Tuesday morning seemed to start off with a family-wide case of the clumsys. Coming downstairs in the morning, one of the kids dropped their water bottles on the hard wood floor, which created enough of a noise to set off the glass shatter sensor in our security system, which triggered the alarm and made a MUCH louder noise. Nothing like screeching alarm klaxons to get your day off on the right start.
I think there were at least three other loud and notable drops of water bottles and other items throughout the morning. I was having a foggy morning as it was, with some difficulty focusing, and it turns out that lots of abrupt, sharp and sudden surprise noises don’t do a lot to help establish one’s sense of chill.
When it came to be time to make the kids’ lunch, I got in on the action, too. Looking for something in the refrigerator, I managed to knock a small glass storage container, causing yet another auditory shock to the system, with the added bonus of a wide scatter of broken glass.
Oh well. No use crying over spilled glass, I figured. I tried to just take a breath and keep moving on with the day. The kids were in a particularly hyper mood, and while I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning them out while working, it was a tad difficult to tune out the cacophony at times.
Somewhere along the way it hit me that it was Cinco de Mayo. Ah, tacos and a margarita. That would do the trick. The thought of those things was the carrot that propelled me through the rest of the day. It turned out Erin was also thinking tacos, so our plan was set. We had been meaning to get take out from a place near us, and now was the perfect time to give it a whirl.
We began the taco-acquisition process around 5pm. After looking at a menu and deciding what we wanted, we called. We kept getting recorded message saying the recipient was busy. OK, we opted to try another local restaurant. Same thing. Our phones were acting funny, so around 5:30 I suspected we were experiencing some kind of network problems, so I had the bright idea of getting in the car and trying to move around and place the call somewhere else.
Still no luck. I got a few miles away from home and still couldn’t get my phone to ring through anywhere. I tried calling Erin and boom. Got right through. OK, maybe it wasn’t the network.
I suppose it should have occurred to us that we were not the only ones with the idea of getting tacos on Cinco de Mayo. We expected places to be busy, but had no idea what we were in for.
By 5:45, I drove over to one of the local places to see about making an order in person, and there was literally a line around the block. Earlier, Erin had actually gotten through to one place that was further away, but we found out they had a limited menu and had to look that up to make an order. We talked on the phone and decided I’d call them and order and drive over.
I called a little before 6. They answered and asked me to hold a moment. After 10 minutes on hold, I used my work phone to call Erin. She got online and tried to order DoorDash through that place. It was looking good and then boom…no delivery windows available.
After 20 minutes on hold with no apparent end in sight, we finally punted and decided we would just get Chipotle. It was getting close to 6:30 and we were all starving. Using the app, Erin was able to make a delivery order, with delivery set for 7:05. All right. Beggars can’t be choosers, at least it’s tacos. I headed back home.
Erin and I did sit out and enjoy a margarita while waiting for the delivery. 7:05 came and went. The app just kept saying the driver was on the way to the restaurant. Around 7:20 the driver just disappeared, and it looked like we got assigned a new driver. I began to wonder if we needed to place a pick up order instead.
We called customer service and around 7:30 they told us the driver was at the restaurant. For another 10 minutes, the app told us the driver was on the way to the restaurant. Erin called the driver, and he told us he was at the restaurant. We figured OK, just a few more minutes. Around 7:45, it said the driver was on his way. Six minutes away.
It was like the Seinfeld episode in the Chinese restaurant. Every time we checked, he was 6 minutes away. It eventually changed to 2 minutes. It stayed at 2 minutes for around 10 minutes.
Sometime around 8:15, a car finally pulled up. The kids, half on the edge of starvation according to them, were beyond excited. They were waiting at the window The food had at last arrived.
So what began at 5pm as a strong craving for authentic Mexican tacos ended well over three hours later with Herculean effort being applied to acquire…Chipotle.
This is a bit like having your reservation at Nobu fall through and instead of fine sushi, you grab a Filet O Fish at McDonald’s. Nothing wrong with a Filet O Fish, per se, but not exactly what you set out for.
But hey, first world problems. We ate our cold dinners with lots of joking around and laughs and had a really nice time. The kids were thrilled to finally eat, and frankly so was I. It was another moment in this pandemic that reminded me how much we have for so long taken for granted that what we want is easily accessible and available. As we’ve discovered a few times already (hello, toilet paper shortages), that is not always the case. Hopefully, whenever we get through all of this, we’ll all take things a little less for granted.
And next Cinco de Mayo, maybe I’ll put myself in the mood for Chinese food instead.
