i slept well last night, even though normally i get nervous before any trip and get a case of insomnia. maybe it's because it wasn't me who was traveling, but rather my parents, i imagine they probably didn't sleep well. my job today - besides working at the cafe - would be to drive them to logan airport in the afternoon so they can catch their 6pm lufthansa flight to frankfurt, germany.
i left for the cafe by 10:30am. even though they said they wouldn't come, i was surprised to find my parents actually weren't at the cafe this morning. it was just my sister, who opened up the store. my 2nd aunt showed up a bit later, followed by my sister's godmother. my sister was still doing her catered meals even though i tried talking her out of it, though scaled down this time so there was a million different dishes to prepare.
around noontime an intense patch of storm passed through the cambridge area, and i hurriedly moved all the seats and tables back inside so they wouldn't get soaked. it got a little crazy during the lunchtime period, so many different orders were coming in (walk-in, phone, online), my sister couldn't coordinate them all, and blamed us for missing orders. once the lunch rush was over though, things settled back down.
the health inspector showed up today for his re-inspection. he pointed his flashlight at a few dark corners and said we were okay. he was supposed to come back 2 weeks ago but hadn't yet. in the meantime my mother was very anxious, not knowing when he'd just suddenly show up.
my parents finally showed up around 2:30pm. my father was having issues connecting his tablet to the google fi wifi hotspot. sure enough for some strange reason, no matter what i did, the tablet kept popping up an authentication error. all our other devices connected to the google fi hotspot without problems. finally we gave up, my father said he could just use the tablet with the hotel wifi, and he still had his pixel 6, which had full mobile data. we finally left around 2:50pm.
my father drove to the airport, i'd drive the car back. my mother was talking to me but i wasn't paying, while i tried again to see if i could solve the tablet hotspot authentication issue. of course that meant i ended up getting motion sick in the back seat, and felt nauseous throughout the rest of the ride. the hotspot issue still wasn't fixed. we arrived at logan airport by 3:15pm.
i thought driving back would cure me of the motion sickness, but i still had a headache. even with the windows opened and the radio turned on, i still felt sick. the traffic getting onto storrow drive then later fresh pond parkway didn't help either. plus i hadn't eaten all day, so i was also hungry. when i finally made it back to the cafe by 3:45pm, i found some candy to suck on to make me feel better. i had some leftover squid nugget soup my sister had made, which helped a little, but over time the motion sickness eventually wore off.
i kept track of my parents' location at the airport via google map tracking. i called them when i got back to the cafe, they'd already went through security and were waiting at the gate, having had a meat bun and some kung pao chicken from one of the airport fast food places. when their flight finally left at 6:20pm, i followed their progress with the flight tracker as well as the airport traffic tower broadcast.
my sister's godmother said i could go home since she and my 2nd aunt were at the cafe, but i told her i didn't mind staying. so she ended up leaving first, catching a bus back to central square. the final hours at the cafe is typically a slow time anyway.
i was there to close the cafe at 6:30pm. normally i close on saturdays, which is different than closing on the weekdays. for one thing, a lot of things can still in the fridge instead of the freezer since they can be resold the next day. i finally left around 6:45pm, my 2nd aunt still a bit longer to help my sister clean up.
i left my bike locked to a signpost by the cafe while i drove the car back to my place. i needed the car to bring some things to belmont, like a shovel for digging out the bamboo moat this weekend. there was no parking spots on my street, other than the spots on the private way that some neighbors converted to private parking spaces. i ended up having to park two blocks away.
i brought home a quiche my sister had made last week. she was going to throw it out because it'd just been refrigerated instead of frozen, and she said it was probably bad, but i'm the master of rescuing expired foods. i also brought home an onigiri my sister had made using my triangle onigiri mold. i ate them as soon as i got home, i guess i was still hungry from not eating too much today. i warmed up the quiche in the toaster oven. it was okay, but too bland for my taste, and the crust was sweet, not salty, like my sister accidentally used dessert crust. the onigiri was mostly rice, my sister packed it with shredded chicken, which is not a traditional japanese rice ball ingredient.
tonight was a very important game 2 between the 76ers and the celtics. having lost game 1, celtics needed to win tonight. they led by 8 points going into halftime, but in the 3rd quarter boston exploded with offensive, scoring 35-16. philly couldn't recover after that, the final score was 121-87. joel embiid returned after he was out with an injury last game. ironically, 76er's offensive isn't as dominant with embiid back in the lineup, and harden was virtually a no-show with just 12 points. jayson tatum underperformed, with just 7 points, and sat out for much of the second half after the celtics got a commanding lead. jaylen brown was more aggressive, must've gotten the memo from the game 1 lost, all his baskets seemed to be scored in the paint, finishing with 25 points. al horford had an off night as well, with just 5 points. they finally let payton pritchard play, he ended up with 8 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists. game 3 is this friday.