"Why not?"

 I was standing by the lockers, in the back, about to clock out.  Another employee who used to work in my department, was working in her locker, which is above mine.  I had my phone in my hand about to clock out.  It rang, it was the boss.  She interrogated me about the work I did and begrudgingly "let me go".  I hung up to see the other woman watching me, with a sympathetic smile.  

"I couldn't wait to get away from her" she said.  

It made me realize it's not me, she's like that to everyone.  So I left.  

I saw Buddy.  I said "Hello, It's good to see you again." got on the bus, put the candy in his hand "Spicy candy" and sat down.  He told me about the spicy candy weeks ago.  

I forget if he asked where I was yesterday, I think he did.  I told him I went out to dinner with a work friend "She wasn't very impressed" I said "Until they put the enchilada plate in front of her.  Now she wants to go back."  

Buddy and I both frequent the restaurant.  He told me about it as his favorite place even though he lives half an hour away.  Then I told him yes, Ron and I had been going there over a decade.  

I was pleased how I did that; I told him I went to dinner with a female friend without making a big deal out of sharing that.  I don't believe in playing games with men.  Flirting - yes.  I can't really flirt with a bus load of crazy people.  But I can say I'm happy to see him, and mean it, and hopefully he picks that up. 

But I'm not going to try to make someone jealous even assuming he cares enough to feel that way.   

We chatted a little and then we picked up a group of homeless people, their rolling wagon, and two pit bulls.  That put an end to conversation for the night as the group rode to the end of the line.  

The next bus was a lot quieter.  My friendly young gay driver was back.  I love him to bits.  He's very real.  

I mentioned I was making spaghetti to Buddy and he asked what I was going to put in it.  He's the one made me realize I'm more an "intuitive" cook vs a standard one.  I told him I had 3 kinds of sausage but thought it was a little crazy to put all of it in the spaghetti.  "Why not?" he asked.  

And that is a very good question.  I think I will.  

I want to make beef, barley, vegetable soup.  I can't do that from scratch especially considering I have raw soup bones that need an overnight simmer.  I don't have enough beef stock or any barley, either - good thing I work at a Walmart.  So I got the garlic prepped - I hate peeling garlic but I like the fresh whole clove.  And my hands are good enough I can.  So I peeled 4 cloves, one giant clove will be minced and go into the soup - that's in the fridge in a baggie.  3 cloves went in the crock pot on and between the soup bones (I had 2 beef shanks), seasoned the stock, got the red wine in there with the stock and some seasoning blend.  That's a variety of frozen chopped vegetables, primarily onion, garlic, and pepper.  It is very popular in Creole cooking and every grocery store here carries it.  I try to always have some in my freezer.  So I just did seasoning blend, whole garlic cloves, pepper, and I forgot the salt.  BRB.  

I'm glad I remembered that tonight when it's just starting.  It is impossible to play catch-up with salt if you miss putting it in at the start.  So I got the beef stock started and the garlic peeled for the soup tomorrow.  That saves me time because my hands can tremor from one minute to the next, who knows what they'll be doing tomorrow night?  

Then I had to cook the Italian Sausage.  I got 5 nice links.  Normally if I'm at home doing a cook day I eat one link when I am done cooking it and put the other 4 in the spaghetti.  I got them going in the skillet, I was advised to cook them on low heat so that takes a long time, at least the way I do it.  I got them cooked.  

I have a stock pot but it's only big enough to do 1 pound of rotini pasta at a time, so I did 2 batches.  I put salt and Italian seasoning (1 t) in the water because I feel it gives the pasta a nice base flavor on it's own and it makes the house smell nice.  So I did that, now I have 8 containers of pasta.  

Tomorrow I need to cook the other sausage, then do the sauce.  I will do the sauce by itself, then mix it with the meats and pasta.  

I will also do meal prep for the soup, I need to chop some veggies and I don't know how long that will take or what my energy level will be.  Best case I finish the soup.  Worst case I do enough prep work I can finish it Friday.  Thursday is a long day I pretty much come home and pass out those nights.  

Oh and the extra cooked link will be lunch tomorrow.  Happily I had one hot dog bun left in the fridge.  That will be delicious, a nice plump Italian Sausage for my lunch.  

So that's spaghetti, and veggie soup.  That's a very good start.  The beef shanks have a lot of meat so I may be able to use half in the soup and make a couple meals out of the other half somehow.  

I can pick up the broth and barley before work tomorrow.  I like to just run away when I clock out.  (grin).  And that's easy to get home on the bus.  

That's it for now!