The Thrill of Free

I woke up in a great mood yesterday. It was a bright, sunny, cold day. There wasn't much on the agenda and I felt free of responsibility.

I started the car that morning and the tire pressure light came on. Sheesh. I dropped K off at school and listened to the popular 'beat the bank' contest on the radio station. The 25th caller gets a chance to play the game. They open vaults one by one. The caller has a chance of winning up to $500,000 as long as the bell doesn't ring on a particular vault first. So the lady decided to call it quits at the third vault and would receive $1600. Then they opened up all the vaults to see how far she could have gone. It went up to 18 vaults and $500,000! This doesn't happen often so it was exciting. The lady said she didn't think she could have lasted up to 18 vaults anyway. I stopped by the gas station to pump some air into the offending tire. I'm getting good at this.

I was looking forward to my exercise class, but it seemed early enough that I could stop by McDonald's to get the free breakfast biscuit special. I waited 10 minutes in line, then another 10 minutes for them to make more biscuits as they were going so quickly. A man next to me asked why it was so crowded today, so I explained about the bacon or sausage biscuits being free for 2 days. The lady on my other side heard us and decided to order one too. Then I rushed to my exercise class at the gym and made it just in time. A lady noticed me holding the biscuit bag and asked if it was the free biscuit from McD's. I said 'yes' and we started a conversation about it. She was going to try for tomorrow although her morning schedule was busy with her kids.

So in the exercise class I mentioned my biscuit expedition to this other lady that I talk to. She said she has a nephew who is a part of the crowd scene in the new McDonald biscuit commercial and that she thought it would be too crowded to try for the freebie. I told her it's really just the thrill of getting something free. (I am, after all, a regular customer.) In fact, the biscuit was in my locker, for K to try later. (I did end up having a bite and it was delicious, but haven't checked the calorie count on these).

Another friend was in the class and I had a chance to say hello to her. It turns out she's sick of winter and decided to book a cruise to Chile. THEN she informed her husband of their new plans (they are both retired). I told her he should know her by now!

After the class, another lady told me she's been having trouble sleeping at night and has no idea why. We had a discussion on sleeping habits. I told her jokingly that it must be time to book a winter cruise.

Then I said hello to this other lady, she has been wearing a patch on one eye for the past 3 months. I've spoken about her before. At first she thought she was experiencing cross-eyed vision on the one eye because she had bumped her head. It turns out that 2 other people she knows AT THE GYM have been experiencing similar problems, both older people. So they think it might be a virus. Now I'm getting nervous. But what can one do? Apparently her condition has improved a lot, except from the corner of her eyes and she's hoping that in another 3 months it will be back to normal. I can't believe what I'm hearing.

Then I'm cooling down on the treadmill after class and this other lady beside me says hello and starts a conversation. Apparently she had returned from 4 months in Hong Kong where the weather is really nice at the moment. She and her husband are retired. He would like to live in Hong Kong but she prefers Canada. Two of their children live in Canada and One is settled in Hong Kong. Hmm.

You know, I'll usually say a quick hello to a bunch of people while I'm at the gym, but normally I don't have so many conversations in a single visit. I'm an introvert, after all. Maybe everyone was feeling really social that day, who knows?

After that, I went to the supermarket and had a small sized bowl of chili for lunch. It was delicious and I'm inspired to make some at home soon. I bought a jar of ready made Thai Green Curry sauce and cooked it with some chicken for supper. It turned out quite well, I've never made that before. It's a very rich sauce though.

After school K and I had stopped off at my mom's for a quick visit. I took her some unsalted, baked trout I had made the day before that she had enjoyed. She is excited about the upcoming Royal Wedding and is looking forward to it being televised. K played a video game with his cousin. It's called Kinect, a dance game and it's so realistic and fun looking.

We got home and we caught Justin Bieber on Ellen. He was amazing and we can't wait to see his new movie. He speaks French and loves to play hockey and is obviously proud of being Canadian. His mom and grandparents were in the audience and his grandad was moved to tears after seeing clips of his new movie. They are so proud. Then K finished his homework and we watched American Idol.

M came home later that night, he had had a busy day and recounted a lot of interesting conversations with his colleagues at work.

It was a really full day and I'm confused because I woke up thinking it would be relaxing and uneventful. Oh well, let's see what today brings. Maybe another free biscuit sandwich? (-: