Driving Habits

I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never really made it a habit of driving around unneccessarily because of wear and tear on my car and gas prices. Even though prices have gone down, I’m still hesitat to waste instead of spend excess money that could have stayed in my account for the holiday season.

So let’s go back to yesterday when I left my complex and hopped into my car right out front outside of the door. I drove to her house and she asked if she had put anything in my trunk when she had moved. I said no, but she wanted me to check anyway. So I went outside went to the back of my car. Imagine my shock when I saw that my entire taillight was shattered in and half my trunk was caved inward, from the taillight to the lock in the middle. I didn’t know what to think so I stood there for a minute. I got back into my car and when my sister came out, I told her someone hit my back end and asked if she could stand back there while I hit my breaks to find out if the light worked. Fortunately, it did in forward and reverse.

We continued the rest of the day shopping and I eventually dropped her off. When I got home, I pulled into the same parking spot I was in before. Everywhere on the ground were smashed pieces of my tail light, and even parts of the actual name of my car that used to lay neatly in the middle underneath everything. I started taking my bags upstairs and then grabbed my camera. I don’t know why, and I don’t know what purpose it even serves. But I took pictures of the damage. The pictures will probably be useless because it was so dark when I took them. I have PLPD car insurance, so in the case of an accident it would only cover the person who I hit. It isn’t the apartment complex’s responsibility for every dinged car in their lot. This leaves me to foot the bill. Then I noticed the person directly across from me parked under the protective pay areas was also smashed. And their car was smashed right into a pole. I was running around like a nut trying to take pictures of everything. My neighbors whom I’ve never met approached me when I had my back to them and I heard them say, “Are you the owner of the Bonneville?”

“Yes,” I replied, without even looking towards them while I continued taking pictures.

“We know who did it….”, they said.

My ears perked up. I turned and said, “Who??”

The guy replied, “Well, we don’t KNOW who, but we saw it happen. It was a white Silverado, and he was cruising wildly through the parking lot and swerved right into your car and hit the back end. He didn’t even sit to see what he had done, he just cruised right off. We didn’t think it was right, so this was probably 3 am. We got clothes on and went cruising the parking lots for about half an hour looking for him, but we couldn’t find anyone.”

And this moment when he was speaking I felt a lot of sympathy and anger. The whole time I was pretty much hating on humanity. I try to do nice things for people. That day when I was at Joann Fabrics, I found 5 bucks on the floor. I very well could have said it was mine because I had just returned something and got 5 bucks back, but I checked my pocket and still had my own. I turned it in to the cashier instead. I make effort to be good to others and make sure someone is looking out for them. Taking things personally is a specialty of mine so of course in my mind I did the traditional WHYYYYY MEEEEE to God. Karma is supposed to work so then I began pondering what the hell I possibly did. My boyfriend said not to blame it on myself because I didn’t actually DO anything, and at least I learned my neighbors were good people, which is true! And fortunately, my car still runs like a gem and I also work at a technical center that can hammer out the details of my car pretty decently to make it look semi-okay. But I guess in general my blood boils thinking about people who are okay with their own actions when it comes to mistakes.

So humanity? I don’t hate you anymore and I’m still gonna help out, but I’m pretty p.o.’ed right now. But I figure with people like him, the world NEEDS a little extra good will and help because they sure as hell aren’t getting it from him.

PS: PLPD car insurance sucks just for reasons like this.

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Moving Pains

I agreed to help my sister move, and that’s exactly how I spent my day yesterday. Unfortunately some of the big muscle that was supposed to help had to “call in” due to an unavoidable emergency situation. This left my sister (with a bad back), her boyfriend (who recently had gallbladder surgery and who hates exercising), my parents who can’t lift a dang thing because they are old, and then my friend Maine and I. Maine was asked to participate because he is an aspiring body builder and has the muscle they needed.

We began moving her out by loading everything into my dad’s GIANT trailer. If you’re looking for a size comparison, it’s probably the size of a U-Haul. If she lived on the first floor, the move probably would have gone a lot more smoothly. But my dear and loving sister lived on the third floor, which made for some interesting trips with the larger and heavier items. Because Maine and I were the only functioning bodies, we were the ones stuck with the task of hauling the heaviest things.

Just to put things in perspective I am a female who hasn’t exercised since I moved back in July. (I can’t afford a gym membership and walking around my apartment complex just isn’t cutting it for me.) Maine is 6′, extremely muscular, and probably weighs somewhere around 250 pounds. I am 5’5″, not muscular at all, and weigh far, far less. So here we are, a muscular man and a noodle-y armed woman hauling things downstairs like couches, mattresses, dressers, bookcases, and various other heavy-duty items. Everyone kept saying, “Are you okay? Don’t hurt yourself…”, but no one actually volunteered to take my place. If I hadn’t helped, Maine would have done it himself and probably hurt his back.

