Born in the USA
While at the grocery store I saw two of the saddest, most pathetically American scenes ever.

Scene One:
While we were getting our cart, a relatively overweight little boy was leaving with his mom, whining to her and tugging at her arm. Looked like she rented him some videos to watch at home. On the way out the door, they passed the starbucks stand, which was closing for the night. The chubby little kid stops his mom and pokes his head over the counted to the lady working behind and says, "Oh, Oh, do you have any samples???" His mom tugs him out the door, irate that he's bothering the woman. There obviously aren't any samples.

Without perpetuating the ridiculous stereotype our country has against weight any further, I'd just like to say that this scene did strike an ironic and sadly American chord in both Justin and I. Consumption, overindulgence, gluttony. I feel bad for the kid if he's just cursed with bad genetics (though I didn't get that idea from the mom's figure) but... it was just so dreadfully, awfully, ironically classic.

Scene Two:
The cereal isle. Justin and I are perusing breakfast cereal, forgetting that we have a cupboard full of it at home. D'oh. We're down at the end with the granola bars and the bulk Seattle's Best coffee. It smells so DAMN good down there all the time. God, why must coffee treat me so poorly when I love it's smell and taste so much? Gah.

But I digress. We were looking at some cheap cereal when we hear the sound of something spilling all over the floor and some guy cursing. We look up and what do we see? A man in a button-up shirt and trousers, who HAD been scooping coffee beans into a bag before he dropped them onto the floor. He was now trying to pick them up with his one free hand. The other hand was occupied with his cell phone that he was still relentlessly chattering into.

I had to stop Justin when he saw this one. He started to say, rather loudly, something rude about people who talk on their cell phones all the time but I stopped him. Bad karma, you know. Or maybe I just pitied the poor bastard enough to leave him to collect his caffienated goodness while enjoying the wonders of modern technology. Yeah, right.

And that's not all. I came home, put away the groceries, and ran myself a bath while Justin cooked. I was walking around the apartment in the "European" fashion, as I sometimes do, because my bath was almost ready. I walked into the kitchen to toss something into the garbage under the sink when someone walked by the window. I froze, then doubled over under the counter. Oh, Jesus, I just gave out next-door neighbor a full-on frontal flash. This is me hiding on the kitchen floor.

Funny, that. We'd been trying to get a hold of the neighbors for the past hour to borrow their vacuum-- we have two and neither works-- and they weren't answering the door even though their lights were on. So NOW they chose to bring it over. ARGH.

Justin took the vacuum (consequently letting all the cold air into the house) and I crawled out from under the window to the hall where I was sure Denny wouldn't see me when he left. Justin said the guy didn't even bat an eye.

Boy, I'm never gonna live that one down.