things i learned today

today was a day where i had no obligations and for most of it, nobody to do anything with. at some point during most days of the week, i stop by whole foods or shoprite to pick up what i need to make dinner, but this time i decided to make a day trip out of going to the grocery store since there wasn't much else to do. so i headed off for the new wegman's in mount laurel. i made the mistake of getting directions off of mapquest, so of course i got lost. that ended up being a good thing, though, because i found a new part of new jersey that i'd never seen before. not so much anymore, but sam and i used to drive around just for the sake of getting lost and seeing new things, so i've seen lots of new jersey. but i'd never seen westhampton, and i learned that it was a very pretty place. at least the small portion of it that i saw. outside of the small, built-up area that i live in, i've come to understand that much of south jersey is still empty space with trees or farm land. its really pretty. it was kind of a contradiction i guess though, because while i was appreciating all of this natural, peaceful landscape, i was on the hunt for a brand-new grocery store in a huge shopping center that was probably completely unnecessary, and is the beginning of making mount laurel look like voorhees. anyway, i saw this pretty bridge, stopped near it, and took this picture. i'm not the best at taking pictures - i don't know if its my camera or just a lack of talent, and it looked nicer in real life.

despite the fact that the wegman's shopping center was depressing because it was one of those massive, new-looking strips of concrete surrounded by farm land, inside wegman's was pretty great. i was most excited about their neat international section, which had a little shelf for a bunch of different countries with products from those places. it had countries like israel, germany, ireland, china, and a lot of others. i was especially impressed with the japanese canned quail eggs. i did not know that quail eggs could be canned, and i still don't know why someone would want to eat them.

i also learned just how expensive truffles really are. i mean, i knew they were sort of rare and a big deal, but i figured they'd maybe cost $20 per pound or something like that. i'd never seen them sold in a supermarket before, and i'd never sought them out myself. boy, did i do a double-take when i saw this:just about $500 per pound! these little gems that look like turds in the sand were protected in a glass case and locked up. sometimes i like to get a new food and try some crazy recipe with it, and often times, it turns out terrible. imagine ruining your truffle dish!

my predictions for grey's anatomy

although sometimes it seems like i watch a lot of tv, that's not really the case. most of the time it is more the act of laying on the couch with blankets (and in many instances, sam too) and letting my body relax than actually pay close attention to whatever is on. on the other hand, i REALLY look forward to grey's anatomy on sunday nights. my interest in this show began when i walked into my dorm room on superbowl sunday. my roommate wasn't there, but the tv was on, and i walked in on the episode with george and meredith, right when they were having sex. if you saw the episode you know what happened and if you didn't you probably don't care so i'm not going to get into it but it seemed pretty crazy. and since usually on a sunday night at 10pm i'm not doing much, (really, its a great timeslot for a tv show) i started watching grey's anatomy.

well, fast-forward to last night. holy cow! what a crazy episode. i mean i guess of course its going to be crazy because its the first part of the season finale, but when the show ended, i kept saying to sam things like "whoa! that was crazy" or "oh my god, that was just so crazy!" and "i can't wait to see what's going to happen, its gonna be crazy!" well, here's what i think is going to happen tonight:
-meredith and mcdreamy are going to have some kind of breakthrough, obviously, because of their moment in the elevator on last night's episode. i don't know if the vet will be involved or not because she obviously doesn't really care about him and they don't know each other that well. i don't think meredith and mcdreamy are going to have sex but i think maybe something will be happening and addison will find out and have a freakout.
-and speaking of addison, not much else will probably happen with her cause she'll be too busy freaking out.
-i'm pretty sure dr. burke isn't going to die or anything since he's a main character. christine is going to feel really guilty about everything of course, and this life-threatening event will probably erase the fight they'd been having.
-denny is probably going to die.
-everyone's going to find out that izzy cut the tube for denny's heart thing so she's going to get into huge amounts of trouble. maybe she'll get fired or something but since she's a main character there will be some weird way where she gets back, if not tonight then in the fall. and if last night's freakout was any indication of what tonight's freakout is going to be like when denny dies, its going to be huge.
-the guy who got shot at the end of last episode will probably die, unless the brain-dead 19 year old's parents decide to donate her organs, and maybe he'll get something, but i guess not after all that talk about the donor list. dr. burke getting something is another possibility i guess, but again, the donor list. either way, her organs are going to be donated.
-i don't know whats going to happen with george and the bitch who doesnt wash her hands and i don't really care cause i don't like her that much.

nine o'clock tonight! i can't wait!

the world lemon and a mexican bakery

this morning i had a weird dream. i was sitting in some sort of creative writing class and it was pretty crowded, and the teacher was reading something i wrote out loud, and he was critiquing it, saying i shouldn't start a sentence with "and". and i told him that technically i knew that but it was my writing and i didn't really care. anyway, i looked in some textbook we had and in it was a picture of the world lemon, which in my dream i realized was somehow related to joseph campbell's idea of the world navel. i drew a picture of it when i woke up. there it is, the world lemon.

i also went to a mexican bakery today. it was in lindenwold near la esperanza, and i was sort of convinced that it was owned by the same people.. so i thought it would have to be crazy good. thats why i wanted to go. i wanted to try some kind of special mexican dessert and i thought that would definitely be the place to do it. it looked like sort of a hole in the wall from the outside, but i thought maybe it would be more special on the inside. it wasn't, really. inside they had a small bakery area and then a little shop with a bunch of mexican food products. two of these that were the most interesting (and grossest) to me were the red block of guava paste and the dried whole shrimp.

i still wanted to try something though, so sam and i split a big cookie, it was a vanilla cookie with chocolate swirls. it was pretty good. soft, a little doughy, and not too sweet. i'd eat it again but i don't know if i'd go back there to get it. thats about it for now.

hi

this looks sort of ugly right now but tomorrow im going to fix it up, it will be a little prettier and maybe my next entry will be more fun.