He had it comin'!

(In the car while driving across the country)
Anna: Have you seen the movie Chicago?
Me (chewing gum and driving): Yeah, we watched it together. Why?
A: There was a song about women who killed their husbands. One woman killed her husband because he kept popping his gum.
B: Hmm. Yeah? And?
A: (Pointed stare)
B: (Takes out gum) Sorry.


Mr. Andrew Strobel was able to take enough time off from hating Syracuse to drive down to Ithaca to hang with us yesterday. We ate at a natural eatery by Cornell for lunch, then walked around the Cornell campus a little bit and laughed at the geeks. "So, I was cosplaying last night..." was overheard and we didn't even try to stifle our laughter. There was no doubt that this kid was a member, if not the president, of the anime club at Cornell. In a strange way, it reminded me of being back home. Ah, good times.


We saw one of the waterfalls Ithaca is known for, then we stopped in for what Anna described as a "hippie-cult smoothie." As the old hippie man was taking our order, Andrew and I found out that she was actually serious when he asked us where we were from and started telling us about how the "Merrymaker's Caravan" was working its way along the west coast. It was a little creepy, but proselytizing aside Andrew was happy to see some genuine hippies in their natural habitat.
After smoothies and waterfalls, what else is there to do but go wine tasting? Seriously, this is one of those things I had just assumed I'd never do myself because I'm not a wine fan, but there was a winery just up the road and we thought "what the heck?" It was actually a very pleasant place with great wine (and a great way to get a cheap buzz. 6 wine tastings for $1!). We were served by a former philosophy major from IC, so I guess that answers the question of what you can do with a degree in philosophy besides teach and collect unemployment. In the end we were charmed into buying a couple of bottles of white wine that we are slowly enjoying. Strobel is now back in Syracuse at his college of environmental science and forestry, and dominating our agenda for today is sneaking into the college to do some free laundry. Let's hope it goes as smoothly as sneaking onto the campus to dispose of garbage.

There and back again

The Saturday before last, my mom and Casey took me and Anna to the first Seahawks game of the pre-season. It was interesting and kind of fun, but we took off after halftime because all the good players were taken out of the game (which didn't count anyway) and the Cowboys were killing us.


On the following Wednesday, Anna and I packed all of her belongings, at least the ones she cared about, into her Rav and headed to New York. Here we are at Price Creek (still in Washington) for a stretch.


Those who have been to the Gorge in George might recognize this sculpture. Anything with horses about to fall to their doom gets Anna's approval, so we thought this would be a good spot for a bathroom break. Except, of course, for the lack of bathrooms. Luckily, I was the only one the coffee was doing its magic to. Time to find a bush and watch for rattlesnakes.


...and here's Montana. A good chunk of Montana looks like this; the rest contains a lot of rocks.


Here are a bunch of those rocks, the "Painted Canyon." I learned a little about this place in a geology class, so I had to stop and take in the sights. Honestly, Montana is a geology major's dream. Also, something like this can never be properly captured by a camera. We stopped in Billings for the night at the Dude Rancher Lodge. It was a pretty funky place, which was just what I needed after spending so much time on the road. Fuck Holiday inn.

In the Midwest, it got pretty hot and muggy. Luckily for us, these windmills were around to keep us cool.
"WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!"
Seriously though, the rest of the country didn't have much to offer, except the relief that you do not have to live there. I feel very lucky that I've been able to take this trip twice now, and think it's good to see one's country if you have the chance. I'd like to drive the southern route sometime in the future, but that can wait. For now, I'm just hanging out in Ithaca helping Anna get her stuff in order at her new place. More to come later, hopefully.

More proof that the grass is always greener

I used to miss the folks at the P-town Hut for their ability to talk about things other than sports. I gave up pretending to even know which sport the crew at the Bellingham Hut were talking about a long time ago, and used to actually *shudder* miss my old crew. Now that I'm back, all anyone ever talks about now is World of Warcraft and what their orc did to that dragon. Remembering back, last summer all they could talk about was Magic, the card game.
What's the real lesson here? That I need a new job? That I should stop listening/talking to my coworkers?

Micro Reviews:
Boogie Pop Phantom (anime): I didn't finish the series. It started to have potential, but I sat through 2 disks out of 4 and I wasn't hooked. C

The Office (BBC version, comedy): Hi-larious. It's kind of sad that the American version uses the same script, and the BBC one is way better from what I've seen. A

Lately, I've learned...

It's always nice to be liked, but sometimes it can be interesting to be loathed for no reason by a very small group of people.