So I admit, I did skip a couple days of completing my to-do’s after work BUT for good reason. Day 3 (Wednesday) was date night, so I got to spend a whole night of TLC after work with my firefighter.

Day 4 was spent sitting my sister’s cats in LA, so I had to go home, pack for the night, eat dinner, clean the apartment a bit, and then make the 1-hour drive to LA. By the time I got to my sister’s, it was about 8:30 P.M. After I got everything in order with the cats, I pretty much went straight to bed. Things were a bit tense due to some conflict in an interpersonal relationship so I had neither the energy nor the motivation to complete my night-time routine.

Day 5 was spent back on track. I went through some of the clothes my sister was going to donate and tried a few things on before work. I ended up wearing a very cute brown jumpsuit to work, credits to her. I skipped breakfast that morning because I didn’t want to spend money. I ate some snacks and a cup of yogurt in the morning to get me through until lunch. I’ve been trying not to spend money considering my rent is increasing and I have been pushing off my medical care due to costs for a while now. Gas is also expensive.

Day 6, I got back on track and completed quite an exhaustive list of errands, mostly because they were fairly time-consuming and required me to be out of the house for a majority of the day. My morning was spent taking my car to get its scheduled maintenance. My car has endured 50K miles within four years. Unfortunately I picked a really busy day and my car was estimated to take 5 hours to service. I waited at Honda for approximately two hours before I asked for Honda to drop me off at home. I had to give Oreo his last dose of gabapentin to sedate him before the vet. Since I waited a bit too long at Honda, I had to push the vet back to 2 PM. It was originally scheduled for 12, but I needed to give gabapentin two hours before his appointment and at this point, it was already 11:30. Got home, reluctantly gave Oreo his gabapentin, and my car was ready at about 1:10 PM. I took an Uber for the first time forever to get back to Honda since the shuttle would’ve take longer. I didn’t get murdered or kidnapped, so that’s a plus. Hightailed it back home to pick up Oreo and head to the vet. I enjoy going to the vet since that’s where I used to work so it’s nice to see old coworkers again. Oreo was not a monster at the vet this time around so maybe he’s getting better at not being aggressive at the vet. After the vet, I threw a load of laundry in, yay me for being productive. Went to get my hair cut. I went for a layered shoulder length cut. My hairstylist, Kate, always does amazing work on my hair. She previously dyed my hair; I did a gray bayalage and silver bayalage before. She always brings my hair back to life. I was actually a little disappointed with the cut she did this time around because I wanted a more choppy, layered look, but she only gave me two layers and when I asked for shorter, she didn’t go much shorter. But I could have pushed more for what I wanted and liked. It looks great curled and I can see the layers more prominently now and she only charged me $30, so it’s not a complete loss. After my haircut, I decided to make the two hour drive to visit my firefighter at his station and bring him & his crew mochi donuts and boba. It was his crew’s first time try either treat so I was really happy I brought it for them. It was a two hour drive to his station, but honestly, I love driving. I love getting away from the city, to the desolate and quiet. It’s very meditative to me. Frequently in college when I was going through my roughest times, I would drive in the middle of the night to a beach or a view, and just sit there in my car. It was my quiet place, my happy place; to be away from everyone and everything, in the peace and quiet in the world. The drive back was a bit taxing as I didn’t get home until 12:30 AM, but mostly because the drive in the city felt so long. The desert portion, the quiet, of the drive felt so short. Getting back into the city was disappointing. The bright lights, the noise, the crowdedness.

P.S. There is a new Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz documentary on Amazon Prime Video and I love it. SO much better than “Being the Ricardos” which was a huge disappointment to me. “Lucy & Desi” has actual clips never seen before (at least to me), actual audio recordings of Lucille & Desi, actual home videos they created, and actual moments from their real lives. When “Being the Ricardos” first came out, I was so excited that there was a new feature about the most amazing couple in television history, only to be disappointed by a reenactment and drama, rather than a documentary. I have very strong feelings about “I Love Lucy” and the impact it has made on television history, paving the way for representation for Latinos, paving the way for women in television and comedy, even simply paving the way for the way television was filmed & aired (first show to use a three-camera production). And I absolutely hated the reenactment. They deserve the respect of real moments from their lives, proper tributes. Not a drama reenactment. No matter how accurate “Being the Ricardos” might have been about their relationship, that was only a fraction of their history and impact. They should be remembered for their accomplishments, not the struggles they had in their marriage.