My Day in Memphis
Aug. 22nd, 2014 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earlgreytea68So last week, literally the day before I had to drive my car, like, 1200 miles or whatever it is, I received a recall notice on it.
So as you can imagine, that made for a stress-free trip down (which I am going to write up in greater detail at a later point in time).
I called as soon as I got down here to set up an appointment to have the car serviced. This involved me driving an hour to Memphis. Because basically most general life things here involve driving an hour to Memphis. As a Rhode Islander, I die every time I think about how I never drove home from Boston without staying overnight because of how long the trip was. Blargh.
So I got up early to make sure I left myself enough time to get to Memphis by 9 am. Walk outside, and my car is literally surrounded by pickup trucks. Literally. I wish I'd taken a picture on my phone, but I wasn't in the mood. I knocked on the house next to me and said, "...Could someone move a truck so I can get out?" Why would you block someone in like that? Especially when there was plenty of parking, just, like, two doors down, and apparently that was too far for people to walk so they just parked in front of, on the side of, and behind my car, in a totally non-threatening manner at all. (LITERALLY. I park on the street, and they were LITERALLY parked on the side of me, so that if someone had been parked on the opposite side of the street, they wouldn't have been able to pass. WHY NOT JUST PARK ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STREET? WHY PARK NEXT TO MY CAR *IN THE ACTUAL STREET*?)
So began my day of wondering How Other Humans Think.
The drive actually wasn't bad. I always *start* my days of driving in a good mood. Like, "Oh, look at these excellent songs on my MP3 player, don't I have lovely taste in music, oh, look, an episode of Cabin Pressure, why don't I listen to that and kill half the ride," etc. And I'm all benevolent toward everyone. "Look how lovely this car is moving out of my way. Look at how everyone is driving according to logical rules that make sense."
And I didn't get lost at all and the dealership people were absolutely lovely and gave me a loaner car.
A BRAND NEW LOANER CAR.
I see the devious ways of the dealership people. This car was my car, only NEWER and SHINIER and it was a HYBRID so it was all quiet and still and environmentally responsible and it had this little light that flashed if cars were in your blind spot on the highway and it was so *smooth.* I have a nice car, I love my car, I never once considered my car to be inferior in any way UNTIL I DROVE THE BRAND NEW VERSION OF IT. DAMN YOU, DEALERSHIP PEOPLE.
So I went from the dealership to a nearby Starbucks, where I ordered a blackberry mojito iced tea (it was *super* sweet - if that's how you roll with your iced tea, go for it, but it was too much for me, I drink my iced tea unsweetened in any way) and I sat and happily worked for two hours. I bought a new computer a couple of weeks ago, because mine was several years old and just, like, not right, and it was so amazing to have battery last longer than 45 minutes. My battery said it would last six hours. SIX HOURS, YOU GUYS. And, anyway, I was super-productive, as I always am in coffee shops, and the music was good, and it was all lovely. And I decide I am going to treat myself to Dunkin' Donuts (because I had perks that were going to expire on Monday and this was my last chance to be near a DD for the foreseeable future) and also to a MOVIE. I almost never go to movies. I am not much of a movie person. But I thought I would go see that Daniel Radcliffe romcom because basically my speed when I do see movies is: light, fluffy, with someone British.
ANYWAY, I walk out to my loaner car and the sideview mirrors have been pushed in. "Weird," I think. "Who would go around pushing in my sideview mirrors?" So I pull them out and get in the car and drive to the Dunkin' Donuts.
Where, in true DD fashion, they got my order wrong. Oh, DD, really, never change, you delightful place, you.
When I left DD, my sideview mirrors were pushed in again, and at that point I was like, "Either someone is following me around pushing in my sideview mirrors or this happens automatically." (It happened automatically. BEST CITY CAR FEATURE EVER.)
Then I went to the movie theater. As I said, I don't go to movies very much. At all. I went more often in New Orleans, where they had a fancy adult theater where you could order champagne delivered to your seat. ...Actually, let's not think too hard about the fact that I like things better with alcohol. MOVING ON. This movie theater was like Epcot. It was fake Tuscany. It had a Tuscan cafe inside a fake piazza with a (real) fountain in the middle of it. I found it all overdramatic and kind of unnecessary, but I did enjoy that the frozen yogurt bar was called Yolo.