Fortunately she was moving into a first floor, ground level apartment. Unfortunately it was a 2 story one and her bedroom was upstairs. So anything going in the bedroom had to be hauled back up into a narrow staircase and into a hallway that mimicked it. Then twisted around a tight corner into a small bedroom.

By the end of the day I hurt a little bit, but I felt very refreshed from the exercise. That night I went grocery shopping and had to haul bags up into my own third floor apartment. That probably didn’t help things because I woke up this morning with a backache that could rival someone who threw theirs out. The night before after all was said and done, I soaked in a hot bath and laid on my heating pad. My mattress is kind of wimpy though so it didn’t help my back at all. So this morning I am laying here like a wounded animal. I made some hot coffee and took 800 mg of ibuprofen.

Now my boyfriend is a peach, he really is. He’s always looking out for me and trying to make sure I don’t do the stupid things that I do. But he’s also in another state at the moment and didn’t know what I was getting myself into. When I told him what happened he was furious. Not at me per-say, but at the situation that had occurred where I somehow was deemed one of the heavy lifters. He probably went on 3 separate tangents last night at various times, raging about how it was ridiculous that not only did I do what I did, but no one stopped me. I thought about this but decided I was okay with it. Moving isn’t awesome or fun or easy on your body. It’s meant to be the most annoying procedure of your life (or at least one of). I can’t have the others doing it because of the conditions of their bodies. Mine can actually handle it. And with a day’s rest, I’m good to go. And everyone did make an honest-to-goodness effort. Everyone did as much of their part as they could. Except for my lazy, good-for-nothing brother who said he was coming but didn’t show up until THE EXACT MOMENT we were done moving her from one apartment to the other. Literally. I’m fairly certain he planned it that way. And he could have been my substitute muscle.

But anywhozits, I recommend anyone who plans on moving heavy stuff for someone else have a back brace, gloves, and icy hot and medicine for when they get home again. And don’t think you’re gonna go home and want to make dinner either. Make a hot pocket or something. Go on, you earned it.

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Chicken Tonight, How I Miss Thee…

My mom went from having a garden and growing all of our vegetable and fruit type food to cooking jazzy sauces in jars. She found this little scrumptious bit called Chicken Tonight. I’m sure you all remember the commercials. People dancing around with their arms flapping singing about having ‘Chicken Tonight’. I was embarrassed for them. Anyway, I loved eating it. And of course, as per usual, anything I find that smells good, tastes good, fits me, etc always discontinues. So naturally Chicken Tonight discontinued in the U.S.

I’ve been scouring around looking for hints of what the side of the jar says is inside so I can try to recreate it. I tried to on my own and let me tell you, it just did NOT do Chicken Tonight any sort of justice whatsoever.

I did happen to stumble across a forum, however, where people were discussing how much they missed it. And then magically a woman appeared out of the heavens and into the forum saying she had mastered what she thought tasted very much like the recipe.

So I present to you 2 solutions these heavensent women posted in regards to Chicken Tonight!

Recipe one:

SAVORY DILL CHICKEN
Source: Knorr

2 Tbsp. Bertolli ® Olive Oil
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1-1/2 lbs.)
1 cup water
1 package Knorr ® Vegetable recipe mix
1/4 tsp. dried dill weed
1/2 cup sour cream

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and brown chicken, turning once, until almost thoroughly cooked, about 6 minutes.

Stir in water, Knorr ® Vegetable recipe mix and dill. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered, stirring sauce occasionally, until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a serving platter and keep warm.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in sour cream. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Recipe 2 (the closer one):

COUNTRY FRENCH CHICKEN SAUCE

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Cream of Celery Soup
1 package Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix
1-1 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed (to taste)
2 cups milk
1/2 cup Dry Vermouth or dry white wine
1/2 cup shredded carrots (optional)
6 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Pepper & Salt (optional)

Combine first seven ingredients in a saucepan and simmer until carrots are soft or sauce is heated through.

Season chicken breasts with pepper and salt (optional) and brown lightly in oil.

Pour sauce over chicken breasts, cover and simmer on low until chicken is cooked through. Serve with noodles, rice, potatoes – as you did with the Chicken Tonight!

 

I haven’t made the first one, but I made the second and it was scrumptious! I did end up thickening it though with wee bits of flour stirred in very small amounts very slowly so as not to get chunky. I did not add the carrots as she recommended. I also cut the chicken into bite sized bits and browned those with oil and then added them to the sauce and cooked it all together. I cooked some rice, let it get firm, and then added the sauce on top!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 🙂

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