Why do I even bother to turn on the TV?

In a rare (what is less than rare?) moment, I have Inside Edition on. (Yeah, I know.) They had this woman on, whining about her life. She owned an executive recruitment company that went belly up after September 11th. (Okay, that sucks. I'll concede that.) The Inside Edition "reporter" goes on to talk about how she became depressed and started taking in stray animals into her gigantic mansion with marble floors. (Okay, depression happens, but you're starting to lose me, lady) According to IE, she ended up with a grand total of 120 cats and dogs. The marble and hard wood floors were ruined by animal waste. The place had to be gutted. It got so bad that her husband was, according to IE, literally kicked out of his country club. Their friends turned their backs on the couple. They tragically lost their mansion when it went into foreclosure and sold for $1.2 million (again, according to IE) less than half of the appraised value! Gasp! Even more tragically, they are forced to live in a three bedroom apartment, which IE is pleased to report, is immaculate. IE also reports that about half the animals were adopted, the other half euthanized. You know what? Fuck you, lady, for being more upset about your dear husband being asked to leave his country club that the welfare of your "pets." Fuck you, lady, for being embarrassed about living in an apartment with more room than you need while so many others are on the street. Fuck you, lady, for whining that you "lost everything you built" and not showing any remorse for the rotting animal carcasses in your basement. Fuck you, lady.

Read more here.

The More You Know

Welcome to the first ever Meg On The Bus Public Service Announcement. I feel I need to bring up an important subject here today. Dear Readers, there has been much discussion recently at my new favorite blog, Pulsipher Predelictions, about a very controversial subject. I try to keep out of this blog my very personal thoughts or convictions, however I feel I can no longer remain mute. Folks, I need to speak to you about something near and dear to my heart. Chocolate covered bacon. (You heard me.)

There is no food that cannot be improved by either chocolate or bacon. Am I right? Following that logic, adding bacon to chocolate can only make chocolate yummier. Thus adding chocolate to bacon will only make bacon better too. Chocolate covered bacon is good. Very good. Like any food, the quality of the finished product is a direct result of the sum of its ingredients. People, use the good stuff. Buy the thick cut applewood smoked bacon. Buy a fancy-pants brand of chocolate. Treat yourself. The holidays are coming. (Ho ho ho, y'all.) There seem to be two schools of thought here. It appears most people like to coat a whole piece of bacon in chocolate. Personally, I like to cut the bacon into nice bite size pieces. Truffles, if you will. I have had these delectable bacon morsels lovingly dipped in dark chocolate with just a dusting of grey salt. Several folks, including Mrs. Pulsipher, have topped theirs with crushed almonds. I personally wonder if crushed smoked almonds might be very nice as well.

In stores, one might be inclined to buy a certain hoity-toity brand of chocolate bar with bacon morsels for the low, low sum of $8. ::cough, cough::Vosges::cough, cough:: Do not be fooled. It is not nearly as good as what you are capable of making at home. (Nor will you enjoy the weird after taste of that bar, which will be noticeably absent from the stuff you make) You can do this. You will enjoy this.

Here are a few places to get started:

Kevin's CCB

Yum Sugar's Chocolate Covered Bacon

He's an Iron Chef. I think he knows what tastes good.

And knowing is half the battle.

...and you can go to Helen Hunt for it, part five.

Found: Three Krispy Kreme glazed original donuts

Where: On the sidewalk in front of my apartment building

When: Saturday afternoon, day of Christmas parade

Thank you.

...and you can go to Helen Hunt for it, part four.

I have to wonder how a pair of boxer shorts ends up on the sidewalk on Hillsborough Street. Please, someone, explain to me how you lose your underpants. Presumably, you're wearing pants...so they just can't fall off, right?

Alas, there are things that I am just not destined to understand. Why I must step over a blue plaid pair of boxer shorts on my way to the bus stop every day this week is one of those things.

Ho ho ho, Merry Thanksgiving!

Today I can use three words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence in reference to Raleigh, North Carolina. Especially not before Thanksgiving or in the same week even! Those three words would be "our" "second" and "snow." For reals, peeps. We got a second round of snow/flurries this morning. As always, it was beautiful. I arrived at the bus stop a bit early, which I means I got to enjoy those big, fluffy flakes for about 20 minutes. My bus was late. It was the same jerky driver who is ALWAYS late...remember him? Last time he told me that I should have left earlier. blood pressure rising, moving on! Because he was late again, I missed my second bus. I had to stand outside waiting for the next bus for about 30 minutes. Quick math tells me that was almost an hour. Did I mention it was around 35 degrees this morning? Yeah. I was mighty cold once I finally arrived at the office. This time of the year, I am very thankful to have steam heat in this apartment. It's so toasty warm in here and it's free. Never again will I rent an apartment without radiators.

Tomorrow morning is the 64th Annual Raleigh Christmas Parade. You remember, the one that nearly kept me from being able to move in last year. Yeah, that parade. Since I'm on the first floor, I'll have box seats for the parade which starts right outside my building. I'm having a few friends over to watch the parade. It should be a lot of fun. I'll report back with pictures soon! This area looks weird since there's no parking anywhere near here right now. It's like a ghost town!

The Nearest Book

A college friend posted this on her Facebook page and I thought I'd bring it to y'all!

Here are the rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Don't hunt on a book shelf for something to impress us, but it has to be a real book!
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence and reference the book in the comments.

I'll get y'all started.

"He was free from that spell, that sorcery, that obsession!" Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good ni-iiiight.

Today is Thursday, which means I get picked up by Boyfriend in the morning. This morning, we chatted as usual about the up coming weekend, what's new and exciting in our lives, my current knitting project. He always asks me what I'm working on. Even if I am sitting in the back of the bus, he'll yell back at me. He's funny.