I went to my movie, and I was the first one in the theater, and I was like, "NO ONE HAD BETTER COME SIT NEAR ME." Once I went to the movies with my sisters, and we were the only ones in the theater, and a couple came in and sat *literally* directly in front of us, and I was so furious that I made my sisters change seats, because SERIOUSLY? But no one came to sit near me, so YAY.
And I saw the following previews:
Most realistic part of the movie: The Other Man is a copyright lawyer, and he's a nice guy, and mostly the biggest thing wrong with him is he's a lawyer and lawyers are bad at relationships.
Least realistic part of the movie: That in all the discussions about Daniel Radcliffe's character, not a single one of the female characters ever said, "Plus, you know, that accent."
So then I went to pick up my car, which was done. And of course I was subjected to the usual oh-so-hilarious ribbing about being a Northerner in the South. "Did you bring your carpetbag with you?" "Do you know the difference between a Yankee and a damn Yankee? Damn Yankees don't go home." (Me in reply to that: "Don't worry, I go home a lot.")
And I decided to go grocery-shopping in Memphis, because I thought the selection might be better. It was not. Plus, the grocery store was not set up like the one I usually go to (despite being the same chain) so I just wandered around aimlessly stumbling upon things I wanted at random. Also, what is with Velveeta forcing us to buy, like, 32 ounces of it now? My recipe for macaroni and cheese (which is AWESOME) calls for Velveeta, but I don't want THIRTY-TWO OUNCES of Velveeta. ???? The other thing that confused me is that all of their cans were dented. I was taught not to buy dented cans because of botulism fears? Was that just excitability?
As usual, the grocery store put me in a bad mood. AND THEN BEGAN THE DRIVE HOME.
Because I live in the middle of nowhere, the last 30 or so miles of the drive are this irritating, incredibly boring one-lane road. I get SO BORED on this road. I hate all of my music on this road, it is that kind of road. I drove it in the morning okay, but driving it to come home for some reason was just TOO MUCH FOR ME. Compounded by the SLOW PEOPLE IN FRONT OF ME. All I ask is the speed limit, people! I know that I am a crazy New Englander and I try to acknowledge that my rushing around is my issue down here and I need to slow down to try to match the pace of life but COULD WE GO THE SPEED LIMIT. ON THIS WORLD'S MOST BORING ROAD THAT I HAVE TO BE ON FOR THIRTY MILES, COULD WE GO THE SPEED LIMIT OF 55 INSTEAD OF 40? *40.* And the thing that confused me most was that at one point one of the slow people I was behind turned on their flashers, and I was kind of like, "...What actually is the point of that? Like, are you just indicating that your car can't go faster than 40? Do we think this might actually be a safety concern if your car cannot go faster than 40? Your newish car that is not towing anything?" And then I started my Remarks to Other Drivers, that go something like this: "What exactly are you doing right now? Because you are not driving your car. Are you having a picnic? Did you suddenly realize that you chose to have a picnic in your car and should maybe do a little bit of driving in addition to your picnicking - flute practicing - underwater basket weaving - whatever else you are doing INSTEAD OF PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD AND DRIVING YOUR CAR?"
I am such a delight to drive with, you guys, you do not even know. This is why I need robot cars.
Eventually I got home and was in a terrible mood and definitely did not feel like going out and that is generally an indication that I need to go out. And it occurred to me that might be why I don't go to the movies more often. Movies take up valuable time, time I could be in my house, on the Internet, or WRITING. They take up WRITING TIME. And they don't *do* much for me. Like, it was fine, I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't time out with people that would give the extrovert in me the charge I needed. I still had to go out to dinner tonight and be around others, let conversation be buzzing around me, feed off that energy. You don't get that in a movie theater, and I feel like it's possible it throws off my need to balance extroverted activities with introverted activities. I don't know, it was a random thought I had when I was feeling so antsy, that I had spent a large chunk of the day outside of my house, but that I hadn't really been WITH PEOPLE for a large portion of that.
Anyway. Random musings from my day that I decided to write down because I haven't really done any blog posts lately.
So as you can imagine, that made for a stress-free trip down (which I am going to write up in greater detail at a later point in time).
I called as soon as I got down here to set up an appointment to have the car serviced. This involved me driving an hour to Memphis. Because basically most general life things here involve driving an hour to Memphis. As a Rhode Islander, I die every time I think about how I never drove home from Boston without staying overnight because of how long the trip was. Blargh.
So I got up early to make sure I left myself enough time to get to Memphis by 9 am. Walk outside, and my car is literally surrounded by pickup trucks. Literally. I wish I'd taken a picture on my phone, but I wasn't in the mood. I knocked on the house next to me and said, "...Could someone move a truck so I can get out?" Why would you block someone in like that? Especially when there was plenty of parking, just, like, two doors down, and apparently that was too far for people to walk so they just parked in front of, on the side of, and behind my car, in a totally non-threatening manner at all. (LITERALLY. I park on the street, and they were LITERALLY parked on the side of me, so that if someone had been parked on the opposite side of the street, they wouldn't have been able to pass. WHY NOT JUST PARK ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STREET? WHY PARK NEXT TO MY CAR *IN THE ACTUAL STREET*?)
So began my day of wondering How Other Humans Think.
The drive actually wasn't bad. I always *start* my days of driving in a good mood. Like, "Oh, look at these excellent songs on my MP3 player, don't I have lovely taste in music, oh, look, an episode of Cabin Pressure, why don't I listen to that and kill half the ride," etc. And I'm all benevolent toward everyone. "Look how lovely this car is moving out of my way. Look at how everyone is driving according to logical rules that make sense."
And I didn't get lost at all and the dealership people were absolutely lovely and gave me a loaner car.
A BRAND NEW LOANER CAR.
I see the devious ways of the dealership people. This car was my car, only NEWER and SHINIER and it was a HYBRID so it was all quiet and still and environmentally responsible and it had this little light that flashed if cars were in your blind spot on the highway and it was so *smooth.* I have a nice car, I love my car, I never once considered my car to be inferior in any way UNTIL I DROVE THE BRAND NEW VERSION OF IT. DAMN YOU, DEALERSHIP PEOPLE.
So I went from the dealership to a nearby Starbucks, where I ordered a blackberry mojito iced tea (it was *super* sweet - if that's how you roll with your iced tea, go for it, but it was too much for me, I drink my iced tea unsweetened in any way) and I sat and happily worked for two hours. I bought a new computer a couple of weeks ago, because mine was several years old and just, like, not right, and it was so amazing to have battery last longer than 45 minutes. My battery said it would last six hours. SIX HOURS, YOU GUYS. And, anyway, I was super-productive, as I always am in coffee shops, and the music was good, and it was all lovely. And I decide I am going to treat myself to Dunkin' Donuts (because I had perks that were going to expire on Monday and this was my last chance to be near a DD for the foreseeable future) and also to a MOVIE. I almost never go to movies. I am not much of a movie person. But I thought I would go see that Daniel Radcliffe romcom because basically my speed when I do see movies is: light, fluffy, with someone British.
ANYWAY, I walk out to my loaner car and the sideview mirrors have been pushed in. "Weird," I think. "Who would go around pushing in my sideview mirrors?" So I pull them out and get in the car and drive to the Dunkin' Donuts.
Where, in true DD fashion, they got my order wrong. Oh, DD, really, never change, you delightful place, you.
When I left DD, my sideview mirrors were pushed in again, and at that point I was like, "Either someone is following me around pushing in my sideview mirrors or this happens automatically." (It happened automatically. BEST CITY CAR FEATURE EVER.)
Then I went to the movie theater. As I said, I don't go to movies very much. At all. I went more often in New Orleans, where they had a fancy adult theater where you could order champagne delivered to your seat. ...Actually, let's not think too hard about the fact that I like things better with alcohol. MOVING ON. This movie theater was like Epcot. It was fake Tuscany. It had a Tuscan cafe inside a fake piazza with a (real) fountain in the middle of it. I found it all overdramatic and kind of unnecessary, but I did enjoy that the frozen yogurt bar was called Yolo.
I went to my movie, and I was the first one in the theater, and I was like, "NO ONE HAD BETTER COME SIT NEAR ME." Once I went to the movies with my sisters, and we were the only ones in the theater, and a couple came in and sat *literally* directly in front of us, and I was so furious that I made my sisters change seats, because SERIOUSLY? But no one came to sit near me, so YAY.
And I saw the following previews:
- Men, Women, & Children: Watched the whole preview. No idea what this movie is about.
- Into the Woods: The deal with me and Sondheim is I have to admit I never get what the big deal is supposed to be about Sondheim until I see him performed live. I saw "Into the Woods" on a whim when I was living in Boston and could do things like buy a last-minute ticket to Emerson's senior musical. It was by no means a perfect production but I was in tears by the end, DESPITE THE FACT THAT I ALREADY KNEW ALL THE MUSIC AND HAD NEVER CONSIDERED IT A PARTICULAR FAVORITE OF MINE. I don't know what weird magic this is but it was the same way when I heard Bernadette Peters sing "Being Alive" live in person.
