Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Incredible Journeys
I paid $3 per gallon for gas today. And $1.50 for a gas station bag of M&Ms, but that's not really the point. Remember back a few summers ago when we were all outraged about gas costing half this much? Wrote our Congressmen and so forth? That was so cute. Apparently Americans have gotten a lot more used to just bending over and taking it over the past four years. You'd think that would be the sort of thing this administration would want to discourage.
I also visited my sister in Champaign, IL. It's a fairly fascinating town, small enough to have patches on the city grid that contain only corn, but big enough to have "thai food" and a "fusion restaurant." Plus the university approximately doubles the population from September to May, leading to major congestion at the Old Navy and the Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Our main activity today was visiting one of my favorite fine dining establishments, the audaciously-spelled Merry Ann's Diner. They serve a dish called the "diner stack," which consists of biscuits, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash rounds all smothered in a two-foot-thick layer of sausage gravy. Unfortunately, they do not serve an angioplasty on the side. But I like to live dangerously, so I have one about once a year. I also jaywalk occasionally. Damn, I'm such a rebel.
And I just got an email from my new employer asking me to RSVP for orientation. I'm leaning towards a "will attend," but mainly I'm just surprised to find I had a choice.
I paid $3 per gallon for gas today. And $1.50 for a gas station bag of M&Ms, but that's not really the point. Remember back a few summers ago when we were all outraged about gas costing half this much? Wrote our Congressmen and so forth? That was so cute. Apparently Americans have gotten a lot more used to just bending over and taking it over the past four years. You'd think that would be the sort of thing this administration would want to discourage.
I also visited my sister in Champaign, IL. It's a fairly fascinating town, small enough to have patches on the city grid that contain only corn, but big enough to have "thai food" and a "fusion restaurant." Plus the university approximately doubles the population from September to May, leading to major congestion at the Old Navy and the Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Our main activity today was visiting one of my favorite fine dining establishments, the audaciously-spelled Merry Ann's Diner. They serve a dish called the "diner stack," which consists of biscuits, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash rounds all smothered in a two-foot-thick layer of sausage gravy. Unfortunately, they do not serve an angioplasty on the side. But I like to live dangerously, so I have one about once a year. I also jaywalk occasionally. Damn, I'm such a rebel.
And I just got an email from my new employer asking me to RSVP for orientation. I'm leaning towards a "will attend," but mainly I'm just surprised to find I had a choice.
