I slept in this morning in honor of the official start of my vacation. Glorious.
I wrote a short article about onesentence.org for the STC newsletter and sent it to John as a potential filler (i.e., if he needs one) article for the October edition, or it can be used in the January edition instead—if at all. I do love to write.
After looking one more time for my large black suitcase, and saying for the umpteenth time, “There’s no way a suitcase that big isn’t somewhere where I can see it in this house,” it finally occurred to me that the big black suitcase that I have planted so firmly in my mind’s eye is actually my parents’ big black suitcase—the one they took on our trip over Labor Day, but which I kept tabs on the whole time; I came to feel as thought it was mine, I guess. Bless my aging mess.
I ran several errands today:
- I stopped by the outlet mall near the airport, which I see has had a name change from Prime Outlet Mall, but Morrisville Outlet Mall. What hasn’t changed is the deserted inside in terms of both a lack of customers as well as a bunch of vacant storefronts.
I had a killer lunch at the Asian food place in the Food Court—a chicken dish so hot it made me both cry and sweat.
Walking by the Bass store on the way to the Samsonite store, I windowed-shopped there as they had luggage on sale in their window: a $114 one marked down to $89. At the Samsonite store, I had to ask for help even though I was the only person in the store. I was not impressed with the prices either—even the ones on special. Nothing outlet about the prices in my frugal opinion.
I returned to the Bass store and bought the one in the window. The cashier said as she handed me my receipts, “Because you spent over $60 with us today, you get a $5 off coupon for anything at Geoffrey Beane and another $5 one for anything at Izod. Both good only today. In addition, you get a coupon for [some amount I can’t remember] to use in any Bass store between [some dates I can’t remember, however I do know they were over the holidays, but something like starting after Christmas and stopping some time mid-January]. I passed on Geoffrey Beane and Izod today.
- Since I was heading to RTP, I ran to the Apple Store at Southpoint where I bought two things: another pair of earbuds and a splitter so that Robert and I can both listen to my iPod on our trip.
- I stopped by my IBM office, where I printed off some directions from the Sydney Airport to the Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort, from there back to the Westin in Sydney, and from the Westin back to the airport. Something I didn’t realize: Mapquest only offers “Europe” for foreign map services. I used Google Maps instead.
- I stopped by the Coastal Federal Credit Union off Page Road, which I hate, hate, hate. (I’ve ranted about that place before. You have to talk to a teller through a video screen. Hate it.) I did successfully manage to withdraw from savings: 5 100-dollar bills, 6 50-dollar bills, 9 20-dollar bills, a 10-dollar bill, and 10 ones.
- My next stop was the Target off I-70. I spent way too much time in there looking for some little chains to replace the ones that came as part of the luggage tags I bought—ones that will blatantly stand out on the bags at baggage claim.
My best purchase there by far, however, was another splitter. Needless to say, I’ll be returning the one to the Apple store.
From the Apple Store
Monster iSplitter 200
$19.99
From Target
Belkin Headphone Splitter for iPod
$9.99$6.98$2.48!
I stopped by home, where I grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed over to Helios, where I devised this blog entry, and read homework assignments for tomorrow night’s class even though I won’t be there for it.
My commitment to the professor is that I’d read the assignments while I’m gone, but instead of posting responses to the questions on the discussion board, I’ll just do a little write up of the salient points I took away from each article.
There were several outbursts of “Hip, Hip, Hurray,” here as, I believe, various (winning, I’d say) candidates from today’s elections showed up to celebrate with their campaign workers (I’m assuming).
When Helios closed at 10:00, I stopped by skareyoke at Flex, and stayed just a little while, enjoying two cocktails.
It was young Richard’s (the bartender’s) birthday this past Saturday, and there was a cake there for him, so I had a piece of that. He is one-half my age. Fucker. 
I played one game of pool with this young kid, whom I didn’t realize was so drunk. What gave it away? Well, halfway through the game, he suddenly switched over to hitting the solids—which were mine. Bless his mess.
After he “accidentally” hit in one of his own balls (stripes), he didn’t take another turn (because he thought he’d gotten one of mine in), so I took my next shot and got two (solids) in in a row. After the second one, he goes, “Man, do you have solids?”
“I do…” I said. “…had ’em since the beginning.”
“Sorry, man. I’ve been drinking a lot.”
I thought, “Ya, think?”
I was home by 11:30, and did a load of laundry before bed. Tomorrow’s the big trip.