- Some Nicholas Sparks movie that looked like every other Nicholas Sparks movie.
- "Pride," which had unexpected Andrew Scott!
Most realistic part of the movie: The Other Man is a copyright lawyer, and he's a nice guy, and mostly the biggest thing wrong with him is he's a lawyer and lawyers are bad at relationships.
Least realistic part of the movie: That in all the discussions about Daniel Radcliffe's character, not a single one of the female characters ever said, "Plus, you know, that accent."
So then I went to pick up my car, which was done. And of course I was subjected to the usual oh-so-hilarious ribbing about being a Northerner in the South. "Did you bring your carpetbag with you?" "Do you know the difference between a Yankee and a damn Yankee? Damn Yankees don't go home." (Me in reply to that: "Don't worry, I go home a lot.")
And I decided to go grocery-shopping in Memphis, because I thought the selection might be better. It was not. Plus, the grocery store was not set up like the one I usually go to (despite being the same chain) so I just wandered around aimlessly stumbling upon things I wanted at random. Also, what is with Velveeta forcing us to buy, like, 32 ounces of it now? My recipe for macaroni and cheese (which is AWESOME) calls for Velveeta, but I don't want THIRTY-TWO OUNCES of Velveeta. ???? The other thing that confused me is that all of their cans were dented. I was taught not to buy dented cans because of botulism fears? Was that just excitability?
As usual, the grocery store put me in a bad mood. AND THEN BEGAN THE DRIVE HOME.
Because I live in the middle of nowhere, the last 30 or so miles of the drive are this irritating, incredibly boring one-lane road. I get SO BORED on this road. I hate all of my music on this road, it is that kind of road. I drove it in the morning okay, but driving it to come home for some reason was just TOO MUCH FOR ME. Compounded by the SLOW PEOPLE IN FRONT OF ME. All I ask is the speed limit, people! I know that I am a crazy New Englander and I try to acknowledge that my rushing around is my issue down here and I need to slow down to try to match the pace of life but COULD WE GO THE SPEED LIMIT. ON THIS WORLD'S MOST BORING ROAD THAT I HAVE TO BE ON FOR THIRTY MILES, COULD WE GO THE SPEED LIMIT OF 55 INSTEAD OF 40? *40.* And the thing that confused me most was that at one point one of the slow people I was behind turned on their flashers, and I was kind of like, "...What actually is the point of that? Like, are you just indicating that your car can't go faster than 40? Do we think this might actually be a safety concern if your car cannot go faster than 40? Your newish car that is not towing anything?" And then I started my Remarks to Other Drivers, that go something like this: "What exactly are you doing right now? Because you are not driving your car. Are you having a picnic? Did you suddenly realize that you chose to have a picnic in your car and should maybe do a little bit of driving in addition to your picnicking - flute practicing - underwater basket weaving - whatever else you are doing INSTEAD OF PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD AND DRIVING YOUR CAR?"
I am such a delight to drive with, you guys, you do not even know. This is why I need robot cars.
Eventually I got home and was in a terrible mood and definitely did not feel like going out and that is generally an indication that I need to go out. And it occurred to me that might be why I don't go to the movies more often. Movies take up valuable time, time I could be in my house, on the Internet, or WRITING. They take up WRITING TIME. And they don't *do* much for me. Like, it was fine, I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't time out with people that would give the extrovert in me the charge I needed. I still had to go out to dinner tonight and be around others, let conversation be buzzing around me, feed off that energy. You don't get that in a movie theater, and I feel like it's possible it throws off my need to balance extroverted activities with introverted activities. I don't know, it was a random thought I had when I was feeling so antsy, that I had spent a large chunk of the day outside of my house, but that I hadn't really been WITH PEOPLE for a large portion of that.
Anyway. Random musings from my day that I decided to write down because I haven't really done any blog posts lately.
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 03:37 am (UTC)OMG do I feel your driving pain. That is exactly how I am when when I'm driving. Unless I am specifically sightseeing, I want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. The speed limit is all I ask for. Just go at least the speed limit.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-27 03:13 am (UTC)THE SPEED LIMIT. IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT IT'S SAFE. JUST DO THE SPEED LIMIT.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 05:25 am (UTC)We get Californians moving up here to Portland because...I don't know why!
