Bus Mystery

One of the things that is hard about blogging is that sometimes a very blog-worthy something happens...but you don't know exactly what is going on, and thus, it's like a story without an ending.

The Mrs.Real McCoy and I were sitting on a bus waiting for it to leave. We were already in a very non-Frenchy neighborhood, and this bus was headed towards an extremely non-Frenchy neighborhood. All of a sudden, I see four very Frenchy men in business suits walking shoulder to shoulder towards our bus. In front of them was a news-camera person, and a news-microphone person. Behind them were a group of police.

They got on the bus, pointed to something above the driver's head, spoke for a few minutes, with the microphone lady interviewing them, and then got right back off the bus. I am sure they were doing a clip for that evening's 6 oclock news. But I have no idea whatsoever what the news story was. (And I didn't care enough to watch the news that night to find out...I don't know what time the news comes on, I don't know how to work my cable channels, and French tv scares me.)

It was all very intriguing...but as I said, I didn't know what was going on. Which is something I've felt alot lately.

• When I set up my utilities account, I repeated back to the woman over the phone what I understood about my bill. She told me I'd understood correctly. Since then, my utilities bill has not been anything like what she'd told me that day. I don't know at all how it works. I just pay it when it comes.
• When I set up my phone contract, I was told I would pay a certain amount. Since then, my phone bill has not once been the amount I agreed to, even though I haven't been using all my minutes. I don't know at all why it's not correct. I just pay the amount my statement says.
• I received some kind of invoice in my mailbox about the elevator. I don't know what it is. I don't know why it came to me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I don't even know who to call to ask about it. I did show it to my neighbor and they said they don't know why it came to me either, but it's not a bill and there's nothing for me to pay. It's just letting me know (and not the rest of the building), that they worked on the elevator.
• I don't know how to change my lightbulbs. (Track lighting...ack!)
• I don't know why my ivy is dying.
• I don't know why Julia Child Hollandaise sauce didn't thicken.

Even though I've been here for more than four years...there are still a million little things that happen that I don't understand or know how to do and I'm still too shy to ask. Some days, when it takes half the day just to buy groceries, and you can't get diapers for your friends because all the stores are closed on Sundays, and you follow the instructions but the sauce doesn't thicken...it's enough just to shrug your shoulders and accept that you don't understand. You don't know why. The bus mystery will never be explained.

Maybe this week I'll work on figuring out my bills and buy a new ivy to replace the one I killed.