Right now I'm in Little City having my iced mocha made by Ray Cashmoney.  It's good to see he's still working here and still defacing the Family Circus cartoons.  I would feel weird that I'm sitting here with my laptop on a Sunday morning, but this place is packed already.  And there are four or five people with their laptops, but I'm probably the only one having fun with mine.  The guy sitting next to me keeps analysing some molecular formula in his textbook, the girl on the other side of me is talking about her bibliography.  Ha.

view from front:

view from behind:

Afterwards Mary Potts picked me up from around campus.  I've sure missed her.  We didn't talk for a long time, and probably for a stupid reason.  It's refreshing to see her happy again.  Last time I saw her she was on the twilight of a bad relationship, but she's moved on to a more fun life.  New car, posh house, two kitties, exciting love life, cool job, career prospects.  I'm really happy for her.  Oh, and she looks better than the pictures on her webpage too, if you can believe that.

For lunch she took me to the Shady Grove for some southern cooking.  She didn't scowl when I ordered the chicken fried steak with a side of mashed potatoes (something I occasionally try to recreate in Leeds).  She had a cheeseburger that looked so good and juicy I'm afraid I might go get one sometime.  We caught each other up on our love lives.  "Well, I got married and I'm still married..." was pretty much mine, but Mary has more exciting stories to tell.  Then we went off shopping to the mall.  It's great going shopping with her.  Nigel will agree that he doesn't like to go shopping with me, but I can't shop alone.  So this was the first time I've set out to do some serious clothes shopping with a gal in a while.  Mary knew all the right stores and is fashion savvy, so I ended up buying things (unlike all my fruitless attempts to go shopping in Leeds).  The prices were about a quarter of what they are in britain too, so I didn't feel guilty afterwards.  Then we went back to her bachelorette pad to play with her miniature kitties.  They are cuties.  And they seemed to enjoy the kitten mitten I brought them as well as the other multitude of toys Mary has for kitties.

We ended the day around midnight with a trip to Jimmy Johns.  Mary and I exchanged a questioning glance when we saw an SUV load of frat boys and sorority girls queue up outside for their sandwiches.  I'm glad I've got friends who still sneer at "greeks" and at SUVs.  Because I know I sure do.

listening to: jazz for bassists