Bus Battle

Lunch: Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Dinner: Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

Today may very well be one of the most beautiful days of the year. It was a balmy 68 and sunny today. Days like this are rare in good ol’ Georgia. Generally it goes from being relatively cold to being really hot in a matter of days. Therefore, you can’t take days like today for granted. Back in my college days, on beautiful days like today, I would cut class and find a grassy spot to stretch out on and revel in the beautiful weather. It seems the students at Tech decided to follow my lead. While out for my daily walk, 5 of the 8 frat houses I passed had moved their living rooms out onto the front lawn. I’m not kidding either; they dragged chairs and couches and coffee tables out onto their lawns and were lounging (many of them, rather unfortunately, shirtless… Not a thing you want to see on a bunch of pale Tech boys). There were countless games of Frisbee and random lounging in the sun on every available grassy spot. There was also the usual contingent of boys in hats playing guitar. You can’t walk across a college campus on a sunny day and not find a boy in a hat playing guitar for the ladies. I’m fairly sure it’s written in some international college guideline that you can’t be an accredited college without at least one guitar-playing-hat-wearing guy.

While the day was beautiful, it didn’t start off so pretty for me. Usually my morning bus ride is uneventful. People either sleep, read or fiddle with some electronic device for an hour. Rarely is there any talking or noise of any kind aside from the occasional clack of keys. In the afternoons, a few people might chat or talk on the phone, but in general people respect each other’s right to not be bothered. This morning however a man and a woman broke the silence. The man was texting and had his ringer on (quite possibly the world’s most annoying ringer too, it was some stupid rap song) so every minute or so, it went off. The woman sitting next to him asked him to turn the sound off. Rather than acquiesce to this simple request, he shouted at the top of his lungs “I can text if I want b*tch!”. Now, the woman could have changed seats and moved away from him or she could have kept her trap shut and left him alone. Of course, she didn’t do either. No, she started shouting back at him at the top of her lungs. They yelled at each other like a couple of crude children letting each other know where they could stick what and what they thought of the other’s mother. I plugged in my headphones and turned them up, but, unfortunately, they were right behind me and there was no escaping it. The rest of the bus patrons were looking back and shaking there heads; it being rather obvious that there was no shutting the two of them up. Finally, the woman moved to the front of the bus, but the guy didn’t shut up for the entire bus ride. I would have given anything for a tranquilizer gun. I will never understand some people and how they can behave so poorly. My 2 year old nephew has better manners and he still poops in his pants.

After such an eventful and stressful bus ride (I kept waiting for someone to throw a punch) I was really glad I’d planned an easy meal to start the week off. I like to plan something simple for Monday mornings to ease me into the work week. Today’s lunch was barbecue chicken sandwiches, and there are few things simpler. Although you could make it really easy on yourself and just used canned chicken, but I think canned chicken tastes a little like canned tuna which does not strike me as something I want to put barbeque sauce on… But, that’s just me. You can go ahead and do whatever floats your boat (how well would a boat float in canned chicken?)

Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches
serves 12

6 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Your Favorite BBQ Rub (See mine below*)
2-4 cups Barbeque Sauce

Preheat the oven to 375. Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray. Rub with plenty of BBQ rub . Place in baking dish, cover and bake for 20-25 minutes cooked throughout. Allow the breasts to cool enough so you can handle them. When they are cool, shred them. You can shred them with 2 forks, but I find that it works best just to pull them apart with your fingers. Place shredded chicken into a saucepan and cover with just enough ;barbeque sauce to coat chicken pieces. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until hot, stirring occasionally. Serve on hamburger buns with pickle slices.

*My Favorite BBQ Rub
Note: I don’t have measurements for this because I tend to just dump stuff together until it tastes right to me that day. I promise sometime in the future I’ll figure out the right measurements.

Chili Powder
A Pinch of Cumin
A Dash of Cayenne Pepper
Brown Sugar
Garlic Powder
A Dash of Onion Powder
Salt
Black Pepper or a medley of different peppers (I have a grinder with pink, black, green and white pepper corns)