Adventures with varouna: Northampton edition
What, it's been six days already since my last post?
Last Saturday I did get together with varouna and Jeremy for a fun day out. We went to Northampton - just where I was the week before - since Jeremy wanted to visit the Raven Used Bookstore for some Christmas shopping. Northampton on a Saturday is busy, but the Saturday before Christmas added some extra spice of college folks and the upper-middle-class Baby Mozart-purchasing set.
I picked up a few books, including the super-awesome "Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Mega Beasts" book by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart; it's an amazing pop-up book that adults may enjoy more than kids. While I didn't see any near-fistfights or a dude juggling snowballs like last visit, I did introduce them to the delicious Bueno Y Sano. However, we did see this old bearded hippy dude playing his guitar and singing, only to get bumped from his own corner by the Salvation Army folks singing Christmas carols to raise money. He tried to keep going for a bit, but he looked more and more sore. And he should have - he was there first!
I also got some music from the record store: part two of the Depeche Mode singles collection (which we played on the way back to Bristol), "American Gangster" by Jay-Z, "Kala" by M.I.A., and "Hypnotize" by System of a Down.
We also were lucky to get home in one piece. While driving back to varouna's mom's house, this guy in an SUV stopped at his stop sign on a side road to the right off the major road I was on - so I had the right of way. He then inched forward, stopped again, and then tried to cross once I was about three seconds away from him. I piled on my brakes and, thinking that I'm going to hit him, turned left to try to glance off a headlight (there was no oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, otherwise I really would have been stuck). He stopped mid-turn once he saw me, and my car comes to a total stop about an inch before impact.
If he had kept going, I would have totally T-boned him. And if I had hit him, it would have been all his fault, because he pulled out into oncoming traffic without having the right of way. varouna had a one-man band beating in her chest after that, especially since earlier that day she was saying that she didn't want to get her nose broken in a car crash because she's so short!
Last Saturday I did get together with varouna and Jeremy for a fun day out. We went to Northampton - just where I was the week before - since Jeremy wanted to visit the Raven Used Bookstore for some Christmas shopping. Northampton on a Saturday is busy, but the Saturday before Christmas added some extra spice of college folks and the upper-middle-class Baby Mozart-purchasing set.
I picked up a few books, including the super-awesome "Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Mega Beasts" book by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart; it's an amazing pop-up book that adults may enjoy more than kids. While I didn't see any near-fistfights or a dude juggling snowballs like last visit, I did introduce them to the delicious Bueno Y Sano. However, we did see this old bearded hippy dude playing his guitar and singing, only to get bumped from his own corner by the Salvation Army folks singing Christmas carols to raise money. He tried to keep going for a bit, but he looked more and more sore. And he should have - he was there first!
I also got some music from the record store: part two of the Depeche Mode singles collection (which we played on the way back to Bristol), "American Gangster" by Jay-Z, "Kala" by M.I.A., and "Hypnotize" by System of a Down.
We also were lucky to get home in one piece. While driving back to varouna's mom's house, this guy in an SUV stopped at his stop sign on a side road to the right off the major road I was on - so I had the right of way. He then inched forward, stopped again, and then tried to cross once I was about three seconds away from him. I piled on my brakes and, thinking that I'm going to hit him, turned left to try to glance off a headlight (there was no oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, otherwise I really would have been stuck). He stopped mid-turn once he saw me, and my car comes to a total stop about an inch before impact.
If he had kept going, I would have totally T-boned him. And if I had hit him, it would have been all his fault, because he pulled out into oncoming traffic without having the right of way. varouna had a one-man band beating in her chest after that, especially since earlier that day she was saying that she didn't want to get her nose broken in a car crash because she's so short!