Top Ten Naughtiest
Gas Station Roses
I took notes from our trip so I could tell you about it. I typed them out on my phone along the way, and they make no sense to anyone but me. I've done this before on trips, and then forgot about the notes. Then I've went back later and reread them. Some things I recognize right away and others confuse me. I had good intentions to start telling you about the trip yesterday and to do things around the house, but instead, I drank two beers and listened to music and worked on recreating my "Night Music" playlist that I accidentally deleted. I laughed and kissed my husband, and I yelled at our bad dog. I love her in spite of her being so terrible. She's not been raised properly, and pugs are number 4 on the list of the top ten naughtiest dogs Kelly tells me.
Oh, but first on Valentine's Day we went to Thai Taste for dinner with our gift certificate Kelly had managed to save from my weekly prying. There was nobody there, and it was nice to have the whole restaurant to ourselves. I had Thai Iced Tea and Tom Kha Soup with veggies and tofu. I never want any meat. For dessert, I scalded my tongue on the Tapioca Pudding with Coconut Milk. I just slurped it down because I'd had it before at other restaurants, and it was usually lukewarm. Anyway, I overheard our waitress chatting with a customer waiting for a pick up order at the front, and I briefly understood life coaches. She said that she'd come to the restaurant when it first opened and that she liked the food so much she ate there for three days straight, begging for a job each day. She told the customer that she loved the food, and she just worked there because of her love of Thai food. She said she was a Christian, and she looked at it as another form of service. She really enjoyed getting to know the different people who eat Thai food, and that "even if it was a bad day at work, most people view Thai food as a comfort. Plus, when she was having a bad day, it wasn't like someone would die like at the ER." She told him she believed in carrying this into any job she worked in, and she was really happy working at Thai Taste. I told Kelly I wanted to hire her so she could teach me how to live my life. She sounded so happy as if money just took care of itself and that it was better to be satisfied with what you are doing every day. I'm not currently into what I do everyday, but at 35, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I'm most passionate about books and coffee, and I think I'd love to work in one of those fields but I'm terrified about having no money and no health insurance. I don't know, though. She almost convinced me to ask for a job there. I admire people who just know, without a doubt, what they want out of life. I've never been that sort. People with decisive walks make me swoon because I've always been a meandering sort.
After the trauma of dropping off the dog at the vet to be boarded, Kelly and I hit the road on Friday morning to head to the Northwest Arkansas. It was a nice and sunny drive, and I drank lots of iced coffee on the way. We split different flavored "beef sticks" which I got a kick out of calling them in a pervy way. Being overly caffeinated made me leer at him, and say, "Gimme some of that beef stick," and then I would laugh wildly because I'm rarely mature when it's just the two of us. That's the fun of married life for me--being a complete bizarro day in and day out with the one you love. Anyway, there was a pork and ostrich beef stick, and I screeched, "Who in the hell would think would think of putting pork and ostrich together?" Seriously, it's obscene. When I ate it, it just tasted like the spices and like every other beef stick in the package. Just the idea of pork and poultry mixed up weirded me out, I guess.
We finally stopped at a gas station after several hours in the car and did the stiff walk like zombies. They had all their Easter candy out already, and I bought two of the Reese's White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup King Sized eggs. The eggs are the best because I hate the crinkly edges on peanut butter cups. When I was younger, I told Mom once before I properly though it out, "Ahhh, the reason for the season," while clutching a Cadbury Creme Egg. She almost slapped my face, but then I thought about it and realized what I was saying. The man in front of Kelly and I at the gas station joked with the employees. He was a regular, and he scolded them by name when couldn't remember what brand of cigarettes he liked. He gave them three chances to get it right, and finally, one did. When we were walking across the parking lot, I heard the intercom, "Customer #47, your shower is now ready."
I will tell you more about our trip soon and show you photos. It's a day by day retelling because we saw so much. In other news, we've decided to drive instead of fly to New Mexico. I'm okay with that because while I hate the drive through Oklahoma, I do love driving across that barren part of Texas. There's this one part where they warn you by sign about 20 times to get gas before entering no man's land. Last time when we drove through, we stopped at the gas station everyone stops at, and I checked in on Facebook out of boredom, and someone had labeled it as "Gas Station in the Middle of Nowhere." That made me laugh, but that's really what it is. I can't remember if the scrub brush barren zone was actually in Texas or New Mexico. It rides that border so maybe it's in both.
Kelly stopped by our office today, and I called him "Baby" in the workplace. It slipped out fast as a mouse before I could catch it. One of the students leaned around the column to see who was with me.