Monday madness

Praying on the side of the road
My Monday night turned out to be *quite* interesting! First off, I had a work event in Oakdale that I was a little nervous about attending as I knew I would know very few people there. The event was fun and interesting with a lot of Democratic bigwigs in attendance so I was glad I went. About a mile from the place as I was heading home, I hear a horrible scraping metal sound so I pull off the road, certain I have a flat tire. Imagine my confusion when I get out of my car and all of the tires are perfectly fine. What? So I get on the ground and what do I see but what appears to be my entire exhaust system laying on the ground. Awesome. And I was so mad at myself that I didn’t have a tow truck number in my phone, because my car has been acting up for the last six weeks, and I have pretty much been waiting for it to strand me someplace inconvenient.

I end up calling my insurance company for a tow suggestion and she asks for my car’s VIN to look up my policy. Amazingly, I have that info. at my fingertips, but when she types it into her computer they apparently don’t have a policy for my car. What?? Turns out she was wrong, but I did panic for a moment.

So I am waiting for the tow truck to arrive when all of a sudden an older gentleman pulls up next to me on a motorcycle and asks if he can help. I tell him I have a tow truck on the way, but he asks if it is okay to look and I say yes. He figures he can rig the muffler, etc., enough to get me home to E.P. and starts digging in a bag of random metal bits. The tow truck guy comes along and kind of laughs at the scenario but gets down and helps the guy. I’m in the mix as well in my dress and heels, laying on the ground and holding a flashlight as cars are whipping by at 9 at night on 494. Good times!

They were both nice and manage to cob together bits of metal and wire to attach the muffler enough to get me home. (Mental note: put a damn wire hanger in the car!) I offered money to both but the older man did not want anything and the tow truck guy is covered by my insurance (particularly as he now doesn’t even have to tow me).

Everyone is getting ready to leave and my Good Samaritan gestures for me to come over. I was thinking – great! Is this where he kills me a/o steals my purse? No, he wants to pray. So there we are, 9:30 p.m. in the dark on the side of the interstate, praying together. Once I was back on the road he followed me for a bit, and then suddenly he was gone. That freaked me out for a minute in a Twilight Zone kind of way, but then I realized he took an exit. Dee de dee de dee de dee de…

Redecorating
I ended up taking Tuesday off to get my car fixed, and actually had quite a productive day at home. First off, the car got fixed for under $150. The guy told me – unprovoked – what good condition my car is in, and I almost laughed in his face given that it has been in one shop or another repeatedly during the last six weeks. I was sort of hoping the exhaust falling off and getting fixed would also somehow magically fix the underpowering problem, but no luck there.

Anyway, I got quite a lot done while I was home. I hung a new curtain rod in the bedroom (the other was falling down), caulked the bathroom sink, finished rearranging the living room, finished putting new knobs on all of our closet doors and put the bookcase back together in the basement. I also taped off the basement entryway that was hot pink (Josh says it is cranberry) and primed that to a nice, dull shade of beige. Two coats, and I should be able to paint it tomorrow. I actually felt a sense of relief to see the bold color toned down so significantly.

Future projects include painting the bedroom, which I already have paint for, painting the upstairs entryway – which we still need to decide on a color for – and finish rearranging the basement. I also have to clean out/rearrange some closet space since I want to turn our upstairs coat closet into more of a shelving/pantry type storage area. Always some minor little thing to plan for/think about. I’m sure I drive Josh crazy, but fortunately he puts up with me!

The Modern Café
For dinner we met Ted and Natalie at The Modern, a little place in NE between Erte and Northeast Social Club. Josh and I got there first and on first viewing I was a little skeptical. On the plus side, it turns out Tuesdays are half-priced bottle of wine nights. Yay! We split two bottles, a Super Tuscan and a Malbec.

Ted and Natalie got there and it was great to see them! I really enjoy meeting up with them and we don’t do it nearly often enough. Ted is also preparing to do some tiling in their bathroom, so I told him I am waiting to start tiling our basement entryway until he has done it so I can call on him for help!

The food was really tasty. Josh and I ordered fries as an app and Ted and Natalie ordered seasonal squash. For dinner I had their pot roast, which they are well known for, Ted and Josh both had a shrimp chorizo stew of sorts, and Natalie had split pea wonton raviolis. Mine came with a big dollop of white stuff that I thought looked like cottage cheese. I thought that was odd and took a big bite to see… nope. It was a big forkful of horseradish! Good stuff, but better in smaller bites! For desserts Ted and Natalie had mango panna cotta and we had chocolate pots de creme.

All in all, it was a very good place and much better than what my first impression thought it would be. Between the three – The Modern, Erte and NE Social Club, I’d pick the NE Social Club every time!