In Eckleburg's Eyes - 9/5/2008

I had a great (but exceedingly long) Thursday in which I got to see many of my friends, including KJW. Need I say it was a good day?

My Bible Study was held at 11:45 and we covered the “I am” statements in the Gospel of John. Despite significantly exceeding the allotted time, we have been forced to make this a two-part episode.

After the class, I ran errands and in the process stopped to see SMA and my cousin HLN. At the home of the latter I was mauled by three dogs. Fortunately they were of the small punting variety so no harm was done.

On Thursday night, I visited JTH at MoFoS. We were joined by RAW and KJW. They had picked up food at McDonald’s and decided to eat with us in the store. Had anyone other than JTH been working the counter, we would not have allowed KJW to eat on it.

KJW got an Obi-Wan toy with her Happy Meal. It is evidently part of a promotional partnership with the animated Clone Wars film. McDonald’s has given her a love for Star Wars. It almost evokes tears to see a national corporation educating children this well. (Note: this is her father showing her the Star Wars films on DVD. She was clearly impressed.)

After she finished eating, we allowed KJW run roughshod over the store as usual. I took note that she stopped at the RedLine display. (Remember MoFOS is self described as the “Nation’s top ‘Redline’ distributor.”) We may use this incident to claim that kids love RedLine. Nothing else has worked in moving the film.

After some time at MoFoS, a large group went to Applebees. RAW and KJW went home as it was past her bedtime. I ate with Andy, GAB, SCB’s brother (SCB no longer goes out after 10 pm), CTH, NHH, JTH, and JBT. Depsite Applebees offering all-you-can-eat entrees ("Endless Favorites"), we stuck with the appetizers. I am not the only one addicted.

We requested AFH as our waitress but she did not have a table large enough to accommodate us. Our replacement waitress was Marlana (MO). The 24-year old Dalton, Georgia, native has worked at the restaurant only a short while and had never served us. She was named after the longtime Days of Our Lives’ character played by Deidre Hall (pictured). We learned this as I randomly referenced the character. I incurred no small amount of teasing for doing so.

We quickly bonded with MP. After greeting us, she said she would return in a minute. I timed her at 4:05:90. She “appreciated” this gesture. (Her timing was consistent all night.) We later had a contest to guess her age. JTH won hitting it on the nose. He is like those guys at carnivals who can guess people’s weights. My guess was close (25). She was most displeased with SCB’s brother for guessing highest at 27.

I had not seen NHH in some time. The former MoFoS manager, has returned to the store. He will begin working Saturdays and Sundays next weekend (September 13-14). He presently works for KUB and loathes the job so much that he has contemplated allowing himself to be hit by a car to collect worker’s compensation. That is some serious dissatisfaction. If he does indeed go through with this plan, I must note that he said this only gesting...

We had fun. Clothing was a big topic of conversation. GAB entered wearing a UT shirt and I noted that he must be a true fan. He immediately retorted, “No. I had nothing else to wear.”

CTH’s wardrobe was another key topic of conversation, or ridicule anyway. He dressed rather nicely with a button up, jeans, and was seen earlier in the day with his sunglasses resting on his head. With this group, these were capitol offenses. For some unknown reason, CTH is always the object of ridicule.