I Never Cease to be Amazed by Grocery Stores

Today while in Metropolis, home of Superman, I grabbed some lunch from a grocery store and discovered that you can just go up to the counter of the deli and have them make you a sandwich. I don't know why this concept was so surprising and foreign, having come from the greater St. Louis area where seemingly every Schnucks or Dierbergs featured some sort of in-store dining, but I was thrown for a loop when able to go up to the lady that was slicing meat and tell her I wanted a turkey sandwich with a slice of pepper jack cheese. And she didn't just throw the sandwich together-no sir! She loaded that thing up with freshly sliced turkey and put a thin slice of pepper jack on there that was big enough to cover the entire sandwich. There was pepper jack goodness in every bite. And you can apparently do this in most grocery stores too. I think my new passion du jour shall now be eating grocery store sandwiches.

Walking Wisdom

Serious thought should be given to recording my coversations with Nichole on our nightly walks. Nary a mile goes by without one of us spouting out words of wisdom. Whether it be musing on how meeting and getting to know someone over the internet is more "true" because you get to know the essence of a person without all the stuff about appearance or carriage coming into play. Not that appearance and carriage aren't important components of attraction, but when it comes to simply liking another human being...it could be argued that all that matters is essence.

Another nugget of wisdom for the evening was Nichole's analogy of her car to a sexually diseased pretty girl. "She seems like a lot of fun, but I wouldn't want to ride her."

I'm working up to distance running...tonight I ran the length of the football field four times, which doesn't sound like much but hey, you go a long time without heavy duty excercise and then run a footbal field at full speed four times. It'll make you stop, put your hands on your knees and make some sort of awful noise in front of people walking. I swear the first vomitous sound was for comedic effect. That second one was my out-of-shape body going "well maybe that's not such a bad idea."

McDonald's Breakfast Burritos

I fear my affair with the breakfast burrito is coming to an end. It really wasn't that good of a relationship when you think about it. How can you be satisfied with something you're left wanting more of and it's only available certain hours of the day. Granted, it's goodness has helped me through many a mid-morning slump and the joy of waking up early enough to actually get one before class or work was unparalleled at the time. However, this morning when I took a bite of my first one (yeah, I ate two of them, what's it to you?!?) and found it to be cold, I felt a twinge of sadness and regret. Has this how I've been spending my mornings? Watching the clock while typing away, knowing that my window to obtain one was slowly closing? Rolling over in bed on a weekend morning and feeling happy to know I hadn't missed my chance to get one, but sad that it never comes to me. Alas, I'm hooked and I cannot escape. Perhaps some day I'll see the error of my ways and put down my car keys and settle in for the morning with a bowl of oatmeal.

Driving Large Cars

I'm so glad my first car was a 1992 Crown Vic. For starters, that car was really cool because it was big and fast and comfortable. It was a great road car. And even though it didn't make my high school peers jealous, sure's hell many a senior citizen drooled when I drove by with the windows down and my 60s/70s classic rock blaring. I learned to whip that car in and out of tight quarters and how to back it with some skills. Today I realized how much learning to drive a massive car paid off when trying to back an F-150 up to a meeting hall and then through a series of gates guarded by armed guards. If I had to learn to drive say, a Ford Festiva (or something like that), I would have been terrified and thought "if I mess up, they will shoot me!" But instead, I (carefully) put that truck where it needed to be, thinking to myself "it's okay, folks, my first car was a crown vic."

Come to think of it, when interviewing for that Student Ambassador job, when asked about my willingness to learn to drive school vans (I think they're Dodge Ram Vans...they're massive), I replied "If I can drive my Mom's Crown Vic, I think I can handle a van."