the dinner that wasn't.

Let me tell you about my AWESOME Friday night last night . . .

So, those of you who have worked or know someone who has worked child care, you know that kids NEVER go home early, especially on Fridays. (Families are usually busy trying to squeeze in one last errand before the weekend, etc., at least in my experience.) You can imagine my surprise when, last night, my last kid was picked up at 5:15 pm! (We close at 6:00.) I spent some time cleaning and tidying in my classroom, doing silly things like pulling staples out of the walls and rotating the children's artwork, and checked my work email TWICE IN ONE DAY! (Whoa!)

I packed up and headed out the door at my usual time, and walked down to my bus stop. I waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, my bus showed up at almost 6:20 PM, WAY too late to make my connection to the express bus from St. Paul to Minneapolis. DRAT! Fortunately, I thought, I had figured out a plan the last time this happened -- I hopped off my usual bus with the intent of grabbing a slower, but direct "high frequency" bus that connects St. Paul and Minneapolis.

And then I waited some more. Over fifteen minutes later, a #16 FINALLY showed up, and I hopped on -- only to find the bus jam-packed, and I had to force half a buttcheek on a seat next to a very large man who was at least reading a book (not drunk and passed out, which is usually the only half-buttcheek seat left.) As the 16 crawled towards Minneapolis, I started getting REALLY cranky -- and by the time I got home, I was livid! My typical 1-hour commute took nearly TWO hours. And there was no snow or any logical reason for the busses being so unpredictable! BLAH.

I had every intention of arriving home last night, relaxing over a short yoga practice, and fixing Dan and I some gnocchi, leftover homemade sauce, and green salads for dinner, and maybe settling into a movie after a while. Not so much . . . since I didn't get home until almost 8:00 I was crabby, hungry, tired, and did I mention crabby?

Dan kindly offered to take me out to dinner to cheer me up. :) After murdering a veggie burger and waffle fries at the Uptown Diner, I felt much better. Whew!

Today was a little different, thank goodness, and I did manage to finally make that gnocchi!


AND, I had the pleasure of stopping into a little bakery and coffee shop this morning, (appropriately called "Cupcake,") and picked up a couple of treats for Dan and myself:

Pumpkin Spice cupcake for me, Lemon Merengue cupcake for Dan! Yay cupcakes!