~Monday~ Another predictable buscapade: Sci-Fi Fantasy Man read science fiction; Grumpy Boy didn’t smile, but clothing of note included long pants that I knew were hanging low even though he was sitting down, because they gathered in the area of his ankles; and the bus driver blew the horn while passing the Section 8 housing.
I was shocked to find a reminder from the library that my book, Big Machine, is due this Thursday. I just picked it up last Thursday. This is a 365-page book. Who can read that in a week? And work, too?
I’m going to wait until Thursday to try, but I’m guessing I won’t be able to renew it either, since it’s a new book. Oh well. I have had it long enough to know that it’s a must-read, so I’ll get back in the queue for another copy as soon as I can.
The other advisor on the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trip welcomed me today, and said this about our team leader and about my expected role on the team: “She is the student team leader and her role is to plan the entire trip—travel, service, budget, social justice theme education, etc. She is experienced; this is her 3rd trip to plan so your role becomes support person to her as needed, van driver extraordinaire and role model volunteer!”
Woohoo! I asked her if the van will be standard or automatic transmission. Although I can drive either, it’s been years and years since I’ve driven a standard shift. Her answer was, “Automatic.”
Here in Raleigh, and probably in N.C. in general, there is a brouhaha going on about 20 criminals with life sentences being released from prison in a few days due to some glitch in the law. I learned today, through the Google Alert I have set up on my name, that one of them shares my name. Great.
The bus ride home brought more stories from someone I don’t think I’ve named, but I’ve definitely talked about. She’s a lot like Diarrhea-of-the-Mouth Lady, only she’s white. She’s the one who, way back when, was talking about her friend who worked at Two Guys whose tips got stolen by two co-workers and whose home has men coming in and out of it all the time because of drug traffic and her niece being a ‘ho. Then, said ‘ho was spotted out the bus window at that very moment walking along the sidewalk. But I digress…
Anyhoo, when I got on, she was in the middle of some story… “Yeah, I was able to say no on that application, because they asked, ‘Have you ever been convicted of a crime?’ Now, if they’d’ve asked, ‘Have you ever been charged with a crime, I wouldn’t have been able to say no.’ Because being convicted means you’ve had a trail and they’ve actually found you guilty and you did some time.” She went on to talk about the two jobs she’s been fired from—the first one after three months, and the second one after five months.
Her next topic of conversation was about how “the man” was sticking it to the people trying to get the temporary jobs at the fair, which is currently in progress in Raleigh: “They arrested five people out there this week. What they do is hang out there and check the names of people as they apply and then arrest them for having an outstanding warrant on them. They’re entrapping them; that’s what they’re doing.”
I swear if this woman knew as much about a topic such as biology or mathematics to the extent that she knows how to stick it to, manipulate, or totally avoid our social welfare, law enforcement, and judicial systems, she could have a B.S. degree. Oh wait, I guess she does have a BS degree.
Joe and I parked at NC State in the lot at the corner of Brooks and Hillsborough Street, and caught the bus to the State Fair ($4.00 roundtrip) at the intersections of Brooks and Vanderbilt. We went solely for the food, and I fulfilled the tweet I sent just before leaving my house:
| Off to eat something potentially totally obscene at the NC State Fair. |
As feared:
|
Food Item |
Cost |
Comments |
| Kielbasi with Grilled Onions and Green Peppers | $7.00 | Delicious! Totally worth it. |
| French Fries (Jumbo Size) | $8.00 | Served in a dog dish. We used a spray bottle of vinegar to douse them. I kid you not—a dog dish!
|
| Elephant Ear Fried Dough with Apple Topping | $6.00 | The plain version was $5.00. The fruit topping cost a dollar extra. I also added free cinnamon on the top. By far the messiest thing to eat. Note for State Fair 2010: Get this without a topping. |
| Chocolate-Covered Bacon (4 Strips) |
$5.00 | For this price I expected the bacon to at least be the thick-slab, extra wide kind. It wasn’t. Definitely the lowest “value for the money” purchase, as it was just okay to me. It could have been the semi-sweet chocolate. I prefer milk chocolate. My favorite part was the end of one side, which didn’t have any chocolate on it, presumably so you could hold it more easily. |
| Root Beer Float (with Vanilla Ice Cream) | $3.00 | During our entire two hours there we looked for the A&W booth so that I could get this float. We remembered seeing it last year, and in particular the (lonely) lady who was working the booth, who went on and and on about the history of root beer before serving us. We joked that maybe she had died and didn’t get a booth this year. How would we know?
There were plenty of other places from which I could have gotten ice cream or a float, but I wanted that A&W booth, even though there’s an A&W place cohabitating with the KFC on Western Boulevard near my house where I could get one of these for probably half the price any day of the year. We finally found it at the very end, on the way out, which means it was right near where we came in, too, since we exited the same gate. And after all that, as we walked away from the booth with my float, Joe said, “Look at that!” pointing at the name of the place. “It’s not even an A&W place!” Well it was the same place we got it from last year, and it was delicious. And the lady was still alive. |
That was the total gastronomical damage. The total financial damage? $40 (the $4.00 bus fare + that food + the $7.00 admission charge).