Month: September 2007
-
It’s All Upside Down
“What the hell am I doing here?” I emailed a friend yesterday. In context, this question was asked after I wrote this: “I went out Monday night and drank waaaaaaay too much wine with a new friend 10 years my junior who can drink me under five tables (not too tough, since I am a…
-
Sure, Put Your Feet Up!
Whining rant alert: Why does the occasional guy wearing obviously expensive, some-kind-of-skin boots feel it is absolutely appropriate to stretch out and prop their feet up in a booth? I have seen this done more than a few times. What is it with seated guests reaching out and poking my arm when I walk by…
-
Today was That Day
Sometimes, you know your new job is a bad fit right from the start. By day three, the voice you try so hard to ignore is saying, “Yeah, this is not for you.” Or worse, you are already crossing off calendar days in anticipation of getting through the next 11 months and 27 days so…
-
One Night Out
“We met a few weeks ago. I’m a friend of Mark’s. Let me know if you want to hang out some evening. It would be fun.” This in an email to me a little less than two weeks after I moved here. We had met on one of my nights off, when I forced myself…
-
To Have a Pet or Not?
“Your mother needs a dog,” RG Daughter’s summer job boss told her. “There are SO MANY dogs in your area that are up for adoption that would be great for you,” says RG Daughter on this night, as she peruses the online options in Florida from her dorm room in Colorado. So easy for her…
-
Front of the Bus
When you have financed a major move down the East Coast, partially furnished an apartment, and placed a moderate down payment on a bottom-of-the-line VW during an end-of-model-year clearance sale–all thanks to a generous credit limit on an airline affinity MasterCard–you suddenly realize you can treat yourself to an upgrade. In this case, I had…
-
Best of the Road
Discovering the so-called romance of the road takes time and a willingness to spend as few stops as possible at the fast food spots located a mere combo-meal’s throw off every cloned exit ramp. RG Daughter and I planned key detours off the four-lane path also known as I-70, but they weren’t nearly enough. Had…
-
Kansas and More Kansas
As our marathon drive continued yesterday, we stopped in Abilene to see the Greyhound Hall of Fame. It is quite a spot. The moment we walked through the glass doors, a pair of beautiful animals wandered out to greet us. “That one was a grand champion,” said the woman staffing the information desk. We were…
-
More Postcards!
Kansas, the state that goes on forever. People told me driving through Florida would feel like the state never ends. Clearly, they have never driven through Kansas. And yet, RG Daughter and I fell in love with most of the state, especially Lawrence. We wandered the town, hiked up the hill to the KU campus,…