Blogger 365 Day 103 - Not now

     I think I am coming down with something, the back of my throat is sore and my nose has been stuffed all day.  I have been telling myself that I am not sick, I even ventured out for quite a bit today, but not sure if I made things better or worse. 

     I ran over to the Waterfront, I had been meaning to buy some light bulbs for my apartment, my lights aren't burnt out yet but I have used all of my replacement bulbs and I like to have them on hand should one burn out and not wait until after the fact.  After some mental gymnastics I decided that I would go to Target and pick them up, rather than run out to WalMart or some place off of the beaten path.  Besides, by being at the Waterfront I could also do a run by Bottom Dollar grocery and knock out some shopping there as well. 

     I get into Target and the first thing I notice is that everything has been moved since the last time I was there.  I don't know when they did the last store reset, I know it was some time after Christmas.  Whatever the case, I had to relearn where everything was in the store.  That was fine, it gave me a chance to walk around and I even picked up a couple of other things, some plastic tupperware containers and a pair of Skull Candy earbuds that were on sale, and eventually I even found the light bulbs I was looking for.  I went through the checkout and stuff everything into my backpack, figuring that I would buy some stuff at Bottom Dollar, so I would probably want to keep my hands free to carry those bags instead of the few paltry items purchased at Target.

     Of course once I got into Bottom Dollar I started running through my head different things I could make for dinner, lasagna seemed like a good starting point.  That was until I got to their first sale bin in the meat department, where they had ham, normally $1.99 a pound, knocked down to .79 a pound.  All of a sudden I got ideas of making ham pot pie in my head too, so I grabbed what would have been roughly an $18 ham for like $7.  Of course to make ham pot pie I would also need potatoes and carrots.  What do you know, Green Giant veggies were on sale for .69 cents a can.  Next thing you know I am just going through the store tossing stuff all willy nilly into my cart; bread - check, meatballs - check, cheese - check, lunch meat - check, burritos - check, etc., etc. etc.  By the time I had gotten to the check out I had spent over $60 (it would have been almost $80 without my membership card) and next I had to bag all of this stuff up and lug it to the bus stop to drag it home.  Very few things in life are less enjoyable than trying to get groceries on a city bus.  First there is the waiting for the bus, then there is the handles on the bags which are starting to give way from the sheer amount of stuff I bought.  The bus runs once an hour on Sunday, so I was waiting at least 30 minutes for the next one to show up.  Finally it arrives and I manage to get everything on the bus and make my way to the very back, where there is a couple of seats so I can sit my bags next to me rather than have them out in the aisle.

      As the bus get to Squirrel Hill, all of a sudden it gets incredibly full.  Why the Port Authority hasn't figured out yet that college students usually go to Sq Hill for their grocery shopping and plan bus schedules accordingly is beyond me, but usually by the time a bus gets to the Forbes and Murray stop on a Sunday there are like 30 people waiting to get on the bus.  So now I am on a bus with all of the bags and packed in like a sardine in a can.

      I am on the bus probably anther 20 minutes before it gets to my stop in Oakland, where i now have to navigate all of these bags through the crowd to get off of the bus, all while seeing that none of the bags breaks and spills it's contents everywhere.  I get off of the bus and walk about half a block down Atwood Street and I see an alley that runs behind some restaurants and shops and amongst the dumpsters that are back there I find a box and pack all of my almost broken bags in one and carry the box of goodies home, a distance of about four to five city blocks.  By the time I got in the door I was a sweaty and nasty feeling, so I hurried up and put the groceries away and sat down for a minute, but it was really way too nice today to be cooped up, so I got up and went for an hour long walk, just to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.   While the exercise was nice, as I am sitting here now I am not feeling any better, if anything I may be feeling worse.  I am hoping I shake this thing by morning, I really don't want to try dragging myself through a work day feeling like this and let's not kid anyone, I am not calling off.  So I going to turn in, there is a live Keb Mo concert on Youtube and maybe that and a little bed rest will cure what ails me.