In Eckleburg's Eyes - 12/29/2008, Part 3

After returning from Newport, I spent Sunday night with JTH and ALK.

We met at Target. JTH returned on Sunday from his vacation in Fontana Village and took ALK to see Marley & Me. ALK cried. Thankfully, she the tears had ceased by the time we met up.

While shopping ALK admitted that she was hungry. ALK making such a claim is rare so we rushed her to get food in the event that she was actually starving. I decided to eat at Mangia Pizza & More as I loved the food I had eaten there on Christmas Eve. This time, the nice girl who suggested the chicken calzone made the dish with grilled chicken instead of fried chicken. It was great though I think I prefer the fried version. That would make since as it is clearly less healthy. They also had better plastic ware on this visit. I only broke one fork cutting the calzone as opposed to five from the previous visit.

Since we were so close, we stopped at the Wal-Mart in the same shopping center. There I made a find. I bought massaging slippers. They are the Wal-Mart brand and made in China. More importantly, they were in the Christmas clearance section for 50% off of their original $15.00 rate. They make noise and make the floor vibrate, but they were a great purchase. My feet feel better already. It took a great deal of restraint to resist the urge to sleep in them.

This is photo is of an employee named Kendra who checked me out (as a cashier, not as a woman). Not since working at the church’s family activity center and seeing JWW have I seen someone whose facial expression screamed, “I want to die!” more than her. The blog has really hurt my ministry. I talked to her but I did not ask her any probing questions as I needed the picture for the blog. Is that wrong?

After a brief after hours stop at MoFoS, we headed back to my house where ALK finally viewed JTH’s all-time favorite movie, Happy Campers. Do not feel bad if you have not heard of it. It was written by Daniel Waters, who also wrote the cult classic Heathers. It was never shown in theaters and distributed on DVD It in 2002. It stars Knoxville native Brad Renfro. Amazingly, this is the first time JTH has viewed the film since Renfro’s untimely death on January 16. ALK did not hate the movie though she did hate the expert commentary JTH and I provided. We obviously provided great insight but she could not focus on the film and that was important since has she not seen the movie on numerous occasions as we have. (Note: It is not one of my favorites, I just watch it as a courtesy to JTH.)

I received a phone call from my dad just before we started the movie. As has been noted, the heat in my apartment has been out. Before calling the repairman he called me and asked, “I wanted to check...You did turn it to heat didn’t you?” It’s official. My dad thinks I’m an idiot. I can’t say that I blame him.

After watching the film, we stayed up half of the night playing the Wii. I learned a new formula on this night: JTH+Wii=cussing. I actually heard my friend cuss more in this one night than all of the years I have known him combined. ALK has often played the Wii with her best friend ALH. In contrast, JTH and I are novices. ALK beat JTH 153-151 in bowling and then 11-10 in ping pong. At this point, I quit keeping track of ALK’s victories. The scores could have been more lopsided as ALK was obviously being merciful to her boyfriend. JTH did settle down after ALK threatened to quit due to his language. I love Bart!

Quote of the night from ALK: “I stink in real life bowling because the balls...I can’t hold them.”