A Series of Random Events

On Friday night, Mom asked me to drive over to El Porton to pick us up some dinner. Shelby was on a date with Jordan and Evan was...somewhere, I don't know where, and we were all alone. It was time for a little Katie/Mom splurge. It had already been a fun day. I had slept a little late that morning, then I drove out to Crichton and met some pals for lunch. The only people missing from the group that would have further added to my happiness were Jessica, Jon, and Julianne. I wonder why most of my friends have "J" names? Random! After lunch, I drove to a business building to drop off our car insurance checks, and it felt like I was stuck in a Die Hard movie. The building was laid out exactly like the Nakatomi Building, and I kept waiting for Bruce Willis to pop through the elevator ceiling, barefoot and smoking a cigarette. After that, I hit Borders, which didn't have the book I was looking for, which I incidentally found at Target, of all places. I'm starting to lose faith in Borders.

In any case, it had been a long, but fun, day, and dinner with Mom sounded good. So I got in my car and drove over. It isn't a long drive, but the last time I drove there at night, I accidentally blew a tire when I jumped the curb. My depth perception at night is pretty stinky, so I was glad it was fairly light when I got there. It's usually impossible to get a parking space in the same hemisphere as the restaurant at El Porton, so I cheerfully held up traffic for a few minutes when I saw a women coming out at just the right time! I usually hate holding up traffic, but c'est la vie. I was there first.

Going to El Porton is always an interesting experience for me. Almost without fail, someone flirts with me. I'm not used to being flirted with...I don't consider myself pretty enough for guys to bother with, so maybe they're always desperate or drunk. This isn't a case of me depreciating myself, so no comments, please. I know that I have a lot to offer the world, I just think that my assets are more in the personality department. I'm definitely no Twiggy Blondie. In any case, it can be entertaining.

I walk over to the bar, which is, incidentally, where you have to pick up to-go orders. I'm not very comfortable around bars, especially on Friday nights when people are apt to be a little crazy anyway from Thank God It's Friday-itis. But cheese dip is worth it, so I strode up and asked for my order. There, behind the bar, was standing one of the gayest guys I've ever seen in my life. He had limp wrist syndrome and everything. This doesn't bother me like it used to--I've decided that my primary loathing towards people is towards idiots and slugs, so if a gay guy gets in there and works hard, I can deal with it. We started chatting, and I actually enjoyed our conversation. We had similar sarcastic senses of humor. It turned out that he's a student at U of M, majoring in International Business. I asked if that involved a lot of PR, and he asked what PR was. Ok, so maybe the idiot thing was there, but I was bored. They still hadn't brought out my food. He apologized for my having to wait and I shrugged. "What else do I have to do? It's Friday night." He looked at me knowingly and nodded. "No life, huh?" I laughed and said, "I'm a college student. Of course I have no life!"

We kept talking, and it turned out that he came from the same part of Arkansas that my family is from. His folks must be so proud. Still, I did feel an overwhelming desire to break out into "It's a small world, after all..."

It all goes to show that even picking up food can become an adventure with me around.