2. Sunday I finished Geektastic
the book of short stories about geekdom. I loved it, even though sometimes I feel as though I don't have enough geek cred. I know nothing about Battlestar Gallactica or Star Trek. I've never RPGed or WOWd. But stories in this book totally connected with me. Sarah Zarr's story about being a theatre geek particularly, but a lot of the others connected. I miss my geeky friends even more now.3. Sarah Michelle Gellar has a new show starting in the Fall, and it looks really interesting. Mistaken identity is usually interesting, and since I'm so deep into Buffy right now seeing SMG onscreen again will be really cool.
4. Taylor Swift is amazing in concert. See her if you possibly can. There will be a post about my "Taylor Swift Journey" soon.
5. A story. The first night of our travels, Wednesday night, we arrived at our hotel whereupon my friend Katie and I decided the acquisition of ice cream was imperative. We set off downstairs where our quest was thwarted by the closed giftshop--which had really odd hours. 7-11 and 5-9. Fom 11-5 you were SOL. Anyway, the receptionist informed us ice cream could be have at the Shell station.
We set off. At one point, I stopped to tie my shoe (this will be important later, much like Chekov's gun). In the Shell parking lot my Swiss army knife somehow fell out of my wallet when it should have been in my purse, not my wallet. That thing WANTS to be lost, I swear.
Anyway. We chose our three flavors of Ben & Jerry's (not, you may be disappointed to know Late Night Snack because, ew, potato chip ice cream) and proceeded to the checkout where there was already a woman standing there scratching off lottery tickets. We'll call her Sylvia. She was maybe forty, aged beyond her years with a platinum blond ponytail and stretch black shirt and shorts. Also, bright purple eyeshadow. The check out girl was maybe nineteen and didn't have English as a first language. Her name was Gabriella.
The conversation:
Sylvia: twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred. twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred,. twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred. Oh my God. I just won five hundred dollars Holy shit. Holy shit. *to us* sorry, I'm swearing. Holy shit. *to Gabriella* Tell me I'm not wrong!
Gabriella: No. You're not. (NB not sure, but I rather think the ticket was read wrong.)
Sylvia: Holy shit. *high fives Gabriella* My dad is going to be so happy! Give me the money.
Gabriella: I can't. I only have eighty dollars in the register.
Sylvia: No! No! I'm not leaving. Give me my money!
Gabriella: I can't!
Sylvia: No! No! *crying* My dad will be so proud! I need to get the money. Give me a canceled ticket so I can get it somewhere else. So they'll give it to me. Holy shit.
I suppose Gabriella did this. Her face suggested she had seen the same South Florida news segments I had and just wanted to get the weirdly dressed crying woman out of her Shell station before shots were fired. or a car was driven in through the wall. (South Florida news is full of this stuff)
My friend and I paid for our ice cream and started walking home. On the way, I picked up the hotel key I'd accidentally left on the ground while tying my shoe.
Until we told her the lengths we had to go to to get the ice cream, I'm pretty sure Mom thought we'd spent the time riding the elevators up and down as we were wont to do as kids*.
*We seriously considered it.
