Adios, Focus

Today was a pretty frantic day.  I was all over town trying to help Jacob drop his car off at the dealership for service, then bring him home for lunch, then go to the bank, then drop off my rental, then pick up my car, then get Jacob from work, then go get his car.  It felt like I spent the entire day in my car, but that's okay, because I'm finally reunited with Princess!  It feel so good having the Camry back.  When I dropped the rental off at the dealership I got it from, I had arranged for them to take me back to the car repair place.  The teenage kid who got picked to drive me up there was a sweet kid, but pretty awkward.  He seemed very confused by the whole rental process "So they just let you rent this for like a week?  How come?"  Has he never heard of the rental car business?  When I told him I needed a rental because my car was in the shop for awhile, he was asking me about the accident.  I told him what happened and he said "Lemme guess.  Out of Stater?"  I said yes, but then I said "well I can't talk because I'm from out of state, too."  The look on his face was like"Ohhhhhhh that makes sense."  He asked where I was from, and when I said Houston, he had the exact same look on his face as before, so I'm pretty sure his opinion of me was dropping further into the toilet.  He made a few comments about how much the town had changed over the past five years (keep in mind this kid is like 17, max), and when I asked if he was originally from Dickinson, he said yes.  I asked if he didn't like living here as much now since it was different, and he said "It's just...different.  There's SO much traffic."  HANG ON.  You're gonna tell someone from HOUSTON that your town that has a radius of FOUR MILES has too much traffic?!  THERE'S LESS THAN 10 STOPLIGHTS IN THE ENTIRE TOWN.  Also, you've only been driving for like A YEAR, so I'm pretty sure you haven't noticed an increase in traffic since you were TWELVE.  Then he goes on to say that people now just don't know the roads and don't know how to drive.  Well, pardon me, young friend, but that may have something to do with how terribly these roads are planned out.  Most cities don't allow a four way intersection to have NO STOP SIGN OR STOPLIGHT and just rely on the thinking WHOEVER GETS THERE FIRST GETS TO GO.  Seriously, this kid was funny and annoying at the same time.  Then he says, "and there's just been so much crime."  Since I don't care about the news, local or otherwise, I said "oh, has there been a lot?"  And he says "Oh yeah!  Like a lot of burglaries....and rapes."  Oh boy.  Then he said "did you hear about the 83 year old?"  This story, I did actually know about.  An 83 year old woman was raped here last week by a 20-something year old man.  It's disgusting and it's scary and it's repulsive, but honestly, there are psychos and creeps in every town.  I don't need some high school kid talking to me about all the rapes happening.  Thankfully we pulled into the car shop about this time, so we got to end the ride on that lovely note.  I'm never surprised when I have such an awkward encounter with a local, I'm just....left wishing I didn't know English.

Today I got really (overly) frustrated when my phone wouldn't work.  I needed to go get Jacob from work to take him to pick up his car, but my phone wouldn't get any signal to call him to say I was on my way.  I've never been inside his office, so when I pick him up, he usually just comes out when I call.  I was getting so irritated that I couldn't get signal, so I turned my phone off and back on to try to get it back to normal.  Unfortunately this had the opposite effect that I wanted and the phone totally busted.  It reset itself to midnight of 1/1/2010, and still wouldn't get a signal.  After several minutes of frustration, I threw the phone down on the carpet in protest of it's stupidity.  What I did NOT anticipate was the strength in my rage that caused the phone to bounce 5 feet off the carpet, hit the tile, bust open, and the battery slid all the way underneath my refrigerator.  Advantage: Universe.  After a minute of realizing my adult sized hands wouldn't fit underneath, I was grabbing every large piece of paper or cardboard I could find.  Finally, with the help of my ASPCA calendar (SAVE AN ANIMAL!), I was able to fling the battery straight into my peering face.  BUT, I was able to get it, put my phone back together, and head out to get Jacob.  My phone never figured out the date or the time, but I was able to get signal a little while later, so I guess that's a start.

Tonight for dinner, I tried a new recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice. I was VERY hesitant with how it would turn out (the smell of vinegar and sesame oil was a bit too much for me) but it turned out pretty good. I wouldn't say its as good as take-out, but it was good. Jacob really loved it. He kept saying "put this on my list of best dishes" and I kept explaining to him that no such list exists. He seemed shocked by this revelation, but I told him that in order for me to compile a list of his favorite recipes, he needs to tell me when I make something that he really loves. He just laughed. Sometimes I say funny things I guess. Anyway, if you're interested in trying the recipe, here it is. Just to warn you, it's pretty time consuming. Good, but a lot of work.

Dance moms tonight was good, but confusing. One mom issued a cease and desist letter to the other moms because they were asking about her engagement ring. Uhhh what? I'm not sure you have any legal basis to threaten to sue people for discussing your marital status.  The whole thing just seemed very odd.  How can you threaten people you've been friends with for years because they want to talk to you about a major event in your life?  So strange.

I've been watching a lot of Criminal Minds recently. Like, a lot. I'm still not totally sold on the show, but I tell you what I am sold on is Shemar Moore.

Speaking of crime shows with handsome male leads, those of you with Netflix streaming should consider watching Luther, a BBC show about a detective starring Idris Elba. GRRRRRRR.

If you like law shows, it's really good. It's pretty dark, but really interesting. I think the first two seasons are a total of 10 episodes, so it'd be a pretty quick watch if you're interested.