Romance Languages drinking night (3 of 3): Alabama memories.

Later that night, I found out that the one (French) student had been in Alabama a bit for this summer too, on a road trip with his girlfriend and a few other people.

In one rural town, he said that as you approached, all you could see was this giant looming illuminated billboard advertising a sex shop on some nearby rural road.

On the outskirts of the town, they pulled into the gas station to stay at the hotel, which was just around the other side of the gas station, but in this big complex with its facade all tricked out to look like some antebellum mansion.

As they pulled around into that parking lot, this gruff (white) biker guy arced out and passed them, and he had this giant blowup doll sitting on the bike seat in front of him, and she was dressed in jean shorts and a top.

Everyone in the car stared at this biker as he left at the parking lot, too, and he looked at them and their eyes met.

The one (French) student said that it was the most memorable part of the trip, and that no-one could figure out what the guy was doing, since it didn't make sense that he was coming from the sex shop (= the doll was already inflated).

I raised the possibility that the biker had just got done treating her out to a night at the hotel, since that's something special that couples do sometimes, to get out of the house for a treat without the cost of a whole vacation.

The one (French) student found that plausible, I think.

As I said, we were pretty hammered.

Romance Languages drinking night (2 of 3): The Paris attacks.

That same night as we were all talking, we got on the subject of the Paris attacks.

I said that in one news report, it said that at this one French high school, armed guards stood right outside to keep all the teenagers safe who had come out to smoke cigarettes.

"That makes me like France some," I was like.  "To think of all the high schoolers coming outside for cigarettes."

"I know, it's cute," said the one (gay) (Mexican-American) guy, who also seemed to find that factoid genuinely endearing.

The one (French) student wanted to know where the article was, to figure out which town this was in.

He also said that he smoked in high school and you had to go off of school property in order to do it, so everyone always just stepped out just past the border of the schoolyard in order to smoke, and there'd always be a group of teens smoking there between classes.

Romance Languages drinking night (1 of 3): Hispanic name games...

So, the other week I got really hammered at the (student) bar with some Romance Languages people I know.

One of them is this (gay) (Mexican-American) guy I've met a few times, and when I met him again, I couldn't remember his name right away.

"I know your name is something with a 'juh'," I said, trying to bring his name to mind.

"That's right," he was like.  "The most common Spanish name."

"Jorge!", I was like.

"No," he was like, "The other most common name."

"Okay..." I was like, "Maria!".

Fortunately, he found that funny.

My environmental neuroticism, manifest in tupperware usage:

So, with this cheap soup container Tupperware that I got at a Christmas gift swap years ago and use to pack pasta in for lunches at school, the outer layer got cracked and the styrofoam beneath began showing through.

First, I wondered if I could still use it that way, but I decided against it, since that would be unfeasible and ridiculous.

Then, I tore off the outer layer, and realized that the inner layer was still intact, no cracks.

So, now I use that still for my pasta, since it's not like I have to keep it warm or anything.

Still Another Dream of Things Decaying: Venetian Blinds.

The other week I dreamt that I was pulling the one Venetian blind in my house, where the left half of it already won't go up right, and the string covering on the other half had come off, and the thin string left on the pull cord just suddenly snapped, and the Venetian blind wouldn't work anymore.

Brand Associations.

My new external hard-drive is called "Cruzer Glide", and that name pops up on the computer every time I insert it and go to open it.

It makes me think of lube.

Subway platform interaction w/a(n old) Pakistani.

The other week I was on the subway platform and as I was walking up to the bench area to go wait, ahead of me was this older (white bearded) (Pakistani) guy, and this mouse ran right in front of him and he turned to look at it along with me, and it ran right up into this crevice between two closely set metal columns.

I walked up around the columns and looked between the crevice, and there was the mouse just sitting at the bottom eating something, and then the Pakistani guy walked up to the other side to look too.

After that, we talked a bit, though I could barely understand him because of his accent.

He said something about how the mouse just found its food and lived outside, and it sounded like he was saying that animals have a better, simpler life than us, but then he said that humans were the most blessed of all the animals.

I'm not sure if I misunderstood him because of his accent, or if his thoughts were inconsistent.

As I was attempting to clarify, the train came up and he said bye and be well and got into the car just ahead of me, so now I'll never know.