I took the week of Thanksgiving off from work, and since I normally only work three days, I only had to use 2 vacation days to do so.
I was all set to stop at the library Thursday (11/16) after work (I drive right past it daily) but before I reached it my car gave a warning that my back right tire pressure was much lower than the rest of the tires so I headed straight home instead.
Joe was out walking Wookie and I stopped to tell him what happened. That’s when we found a screw in the tire. We immediately took the car to Discount Tire to see what they could do. They suggested since the car was so new (less than 300 miles on it) that we call the dealership and see what they would do for us. The answer to that – absolutely nothing. Typical. I didn’t even write about how my salesperson harassed the hell out of me recently for not giving them perfect scores on the survey Subaru sent me even though they did nothing to deserve them. I’m done with that dealership and will take the car elsewhere when it needs service.
Anyway, once we informed our Discount Tire rep how unhelpful the dealership was being he suggested we walk over to Portillo’s and have dinner while they took a look at the tire since there was a pretty long wait (hour and a half it turned out). Luckily, despite the screw being at an angle it missed the sidewall and they were able to patch it. They didn’t even charge us. Now that is good customer service! This isn’t the first time they’ve repaired a tire for free – I don’t know how they make money. I was just relieved I wouldn’t have to fork over $100 and come back the next day to buy an identical tire (since they didn’t have mine in stock).
We finally made it to the library on Friday (11/17) after Joe got home. I got a handful of books and we both got CDs. Then we headed to Ace Hardware so Joe could pick up a shop-vac they had on sale since his died over the summer. It was his dad’s so it was pretty old. From there we stopped at the cleaners so I could have them fix the seam on my dress pants which came apart. The woman who does the tailoring happened to be available and fixed them right there in less than five minutes. She’s the best and we always come to her when we need clothing repaired. We picked up a pizza from Lou Malnati’s next door and brought it home for dinner.
The weather was cold and rainy on Saturday (11/18) so we didn’t do much after our two hour shopping trip at Target. This time of year they always have a deal where you get a $10 gift card when you spend $50 on groceries so we had to take advantage of that. We picked up a few Christmas presents for Joe’s kids as well.
Sunday (11/19) we headed over to IKEA (to return a bath mat) and Bed Bath and Beyond (to return the outfit Wookie didn’t like). It was pretty crappy outside so all I wanted to do was go home and veg afterward. Joe made chicken and dumplings in the crockpot for dinner which came out delicious.
Monday (11/20) was just my regular upstairs cleaning day, but Tuesday (11/21) I had an endoscopy to check my esophagus since I have frequent acid reflux. My doctor was running behind schedule so we waited about an hour longer than normal. The procedure itself is only 10-15 minutes but man they must have used a particularly strong sedative because I don’t remember the doctor coming to speak to us in recovery AT ALL and I kept telling Joe the same stuff repeatedly throughout the day. I also took a nap when we got home and went to bed early that night.
Any procedures I’ve had done in the past 15 years or so have always been at the same hospital but my doctor is in a different network so we went to a surgery center instead. Luckily it was very modern and all the staff were quite nice and caring. The only snafu I ran into was when they gave me a bell to ring when I was prepped but still waiting to be taking into the procedure room and no one could hear me. When the nurse came back to get me I explained I had been ringing it because I needed to urinate and she was very apologetic. I hate how when I’m cold and nervous I have to pee like crazy even though I hadn’t drank anything since 6 am (and at this point it was around 11:30 am). Also, unlike the hospital they don’t let family members hang out with you until right before the procedure so I was freezing, lying in this bed all alone attached to an IV, and really had to pee. So that sucked. My discharge paperwork says I have a small hiatal hernia (which I already knew from the last time I had this procedure) and esophagitis (which is irritation or inflammation of the esophagus). They took a biopsy so I’ll know more in a week or so.
