I want fries

It’s 5:52 am. I’m up in the bleachers at the cavernous aquatic center, café Americano in a paper cup by my side. The white noise of the kick-splash from the swim team, the echo of the coach’s instructions from the pool deck, and the muffled beat of pop music (much better for afternoon than early morning) makes me drowsy despite the white bright light.

I didn’t swim today. I’ve got too much work to do. I signed up for a really cool project where I get to work closely with Tumblr support (the company I work for recently acquired Tumblr) to help transition a part of their operations. It’s exciting to dig in and learn the nuts and bolts of another support organization, get to know a whole new team of people, and welcome them to Automattic.

It’s also a lot of newness and thinking and figuring things out, and my brain is asking if the week is over yet. Today I can finally say, almost there, brain.

Yesterday at the end of my work day, after rushing out the door to pick our daughter up after swimming, when I returned home all I could do was lay on the couch with my eyes closed. I heard my stomach gurgle. My husband clear his throat in another room. The click click click of our son’s mouse and the murmur of his voice as he played video games online with his friends. When my brain could finally form a thought, it thought, Tomorrow is Friday! I can finally get my French fries!

Friday is take-out night at our house. Take-out night has evolved over the years. It used to be we’d alternate pizza and Five Guys from week to week. If given the choice between Five Guys and pizza, though, our son would almost always choose Five Guys. Except Five Guys didn’t really have anything our daughter likes, so we added a Zaxby’s stop. Then my husband and I got tired of the gross greasiness of Five Guys, and we added a stop to a Mediterranean place, Mezeh. Then our son decided he liked Mezeh.

Which leads me to why I am particularly excited about this Friday. Today. Last week, our daughter was out of town for a swim meet on Friday. I for sure thought we’d be getting Five Guys, since it’s our son’s favorite, and I was SUPER excited about French fries. But when I asked him what he wanted for take-out, my eyes gleaming for salty greasy Five Guys fries, he said, “Mezeh.” 😭It was pouring rain, and I was absolutely not going two different places. So I got a Mediterranean bowl that was exactly like the meal I’d been eating at home for lunch and dinner the previous three days. Lettuce and chick peas and hummus decidedly did not satisfy my Five Guys fries with Zax sauce craving.

Today, after this week, and in the state my brain is in, I don’t care what everyone else wants for take-out, or how many stops it takes to get everyone what they want. I have not stopped thinking about these damn French fries since Wednesday, and I’m getting them tonight.