled my way down Front St, the cup holder seemed to strain and be generally unhappy about carrying my 20 oz tumbler of iced coffee. I made a mental note to check if a screw needed tightening or if I just needed a different type of cup holder.

It took some effort to find a parking spot - the bike racks under the Banyan Tree held a lot of bikes this morning - but I managed. I walked across the street and joined the day in progress at the gallery. I listened to stories about how slow it has been, which only made me laugh. Everything is relative. These people don't know slow. To experience slow business, one must first work a closing shift at the Ka'anapali gallery!

I thoroughly enjoyed my first commissioned shift at the Lahaina gallery. I understand that business has probably been better, and that my coworkers really do think it's slow right now, but I felt thrilled just to work alongside other people and have someone to talk to. Making more than $10 in commissions for the day only made things that much better. Just having people walk in the store brightened my day. Even if they chose not to buy anything, they were living human beings with whom I could talk story and visit before they continued on to the next stop along their journey. Yes, life is better in Lahaina.

Spam & Potatoes. Kind of like
an island version of Dinty Moore.

Even lunch turned out decent. My new home state sure loves its Spam. I picked up a premade-dinner type thing: Spam & Potatoes. I never noticed anything like this in a Vegas grocery but, of course, we rarely ate things like this since The Hubby prefers to cook. At any rate, the Spam thingy tasted OK. With a little cayenne pepper, and maybe some garlic powder, I believe I could eat it again.

When time came for the end of business, I managed to close the gallery right on time. I made a quick run down the street to shi shi before returning to finish up all the paperwork. I made short work of the closing docs, grabbed my bag, and headed across the park to pick up the Pink Cruiser for my ride home.

As I passed under the Banyan Tree, I noticed a pretty black & white cat near one of the benches. I talked to it but it ran off, surely able to sense that I'm not really a cat person. Had I been able to coax it closer, I intended to check for a collar and see if it actually belonged to someone or was only a feral cat looking for a meal. It wanted no part of my help, though, so I hopped on the bike and pedaled home.

Arriving home, I experienced a momentary burst of excitement. Just in front of the condo door sat a package, some "big mail." I carried it inside, unceremoniously dropping my bag just inside the door, and opened the box. My excitement faded quickly when I discovered it was only the toilet paper I ordered via Amazon subscription. Needed? Sure. Exciting? Not so much.

I threw together some Ramen, ate, and plopped on the bed. Work tired me out, so I suspect the rest of my night will consist of more Supernatural episodes and a few Zs.

Aloha!