Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You?

I think it is fair to say that I am a tad overstressed. Self-induced stress, but overstressed nonetheless. I have a problem saying "no" to people. Is it that I need the acceptance? I want everyone to love me so I bend over backwards for them? I think that is all true and it stops NOW. I've had a cold for a week now that I just can't shake because I haven't been getting much rest and I've been going out about every night this week. Except Wednesday. Let me share with you my wonderful Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning I'm excited because I don't have anything except Grad School class in the evening. I made a list of things that I had to do; litterboxes, dishes, laundry and REST. Then I get a call from my friend Chris who asks if I am busy that night. I say "yes, but I guess we could hang out on Thursday." Long story short, I invite Chris over for dinner. I've decided I'm making Spinach and Feta Meatloaf*, which my friend Robyn made several weeks ago and it was delicious. She made it in a slow cooker (I've now been told meatloaf in a slow cooker may not be the best idea, but we'll get to that.) so I figured I would do so as well, so it could cook while I'm at work on Thursday and I would come home to a meal ready-to-eat. (Little Military joke there.) So I'm getting all the ingredients together at home and then I realize I don't have any breadcrumbs. No biggie, I'll just omit them. I also had to omit the milk because although I thought I bought plain soy milk I actually splashed the meatloaf with vanilla soy milk. Awesome! Its about 9:15 at this point and I start looking for the crockpot. I can't find it. I call Marc (whom I'd just called about the breadcrumbs as I'd remembered buying them) and he said "oh yeah, your crock pot is right here." So in my pajamas I drive over to his house, get the crockpot (and breadcrumbs, why not?) and then start my drive back. I was FLYING down the road because I was so overtired and so busy. To no real surprise I saw the boys in blue behind me and I got pulled over. The look of surprise on the officer's face was worth a million bucks. I was so disheveled, with my wet hair, pajamas and flipflops, I'm pretty sure she thought she was going to get me for DWI (which I will never do, so that's highly impossible). I was going 70 in a 50. After about 10 minutes of waiting (see how speeding doesn't pay), she came back and said "I wrote you a ticket for going 59 in a 50, so its just one point and $75, instead of 3 points and $500. Of course I said "thank you" and slowly made my way home. I finally get everything done at about 10:15 and I finally get to bed.

The next morning I put the meatloaf in the crockpot, as well as some potatoes for the meal. Easy right? I set it on low and get going. I come home at 5 to a sort of "eh" smell. Yes, of course I burned the meatloaf (I guess there wasn't enough moisture in the crockpot) and the pototoes had completely disinegrated (they looked ashy). I decided not to panic. If a friend can't appreciate that I tried to make a meal then he's no friend of mine. He was actually fairly nice about it, though I would have appreciated he being a little nicer, but oh well. Since I burned the pototoes I made a microwaveable pasta dish and he focused on eating a lot of that. Can I blame him?

So my meatloaf adventure cost me $100 in the short term and God only knows how much in the long term with the hike in my insurance rate. I'd like to get community service instead of the ticket, but I don't like how passivly you get a court date. You just don't pay your bill and then they mail one to you. That makes me feel like I'm in default or something.

That's what being overtired and overstressed does to you. I think Marc put it best when he said I really needed the speeding ticket to let ME slow down, not just in the car but in life in general. Amen to that.

*In the recipe, which is actually quite good, I used dried onion soup mix instead of carrots/onions as I hate carrots and onions. It is also pretty important to add seasoning, as the spinach is fairly flavorless. Its quite a good recipe though and I'd like to perfect it. I've got nowhere to go but up!