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Adventures with Kate, part six

On the evening of August 11, after Kate and I had gotten back from our visit to St. Augustine, we heard someone else in the apartment. Andy and I had been the only ones living there at the time, and Andy was out-of-state, so it wasn’t him. A month before, we had been told that our four-bedroom apartment would be getting two new roommates, both foreign grad students, immediately—but nothing had come of it. Finally, here was the first roommate.

I went over to the occupied room to say hello to the first new roommate. He had just come from Beijing, and he said that his friend, the other roommate, would be coming in a few days.

The next day, Thursday, August 12, I had to go in to work. Normally I would have the whole break off, but I’d had so much work that I couldn’t finish it all before the break, so I had chosen to go in on this day. I strolled in with Kate, both of us sunburned, and my boss commented on how I was clearly enjoying my break.

When I was done with work, my parents and grandmother picked us up; we would be spending a few days with them. The first thing we did was hit the post office. I had bought a guitar online for one of Kate’s friends, who had given me the money to buy it. Either they wouldn’t ship it to Russia or the Russian postal service isn’t trustworthy (or both), so Kate was going to take it back to Russia herself.

It was still pretty early once we had gotten the guitar, but we decided to have an early dinner at the one and only Satchel’s Pizza. Since it was so early, we didn’t have to wait for a table. We ordered two large pies, and after (mostly) finishing them, we walked around the junk shop/museum in the back. Kate enjoyed taking pictures (and a video) of the assortment of strange things.

After that, we went to the mall so Kate could buy some clothes. She had packed light, expecting to buy clothes stateside, but she was only getting around to it now. She headed right for Abercrombie & Fitch. I was pleased to see that they had made an improvement to the shopping experience by turning on the lights. All the better to see naked models with, my dear. I’m not holding out for them to cut the blaring music or annoying cologne smell, though.

We made a brief trip back to the apartment so we could pick up a chicken salad that Kate had made. She insisted that it was substandard because she had had to leave out or substitute some ingredients (including Andy’s vegan mayonnaise-like spread for actual mayonnaise), but we had eaten about half of it, and I found it to be delicious.

After that, we went home, and I was ready to spend a few days relaxing with Kate and my family.

Yesterday, The Consumerist posted an Updated List Of Airports With Full-Body Scanners. I saw one at Jacksonville International Airport in May, but fortunately, there were two security lines, and I picked the one that didn’t have one. I don’t fly much, but in the future I’ll avoid airports that use full-body scanners. And when all airports have them, it’ll be time for a judgment call. I’ll probably have to cave eventually, at which time I’ll feel (quite literally) like a whore.