Subway, Sidewalks and Central Standard Time!

To celebrate 09/09/09 my gift to my readers is... A new post!

I feel much better this week than I did last week. Thing seem a little less intimidating and easier to manage. It's amazing what a) a long weekend, b) rest, and c) a new perspective will do for your psyche!

I've heard from a source that there are quite a few of you who are reading my blog faithfully. That's fabulous! Thanks so much for coming back over and over again. If you know me, you know that writing is an outlet for me... a way to relieve stress and just express -- not necessarily so that my problems get resolved, but so that I can cope with... well... everything!! In a word, this blog is just as much for me as it is for you. I don't really know from post to post who will read, comment or the like. I know you all adore me (of course you do!) and are rooting for me... And on behalf of myself and my muse... The feeling is likewise! :o)

I've been taking a little time this week to get a few "chores" done. Namely, I wanted to secure new insurance, get my new license plates and finally get state driver's licence. I decided to tackle the insurance first. Now, remember... I can be a bit of a dummy... a do-good dummy but a dummy none-the-less. Still, I knew that I couldn't cancel my old insurance until I secured new insurance. That was a task easy enough to accomplish, since VIF already has arrangements with a company that offers their teachers decent premiums. I had the literature and forms, I just needed to fill it all out and fax it in. So I did that. Then I contacted my Autopac agent in Wpg to let them know I was going to be cancelling my policy and find out the best way to do that. More forms and faxing, some phone calls. I found out that they couldn't cancel my insurance until my plates could be surrendered. I can't get new plates in NC without an NC driver's licence, and I couldn't go for my NC licence using a car that wasn't insured in NC. Sound confusing? It is. Basically, I can't do A until I do B, and I can't accomplish B unless A is in the bag. So what I have now is dual insurance policies out on my car. Sounds a little unnecessary, but it'll have to do for a little while longer. That's what happens when you've got three separate agents for your DL, your plates and your insurance! I tell ya... I miss the simplicity of my one stop shop back home!

When I stopped in to the NC Plate Agency this afternoon (and was told I'd need to get my DL and find the title to my car to prove that I own it), I gazed a little longingly at the closed Subway store next door and confessed to something else that I missed. Now, there are two Subway locations here in town (at least...), but according to others, they are both owned by the same man, who had to close them due to... I don't remember exactly... taxes I think. Anyway. There are no Subway locations closer than 35 miles away. There is an Arby's, a Taco Bell, a Hardee's, a Bojangles, TWO McDonald's, a Wendy's, a Burger King, and various other fastfood-esque establishments. But nary a Quizno's, and two Subways we can look at, but not venture into. *sigh* A turkey and ham on honey oat would taste really great right about now.

When you've been living somewhere for a while... like... your entire life... there are some things that you don't realize you take for granted until you no longer have them anymore. I have noticed the lack of sidewalks in this town... and beginning to unnerve me. It would be nice to be able to step outside for a walk in the evening... except I'd be forced to walk along the road for awhile before I found a paved sidewalk to take! There are sidewalks downtown, and perhaps in some of the older neighborhoods. I've been told that they do exist, as well as some walking trails near the Wellness Center. But if I want to take a leisurely stroll out my door? I'm left to fight off the cars.

Which is a bummer, because now that I'm living on the east coast and within the Eastern Standard Time region, I find I have this unknown "extra hour" that sometimes I need to kill before my favorite prime time shows start. It's that 7-8 PM time slot that I need to fill with... something. When I was a kid, and I'd see those adverts for shows on TV that came with the tag... "Thursdays at 9/8c"... I was secretly jealous of all those people on the east coast who got to stay up late to watch their shows. Turns out, it's not such a big perk. Because the rest of my time schedule hasn't changed much. I still wake at the same time (because work starts so freaking early!), I still eat dinner around the same time (most days), and I still try to go to bed at the same time. Which means that anything that happens after 10 PM, i.e. all those "grownup" shows that I used to beg to watch when I was a kid and had to be in bed by "... Mondays at 10/9c..." might get missed in favor of sleep. So I think I'll have to break out and get a recorder for those, especially for certain shows. Because some days... those shows are the highlight!

Okay, speaking of time... I think it's time to find some sustenance, a.k.a. Dinner. It won't be a turkey and ham on honey oat, but I suppose I'll make do!!

Happy almost Thursday! (Oh! That reminds me... Garbage day!)