The Great M&M Debate of 2010

In my ongoing effort to beef up my hobbies, I am taking a swim class again. I was reading the monthly wellness email at work (me and the one other person in the Benefits Office whose job it is to proofread that) and saw that the gym was offering swim classes. Not wanting to be blocked out (the class was capped at 8), I called right away and signed up. Luckily, there was a spot for me - as the first person to sign up.

I showed up for class on Tuesday and the instructor to student ratio was 1:1. My class consisted of me, another gentleman about my age, and a 60-something leathery tan man, shock white hair, wearing a red Speedo. Perfect. I could rest assured that once again I would easily be able to assert my dominance in the class. I was quickly proven right as I was the only one who could move past floating (and this was supposed to be an intermediate class). So I got to work on learning new techniques and also learn how to do a better backstroke. On Thursday, I got to class a few minutes late and was slightly miffed to see a new swimmer in our ranks, who, according to the instructors, was on par with my level of swimming. Once again, I was quickly proven to be the best one in the class, as I had a firm mastery of the flip turn, whereas my new swim partner did not. Meg 2, other swimmers 0. Kidding aside, I am really enjoying the new class, although I'm not a huge fan of the pool at work. Glad I didn't pay money to join there - the public pool, ironically, is 1000 times nicer.

In other news, has anyone else been following the recent expansion of the M&M product line? For years, I think M&M had a winning formula with the chocolate and the candy coating, even diversifying with allowing the public to choose a new color for the M&Ms back in the day (or was that Skittles?). As I am a huge fan of monograms, I was very excited to see that you could personalize M&Ms with your own message. And just recently, I noticed in Wegmans that they have alternative color selections. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the new advertisements for pretzel M&Ms. This seemed like a match made in heaven - combining pretzels, one of my all-time favorite foods, and M&Ms, one of my preferred candies, could only bring good things. I instantly texted Jinny to let her know of our great fortune, as she is an avid pretzel and M&M lover herself (although she prefers the peanut kind - good for protein). Both of us concurred, however, that the ratio of salty pretzel to sweet candy was off, and all you wound up getting is a weird crunchy M&M with practically no flavor.

Which leads me to earlier in the week, when I was at Walgreens buying a jumbo pack of toilet paper, where I was perusing the candy offerings as I normally do. To my surprise, I saw a new M&M candy offering - coconut M&Ms. I was pleasantly surprised, but puzzled that this new creation had not been aggresively marketed by the Mars company. One M&M and I was hooked - like a lighter version of coconut clusters and cheaper to boot. So tonight at CVS my mom and I both bought a pack when the cashier brought up the pretzel ones.

Cashier: "Have you tried the new pretzel M&Ms?"
Me: "Yeahhh, I wasn't impressed."
Cashier: "Oh really?! I really liked them."

Whereupon we continued to debate the relative merits of the pretzel v. coconut M&Ms, which I encouraged him to try.

All this is a long way of saying yet another exciting Friday night. I must take leave now so I can go peruse this color wheel so I can help my mom choose which of the 8 different shades of beige (out of a 1000 colors) to paint the family room.

Will I Make It?

The 30 seconds that I often spend waiting to cross the street when the bus I need to catch is rapidly approaching the stop on the other side of the street is probably the most nerve-racking 30 seconds of my day. This is obviously a hard task, as I spend 95 percent of the seconds of the day in varying degrees of agitation. But believe me, they are nail-biting moments.

Today I was standing at the crosswalk as I looked down the street at the bus coming up over the hill. Glance at the stoplight - still green. Can't cross against the light - too much traffic. Back at the bus. Appears it is stopping. Good. Hopefully someone who needs them to lower the stairs is getting on and could buy me some time. Back at the light. Still no go. So much traffic. Bus is still there - the transportation gods may yet smile upon me. Trying to stop heart from seizing with terror at the thought of waiting for another half hour in fading light for a bus to magically appear. With my luck it would be a supreme bus drought and then five buses all at once. I'd make too sudden of a movement toward one but all of the buses would think it is for the other bus and I'd wind up missing all five. Ok snap out of it. Back to bus. Looks like it is still stopped. Back at light. Wait, it's red. The man is telling me to walk. Only 28 more seconds left to get across. Quick run to the stop even though the bus isn't moving. Clearly at stop waiting for bus. Almost failed to make critical eye contact with bus driver, who may have left me standing at the stop with the Bandolino shoe store that looks like it is going out of business. Board bus, stopping traffic on major thoroughfare because of aforementioned near-miss with eye contact (bus driver didn't pull out of lane). Get on bus - bus driver gives me a look of mild surprise that I wanted to board his bus and not the cool red bus that was coming next. Laws of inertia throw me hurtling toward my seat. Collapse in a daze. Cannot believe my good fortune at coming out of work at exactly the right moment to lead me to my seat with the minimal amount of wait possible. To think what could have happened if I had been off by two minutes.

I wonder why my commute burns 500 calories and leaves me feeling so exhausted.

Rockin' the Suburbs

I had no idea I had 27 comments to moderate. I just logged in to my blog (almost logged in using my boss's gmail calendar account that I manage - that would have been awkward....). If you've posted something in, oh, I don't know, the last six months, I have just approved your comments for publication. Not that I am trying to restrict free speech, but I was getting some weird comments - I think I made it through the Chinese firewall and was getting lots of spam.

I had some great ideas for some posts, but unfortunately I have forgotten them all. If I do say so myself, they were pretty funny. My quests for interesting hobbies continues. So far, I'm really developing my baking skillz that killz. Not so good for the waistline or wallet, but what can I say? I think I very much enjoy following the instructions and having something turn out well for once. Reminds me a lot of school. My dream hobby would be mosaics and glass working. I can't seem to get in to one of those classes, however.

My parents recently became residents of the metro area, so last weekend I spent time unpacking crap I had hoped I could just leave behind, forgotten, for an indeterminate amount of time. Brought up a lot of memories - I found my pink monogrammed robe from when I was just a wee-baby. It is so tiny!! Also, I found a gift that someone that my parents had worked with had given them when I was born. I was 6 pounds! Who knew? But the major downfall was that my name was spelled wrong, a problem that still haunts me to this day (there is a calculated reasoning to why I now prefer Meg). I did find some major scores, like my Ben Folds "Rocking the Suburbs" CD. Right now I am rocking out to "Still Fighting It." Resonates so much better now that I'm practically an old hand in the world. Although I'm pretty sure the song is about having a kid....can't say that I'm in that life stage.

Seriously, when is this blog going to get optioned for a Showtime Original Series? I am tired of being a 9 to 5er. I mean, I potentially could have many, many more years ahead of me (when I signed up for a retirement plan, the closest date in the pre-set plan option was for when I turn 55 I believe). I feel in my second year of employment I am getting more confident in my job. I also feel like I have nothing to lose anymore, and I will admit I do feel somewhat hardened to the world, which I don't like. But I guess I'll just have to keep "going inside myself" as I would say (my favorite person to quote is myself) to keep on keepin' on.