Dangerous Chiles

Last night, I was making dinner for our house--White Chicken Chili. Sounds simple, right? So, I'm chopping up onions and peppers and garlic, and as I'm cutting up this pepper, I taste a little piece to see how hot it is. It said at Wegman's it was "warm to moderately hot," I had never had it before, but it was a green chili.

It looks so innocuous...

It was VERY HOT. 

My mouth was burning and my lips felt like they were blistering!! I was all alone in the house, so I was running around, trying to figure out what to do. I grab a glass of milk and drink it, so my mouth feels better, but my lips still kill. I drink TWO glasses of milk, and I decide to get a third one, just to soak my lips in (I know, it was ridiculous).

I run to the fridge and open it up, pour my glass of milk, and as I'm putting it away, the milk FALLS OUT OF THE FRIDGE and spills all over the floor. I'm literally slipping around in milk and my lips are burning and I don't know what to clean the milk up with. I run to my room and grab my normal towels to mop up the mess, which was disgusting. I sop up the milk with my towels and throw them into the washer immediately--so gross. It was exactly like a sitcom...I almost wish there had been cameras there, just so everyone could have seen the utter ridiculousness of the whole situation.

My lips started feeling better after I dipped a washcloth in milk and dabbed it on my lips for a long time. Even though I was in lots of pain, there is no visible damage, thank goodness.

But do you want to know the worst part?

The chili wasn't even that good.

There is one thing that I seriously hate about Buffalo.


The drivers.


First of all, let's discuss the issue of lanes. If there is ever a lack of lines, drivers in Buffalo take it to mean that there are as many as three lanes at any given stoplight. On my way to work, there are about 13 stoplights and 10 stop signs, so I've experienced this many times. There I am, at the red light, waiting, and all of the sudden, a car zooms around on my right. As soon as the light turns green, the person to my right accelerates as fast as possible and cuts in front of me. 


Also, red lights are apparently optional, as are stop signs.


Many of you already know this, but a few weeks ago, I was rear-ended on my way home from work. I was at a red light and a white van hit me! It was surprising and a little scary (both drivers were fine), but the other driver was really nice and accepted all blame. It was rather traumatizing, mostly because I had never been in any kind of car accident before. So I cried a lot, and filed a claim, and cried, and called the insurance company, and cried, and called my parents, and cried. (Did I mention that I was crying?)


Here's my poor car, which is currently being fixed in Fredonia. The bumper was coming off on the right hand side, the rear light was a tiny bit chipped (I didn't even notice, but the Allstate agent did). All told, the damage totaled $1,900! A lot more than I thought it would be--thank goodness for insurance!

Poor Mel.

So, I'm becoming a grown-up, at the expense of my car.