This morning, not so funny. He told me that effective Monday morning, he's moving to the maintenance side of the TTA. He will not be driving the bus anymore, thus, I will not see him anymore. Unless a bus breaks down next summer.



*ahem*

I am a Dork. With a capital D.

There is a guy who lives somewhere in my neighborhood. I see him around sometimes, and he rides the bus. I see him in the evenings usually. Over the past couple months, we have started chatting. I'm not going to lie. He's H-O-T hot. Smart, funny, nice, hot. Oh, and I'm 60-73% sure he's gay. Given my long and sordid history of falling madly in love with gay men...Well, never mind. I'll save that for a good therapist.

Anyway...I haven't seen him in the past couple weeks because of my work schedule. He got on the bus tonight and was about to sit a couple seats in front of me when he saw me, looked happy to see me and proceeded to sit down behind me. He starts talking to me and what happens? I feel like I'm going to vomit and can't think of ANYTHING to say.

I need to have an exorcism of my inner 7th grader. Quick.

Why I love Macy's, or I'm sorry...I saved how much?

In case you haven't checked the weather in Raleigh lately, it's butt ass cold here. Cold enough, in fact, for it to snow today. Yup, peeps, we gots flurries. And, yes, I went running outside each time it started "snowing" today.

It also made me realize I needed a new winter coat. For some reason, I have never had a long black wool dress coat. I am not sure exactly who is responsible for this oversight, however, I am willing to let this go since the situation has been rectified. I have a bunch of cool coats, but they all end at the waist. When it's 28 degrees at the bus stop, I'd like a little more coverage.

I hopped a bus to the mall and hit Macy's. I got there a little after 7 PM and had a hair appointment at 7:45. I've learned a time limit is crucial in this process. There was a lovely girl working in the coat department. I told her I wanted a knee length wool black coat. She kept picking up short coats and asking me, "what about this?" She tried to give me a fuzzy one, but not good fuzzy. Just cheap K-Mart coat fuzzy. I tried on a few coats, one Guess, one Kenneth Cole, one Larry Levine (like, who?). Knowing how much I was planning on spending, I was looking for a good style, a good fit and a designer name. (I'm not going to lie here. The label was as important as the style. But you have to believe I don't usually care about that kind of thing. Much.) I was distracted by the hats. I found a black wool and velvet cloche that I wore home, thankyouverymuch. As I was about to give up, a divine light shone down from the designer heavens on a lovely DKNY coat. The fit was perfect. The style? Definitely that French girl look I love. Oh, but wait, there's more! The price? $295. (Eeeep!) The sale? 50% off. Let's see, I do the math and came up with roughly $150. Okay, I can handle that. Sales Girl rings me up and the coat rings up for...$118. Boo-yow. With the hat, I ended up spending the $150 I had planned on the coat alone. I also made my 7:45 appointment.

I love Macy's because I seem to have a psychic connection to their marketing department. Anything I need, a coat, kitchen stuff, a couple new dress shirts...there ya go! It's on super sale. Always. When I moved in last year, I needed a bunch of new kitchen stuff, colanders, pots and pans, etc. Macy's had the Martha Stewart stuff on sale. With my extra 20% off coupon, it was a mega sale. I think I got a 10 piece pot set, two colanders, a chili pot, and four small cast iron casseroles for less than $200. No really, I did.

I can't wait to wear the coat tomorrow. Now I just need the perfect scarf.

Relieved? Yes. And no.

In the past months that I have been riding the bus, I've missed out on fuel shortages, $4.25 a gallon, and a lot of stress. I have met some really cool people and I have also learned to problem solve, in a way. For example, I am learning that this is the time of the year that makes my neighborhood both a good and bad place to live. What I mean by that is there is tons going on, road races, parades, etc. This also means that the streets are blocked off for the better part of the weekend day and there's no bus service. If I need to go someplace outside walking or biking distance, say Whole Foods, I need to work out where else I can go to get the same thing or how else I can get there. I have to say the past many months sans auto have been, well, fun.

I had to get work done on my car. It's not the only reason why I've been riding the bus, but it was certainly a big factor. My car was just sitting. I was okay with that. I took it to Whitewall Auto here in town on the recommendation of a friend. They were great, honest, they fixed my car in a day because they had all the parts either on hand or easily accessible and charged me about half what I was expecting. They also let me pay over the phone and left the keys for me. They trust me, ergo I trust them. If you find yourself in the area and in need of service, I whole-heartedly suggest you go see them. Finding a good mechanic is possibly higher on my list than finding a good hairdresser and probably equal to finding a good gynecologist. (Who's with me on this?)

On my way home from work, I called that friend to thank her for the recommendation. She said, "that must be a big relief for you." My reaction...meh. I mean, yes, it's a relief I found a good mechanic, they were reasonably priced and super fast. Yes, she's right. But at the same time, I wish I didn't have a car. Yes, it's convenient to have a car if I need to run to the drug store at 10:30 on a rainy night. I am hoping it will not become too convenient. Between my apartment and this friend's new house lies a huge hill. It's a bitch to bike up. It will be nice to drive over. I don't want to get back in the habit of "running quickly" to the market. I hope that I continue on this path I am currently on. Certainly, I will take the bus to work. Traffic around here during evening rush hour in particular is a Nightmare. I will do my best to not drive. When I moved into my apartment, I decided to allow myself to drive once a week. I am now amending my decision to next to never.

To be honest here, I also have a small anxiety about driving. Since owning a car, two actually, over the past 15 years, I have had 9 accidents. Before you freak out, let me finish... None of these accidents were my fault. In most of them, I wasn't even moving. My anxiety about driving? I'm tired of being hit. Wouldn't you be?