And then they encounter RAIN and suddenly they drop to 15mph below the limit, and I'm all, "YES! THAT IS PRECIPITATION FALLING FROM THE SKY! ARE YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH RAIN? DID YOU NOT KNOW IT RAINS IN OREGON? GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU WHITE-KNUCKLED DWEEB AND TURN YOUR DAMNED WIPERS ON!"
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 02:10 pm (UTC)So the other day I was at Starbucks with my daughter***, and I decided to try the blackberry mojito tea, hoping it might have the fruit/mint flavor combination I have been craving, but alas, once again, I was just disappointed...it was not the same. (I know, I know, I can hardly expect blackberry mint tea to taste like lemon mint tea, but such is the state of my tea woes. Woe to my tea. Sad sigh.)
***As near as I can tell, every eleven year old girl in America is obsessed with Starbucks Frappacinos. I rarely go to Starbucks because 1. I am married to a man who practices coffee making with a nearly religious fervor (he roasts his own beans and grinds them in his special grinder, and I'm pretty sure the man produces the finest cup of coffee in the Midwest) and 2. we have a regional coffee chain called Biggby that makes better coffee (IMO), so if I'm buying a coffee, I go to Biggby. But on this occasion, we were at the mall and there was no Biggby, and I wanted something to drink that wasn't a coffee because Starbucks' coffee is neither my husband's nor Biggby's.
2. "What If" isn't playing near my house so I have to drive to Ann Arbor to see it. It's only 45 minutes, and I drive to Ann Arbor for lots of things (concerts, Trader Joes, good Vietnamese food) - but I'm still annoyed by this and can't decide if it's worth it or if I should just wait until it comes available on DVD.
3. I was also taught to never ever never buy dented cans because the food inside could kill you. It's possible my mother was over zealous about this, but I still don't buy dented cans.
4. The best donut I ever had was at Gibson's donuts in Memphis. They are really good. :-)
5. I cannot even begin to understand why people would park their trucks like that, unless it was a meeting of inconsiderate jackasses? (The International Brotherhood of Jackassery, perhaps?). What is wrong with people???
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:53 am (UTC)2. I don't know if the movie was worth the ride on its own, but I don't see many movies, so when one comes out that fits my limited criteria, I do try to make an extra effort to actually see it.
3. Other people have concurred on this!
4. Hmm, I'll have to look out for this!
5. I think they didn't think I'd be leaving. Although I don't know *why* they didn't think that...
no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 02:10 pm (UTC)Where I live, if a car is travelling slower than the speed limit and they put their flashers on, it means that the road ahead is clear and you're okay to overtake them. Not sure if it would have the same meaning where you are, though.
And the ACCENT. How could they not comment on the ACCENT?
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-23 09:14 pm (UTC)Great stuff - thanks for sharing your random day!
J K Rowling purportedly wrote the Harry Potter novels while sitting in coffee shops . . .
I'm going to see "Pride" in September, as a member of the CTBF (Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund) I get to see it before it's released in cinemas - I, too, was amused to see Andrew Scott appearing!
Totally agree about people coming to sit right on top of you in an otherwise empty cinema / restaurant / other public place!!!
Glad you had such a productive day in the end!
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:41 am (UTC)I would love to someday be able to say I wrote a best-selling novel in a coffee shop!
I hope you enjoy "Pride"! From the preview it looked really good!
no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 02:53 am (UTC)I have found a lot of Southerners are very judgmental about Southern accents from other Southern states. I even have had people come up to me and apologize for the "bad accents" of others. I had no idea so many of them felt that way about each other.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 11:08 am (UTC)ANYWAY.
I think your day in Memphis sounds lovely (apart from the drive home). Starbuckses are excellent for writing - except I feel like every time I go into one, there's either never enough seating, or I end up sitting near a window and then I can't see my computer screen. (I found a locally-owned coffeeshop here that I love because it has few windows and no one is ever sitting at my table except for me, and if there are people there, I can glare at them.)
I also talk to other cars on the road. Except I really have to stop doing that because now Andrew is trying to talk to other cars on the road and that is not such a good thing.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:38 am (UTC)I loooove writing in coffee shops, but it's true that they can be tricky. Today I stumbled onto one in my area I actually *like* and I am super-super-psyched about this development.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-26 03:57 pm (UTC)