Life as I know it...

It's all back to normal around here!

Armondo's home, and I couldn't be happier.

I never thought that my happiness would depend so much upon another person! I guess that's a little bit sad, isn't it?

Anyway, getting the hubby home wasn't without its hic-coughs!

Pretty much all the phone calls that the hubby and I have had over the past few weeks have been collect calls, and in order to be clever, Armondo and I decided that instead of saying "Armondo" in the "say your name now" spot, he'd say "I'm on the ferry." so that I would know that he had made it from the airport to the ferry and was on his way home.

The original plan was for him to arrive at the airport around 11am and for him to make it to the ferry for the 1pm sailing, and to be home around 3pm.

I usually work at 4:30pm on Fridays, but thought it would be best to switch to a later shift so that I could spend a little bit of time with the hubby before I left him with the kid and ran off to work.

So, at a little after 1pm, I get a collect call saying:

"I'm on the three o'clock ferry." And he hangs up before I get a chance to "accept" the call.

First thought is: "Why'd he say THREE o'clock? Does that mean that he has missed the 1pm sailing and is going to be on the 3pm sailing?"

Second thought is: "He said he was ON the 3pm sailing, and it's 1pm now, so maybe he meant that he's on the sailing that will be in at 3pm, like the original plan."

So, it's close to 3pm and I strap Cherry into the car and go to the ferry to pick him up. I've got Annie in the car too, and I've got her all hyped up by saying over and over "We're going to go get daddy... are you happy to go see daddy?!"

3pm goes by. 3:15 goes by. All of the passengers of the ferry get off. The crew gets off. No Armondo.

CRAP! Am I at the wrong ferry?!?

I decide that Armondo must have taken the OTHER ferry and not the one that's right by our house, so I start to race towards the other ferry terminal.

And the gas light goes on.

I KNEW I was almost out of gas, but I also knew I had enough gas to go to the close ferry, to pick Armondo up, then to go to work, earn some tip money, and buy gas after that. (The gas prices have been going up SO high lately, that I had been avoiding getting gas.)

I didn't, however have enough gas to get to the other ferry. So I stopped at the nearest gas station. Now, I try to only go to gas stations that have the "Pay at the Pump" option when I have the kid in the car. It pisses me off when I have to pump gas, then take the kid out just to go pay for the gas. This particular gas station did not have "Pay at the Pump", and I knew this driving up, so I did the unthinkable. I pulled up to the closest pump to the front door, filled the tank, locked the doors and left the kid in the car.

I was in a rush. Bad, I know.. but I swear, I only took my eyes off of her for like two seconds while I punched my pin into the debit pad.

But wait.. I didn't just go straight into the store. I found a treasure on the way in... I found a wallet. A wallet with at LEAST $100 in it, if not more. (In Canada, our bills are all different colours, and the $20's are the only ones that are green, and in this wallet was a whole lot of green, Canadian sized bills, therefore making me think there was at least $100, if not $200.)
Without hesitation, I handed the wallet over to the clerk (with whom I am familiar with) and said "Someone dropped their wallet, and there's a LOT of money in it!" He took the wallet from me, and wondered out loud, "Who was just in here who could have dropped it?" He then opened it to look at the ID and said "Oh, HE'LL be back, he's American and he's just about to catch a ferry."

"Ferry?" I say. "I'm on the way to the ferry right now!"

But guess what? That guy wasn't going to either of the ferries I was visiting that day. He was going to the OTHER OTHER ferry.

So, I paid for my gas and was about to leave when the clerk said "I'm glad it was YOU that found his wallet, 'cause if it had been anyone else around here, it would not have been returned!" (He was making the comment in regards to the fact that it was a bad neighbourhood.)

(Yes, I left my kid in the car. In a bad neighbourhood... LET'S MOVE ON!)

My response to him was. "Well, uh.."

And then I got back to Cherry and Annie and drove off to the next ferry.

It wasn't until I had been back in the car that I started to ask myself if I had done the "right thing" by returning that wallet. I mean, I KNOW I did the right thing, and I was proud of myself that my FIRST reaction was the right one, but I started to feel a little silly about returning the cash. I mean, really, I could have USED that money, and it's his OWN fault for losing his wallet! I could have just returned the wallet with all the ID, and kept the cash. I mean, wouldn't that have been the best for my family? These thoughts passed pretty quickly, but ONE thought STILL lingers in my mind:

I should have returned the wallet, with all of the cash, but I should have taken enough out to pay for my gas!

I finally arrived at the other ferry, and there's no Armondo. In fact, there's no ANYBODY! Deserted.

Defeated, I went home. I put Cherry down for a nap, and laid down myself. An hour later, I get up, strap the kid in her car seat again, and we make the trip BACK to ferry number one.

Now, we're on our way to pick up the hubby at the ferry which was SUPPOSED to arrive at 5:15. As I pull into the terminal at 5:17, I see that the ferry hasn't quite made it into the dock, and that I have at least a 15 minute wait until the hubby will have made it off the boat.

As soon as I see him come off the boat, I get out of the car and wave to him. He comes over to the car, and we all have our happy reunion. Then I realize that he doesn't have his bag with him. HE CHECKED HIS BAG. Now, remember how I said that I had switched shifts with someone so that I could have some time with him before running off? Well, that shift that I was now responsible for started at 6pm.

And now we have to wait for his bag to come down the conveyor belt.

Oh, but it's ok. I'm prepared. My work clothes are in a bag in the car.

I then drop Armondo, Cherry, and Annie off at the house and speed off to work before they even get in the front door.

"Nice to see you, happy anniversary, BYE!"

Yeah, remember? It was our second wedding anniversary on Friday. I got to see my husband for a total of seven minutes before I rushed off to work.

Work wasn't all that bad on Friday. We got a bit of a late rush, so I didn't go home completely empty handed. And our dishwasher burned his fingers on a metal soulvaki skewer that had just come off of the burner.

Nick says "Oh, THIS one is the beef one, for sure!"
Grabs the metal ring end of the skewer.
"OH FARRRRRRUUUUUUK!!!"
All of the other servers came running into the kitchen to see what had happened as Nick is running around swearing, and I'm busting a gut laughing almost on the floor!

Nick now has small semi-circle shaped, white blisters on his finger tips.

I think he learned his lesson: Nick does dishes. Nick does not cook.

And then I came home and the hubby and I had awesome "I haven't seen you for a gazzilion days" s3x.

Wow, this post is long. I must end it now. I may write another one tonight.