Wednesday (11/22) I relaxed and got caught up on some YouTube videos I’ve been wanting to watch while Joe was at work. Once he got home we headed straight to Walmart and it was a mad house! I picked up two pair of leggings I ordered online which was pretty quick since I had checked in ahead of time on their app, but they barely had any registers open and even the self checkout line was the longest I’ve ever seen. Luckily it looked worse than it was and we weren’t in line nearly as long as I thought we’d be. Shame on Walmart for not having more staff on hand, though – of course it’s going to be busy the day before Thanksgiving! Surprisingly the lines weren’t long at any of our next stops which included Aldi and Caputos. Once home I worked on a new recipe – Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars. They came out ok but I’ve still yet to find the perfect pecan dessert. The search continues.
Thursday (11/23) I spent a good 3-4 hours in the kitchen working on Thanksgiving prep. I made a sweet potato casserole, apple streusel cheesecake, and mac and cheese, all of which are pretty labor intensive. We opted not to go to my parents’ this year since Brother B wasn’t going and my mom said she wasn’t really into it anyway. So for dinner we had turkey sausage and some of the sides I made. Later that evening I decided to make homemade cranberry sauce and wow, did it come out delicious! I will never buy the canned version again. I hadn’t realized how easy it was to make – I boiled a 12 oz bag of cranberries with orange juice, water, sugar, and a touch of cinnamon. Easy peasy!
Friday (11/24) We cooked a turkey for the kids.
Joe’s daughter texted that morning to say she couldn’t make it due to being sick so it just ended up being his son so we had way more food than necessary. I cleaned the house and also got around to emptying the glove compartment, center console, and trunk of my Jetta since I plan on getting rid of it soon. We’re giving it to Joe’s daughter in fact. She could really use it since her and her boyfriend only have one car and she works and goes to school. I was originally going to hang onto it because they were supposed to be redoing our driveways (replacing asphalt with concrete) soon. I was planning on leaving the Crosstrek in the garage during that two-week period and drive the Jetta so my new car wouldn’t be left out on the street, but they ran behind schedule and now our driveways won’t be worked on until the spring.
Saturday (11/25) We took the Jetta over to Discount Tire because the front tires keep getting low. Despite us telling them it was both front tires, they only looked at one of them, and it wasn’t even the one that was leaking as much. Apparently the rims are corroded and causing the issue so we decided to buy new ones which are being installed this week. We hadn’t planned on putting any money into it before giving it to Joe’s daughter, so that sucks, but it wouldn’t be very useful if the tires were constantly low.
Later that day we made a stop at the vet and Dunkin Donuts as well.
Joe installed new license plate frames on my new car because I refuse to give my shitty dealership any free advertising. Their frames went straight into the trash! I also added an iPass device to my car just in case it’s needed. Since it will be rare, I opted not to mount it. We’ll see how that works out.
I had invited both of my brothers over for dinner since we had so many leftovers but they both declined which was disappointing. I feel like more often than not my family lets me down when the holidays roll around. I should just accept the fact that they’ll never be what I want. Low expectations = no disappointment.
I feel like Joe and I haven’t done enough fun things during my time off. As luck would have it, I had two Facebook friends who had extra tickets to two different concerts Saturday evening (Morrissey and Paul Van Dyk) and yet I didn’t take them up on the offer because I hate the idea of driving into the city. Between the two I would have rather seen PVD but the show didn’t even start until 9 pm which is just way too late for me. As it was my sleep schedule was off a good portion of the week and I was trying to get back on a proper sleep schedule.
Sunday (11/26) we headed to Walmart bright and early to get some shopping done before it got crowded. Then we hit McDonald’s for a quick breakfast before seeing a matinee of Daddy’s Home 2 which I thought was even better than the original. I also hand washed my new car for the first time. We had picked up all new cleaning stuff from Walmart that morning so the timing was perfect and with rubber gloves I didn’t get too cold.
This morning I headed to the DMV to renew my license and lost about an hour of my life. I’m just glad I got there when I did because the line was three times as long when I left! Once I got home I did a little quick cleaning and started some laundry. I also cleaned the windows on my car (since I was too cold/lazy to do them yesterday) and dusted the dashboard, etc. inside. Now I’m going to relax and try to enjoy my last day of my staycation. I can’t believe 11 days flew by so quickly!