The Quest for Chicken Salad

Okay,,,,

Here's the deal. It's been an interesting week. Our broadband modem died and the computers have been down for about 4 days. Hubby was having withdrawl symptoms. I didn't really care that much. I figured it'd be back up when it came back up.

I was supposed to go to the Dog Agility Trials held here last Friday. I completely lost interest in going and I begged off so I wound up going to a funeral instead.
And the funeral wasn't really all that bad.
Going gave me the chance to take my new car on a little road trip, which I have been wanting to do before I go to Florida in a couple of weeks. It was a very easy, pleasant 80 mile drive on a lovely flat, straight interstate. Once we got there, the funeral service was thankfully short and sweet and we (I went with Crazyfriend) got out. We chose not to go to the graveside service (I don't mind the church service but I draw the line at the graveside stuff). And we went to a really neat place. I loved it (although I won't tell Crazyfriend that). It was a funky little place called "Bac-In-Time";. It's an old house that has been made into a Christian coffee house, local art gallery and restaurant. The place is just lovely, beautifully furnished. The owner was a little too talkative (I really didn't want to know her life story) .And I could have done without all the local renditions of "Laughing Jesus" It was really funky and fun. They had absolutely yummy chicken salad which led to my chicken salad quest today.

I got to thinking about it and I could only think of one place around here where you can get a really good chicken salad sandwich. We used to go there a lot (it too is a funky, artsy local place) but they raised their prices so much that it's not worth going there anymore.
So I set off to find chicken salad.
One place I knew I could get good chicken salad was a local college bar called Salty's.
That's where I went to lunch. They have a very tasty chicken salad plate (I know, it's technically not a chicken salad sandwich but it was chicken salad....). And it's only $4.79. That was what I had and I enjoyed it very much.
But then I got to wondering if I could find better chicken salad.

I went to a place called The Fresh Market. High end, expensive gourmet market. They have a variety of chicken salads. I chose the rotisserie chicken salad. I brought it home and made myself a chicken salad sandwich with white bread, a very fresh tomato and Miracle Whip. I even bought the same gourmet chips that they served at the "Bac-In_Time" place. I had it for "dinner" which kinda broke my stomach because I don't usually eat dinner. But was it better than the "Bac-In_Time" or Salty's??? Not really. If I want to drive 80 miles, I would have to go back to "Bac-In_Time". If I want to stay here I would have to go to Salty's

So now, my stomach is broken, I need an Alka-Seltzer and I'm just not sure if we have any really good chicken salad around here.

This lottery ticket is defective, I want my $5 back.

Okay...yesterday I did something I rarely do anymore. I spent $5 on a single lottery ticket. I found a new game on our state's lottery website and I thought okay, what the heck. I have an extra $5 and the odds seemed pretty good. You get 18 numbers and out of those 18 you only have to hit 4 to get back $7. The odds of that were 1:11. So I thought okay. for $5, I will give it a try. Once.
Well, much to my great disappointment, when I checked the numbers this morning, not only did I not win anything....I did not hit a single number out of the 18. And to make matters even worse....there was a string of 4 numbers that were all exactly ONE NUMBER OFF from the ones I had.
That seems rather unfair. What I think is that there should be some kind of a default win....if you hit zero numbers out of all those possibilities, you should get $3 back.

Maybe then I would be willing to try again.

Do not mess with my driver's license.

For a long time, I couldn't understand why "older" people got so twitchy about their driver's licenses.
I know all the explanations....it's your freedom, your independence. And you don't want to lose that.
But it really hit home these past two weeks when I suddenly realized that I was one of those "older" people and I was the one getting twitchy about my driver's license.
Next month is my birthday and I didn't even realize that my license would be expiring until I got a notice from the DMV telling me that I had to renew. At first, I was greatly relieved when I thought I could just fill out a form and send in a check and get a new license. I didn't even have to fill out the side of the form that required an eye doctor's report because I am not 62 years of age.
So after putting it off for a week or so, I filled out the form, sent in the check and waited.
And waited. And waited some more.
No sign of my new driver's license and I was getting twitchy. Worried. Concerned.
Then I finally got a letter from the DMV. I said to my husband "Oh good this must be my new license". But when I opened the letter, I only found my check and application had been returned with a very official letter from the friendly folks at the DMV telling me that I had to come in to renew my license.
Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!! Panic. Worry. Hand-wringing. Twitchy. Concern.
What was I going to do??? Would I pass the eye test? Would I get my new license??
I had to show up in person at the dreaded DMV.
So yesterday, I mustered up my courage, took the Jeep and headed for our little local DMV. I went there because it is a very small office, as opposed to the big ones downtown.
It is usually not very busy.
I got there in the Jeep (i love the Jeep) and I went inside.
And I asked the lady at the help desk what I needed to do.
And what a remarkable surprise.
The place was not at all busy. And the help lady was so polite and kind.
I only had to give her money ($25 to be exact) and I didn't even have to fill out any more forms. She just used the form they had returned to me.
She then proceeded to give me the eye "test" which took about 15 seconds and consisted of me reading one line of numbers that were about the size of a billboard (3 5 9 4 5 2 3 8 7 5 1).
After she was finished she gave me a little paper number (E402) and told me to sit down and wait until my number was called.
Well, since there was only one young woman sitting in the waiting area I figured that probably wouldn't be too long. And I was right. I just had a second to sit down before they called 'Now serving E402." and I went right up to the nice lady at the driver's license exam window,
She too was sweet and kind and very helpful. It took about five minutes to sign all the papers and get my receipts. She took a new picture for my new license. Now instead of looking like a surly biker chick, I look like I just got out of bed and my hair is standing straight up.
And after waiting just a couple if minutes more, the nice examiner lady presented me with my shiny new driver's license. All official and all renewed. I was in and out of the DMV in about 15 minutes and everyone I spoke to was kind, polite and helpful.
And my new license good for 10 years!
That's right. 10 years for coming in as opposed to 5 years for renewing it online.
That means I won't have to do this until I am 70 years old and I will probably be dead by then so I won't have to worry about it.
10 years. Woooo hooooo!
And y'know what's funny?
My motorcycle designation transferred right along with my renewal so I can legally drive a motorcycle in the state of South Carolina until I am 70 years old.
I was so relieved.
I got my new license and I am not feeling at all twitchy anymore.
Yay.