learning to cook in a coffee pot

I wake with plenty of time to catch the 10 am bus to San Clemente, but I find myself engaged in a conversation with the woman I stayed with and I can't get her to stop talking. She shares a long elaborate story about how she helped her neighbors move, and I end up missing the 10 am bus. I shower at 11 am and leave her apartment at noon (her son, Taz is giving me a ride to the post office, before he rushes back to their apartment to get his mother and drive to Encinitas to get his passport application in. I mail my box home to Maine for $19.78 and I walk to the Parkview Coffee shop and get the same pear, peach, and apricot smoothie I had tried two days ago. I rush to the transit center and catch the #395 bus which spends 85 minutes winding through the Marine base known as Camp Pendleton, before dropping me off at 2:20 pm at a taco bell in San Clemente. Suddenly buses here (Orange County) only cost $1.25 a ride, instead of the $2.25 a ride in San Diego County. I ride the bus in confusion, having no real clue as to where to get off. I eventually get off the bus on the shoulder of the Pacific Coast Highway and walk across the highway overpass to the Economy Lodge. I use my backpacker charm and talk the price down from $99 a night to $66 (that includes the 10% tax). Once my stuff is in the room, I day hike 6.5 miles to near Capistrano Beach. I accidentally walk over a mile down a private beachside community only to find that there is no beach access. On my exit from the community, I run into a security man who stops me and asks "do you live here?" When I tell him no and explain that I was trying to get to the beach, he is surprised there is no outlet. He tells me to take the bus back to my hotel since it is getting dark. He says it is unsafe being out there alone...I have heard this same phrase about 20 times in the past 10 days. It is not that I don't believe that the beach can be unsafe at dark...its that I have miles to cover and I had every intention of turning back at dark. I thank him and go back on the bus, miss my stop and end up riding for a while in a circle. The bus driver then tells me where to get off, saying that stop is closest to my hotel. He is wrong. I walk for what feels like forever as fast as I can through the sketchy, scary streets of San Clemente. I watch some TV and boil water in the coffee pot, then I add my instant mashed potatoes. Viola...dinner in a coffee pot. I then cook my Thai Kitchen ramen noodles in the coffee pot too. I feel so brilliant for figuring out and mastering the art of hotel coffee pot cooking. I do my victory dance in front of the mirror, glad no one can see my idiotic self. My pack will be lighter tomorrow and I didn't have to spend a cent on dinner. I fall asleep by 9 pm and sleep well.

I do my victory dance in front of the mirror; glad that the shades are drawn and no one has witnessed my dorky ways.