/mike

I know, I know, you’re all probably waiting anxiously for me to write up something about my big cross country trek. I’m not sure how much I’ll write or when I’ll get to it but I did take a bunch of videos which I’m thinking of putting up here instead of writing all about it. We’ll see if I can get some time to edit out the bad bits and get those online soon.

Anyway, on to today’s topic/story. As you all know I’m now in North Eastern Pennsylvania and I’ve been the guest of Colin and Eliza pretty much the entire time I’ve been here so far (thanks guys). This is mostly due to the fact that my apartment is not ready yet (I find out today what’s going on with that) and there is no internet access where I am staying. Well, this weekend Colin and Eliza had plans out of town and I was left to my own devices. Here is what happened.

Saturday

Ah, finally I got a chance to sleep in and I took it. Sure I’ve had ample opportunities to sleep in before but now that I’ve got no TV, no internet and no computer I’ll take all the sleep I can get in order to help pass the time. Dang, that makes it sound like I’m much more hard up than I really am. Honestly folks, it’s great here it’s just been a long time since I’ve not had a computer available to me to help pass the time — which is a pretty sad statement in and of itself.

Aside from sleeping in, I played quite a few games of solitaire. I’m not really sure why my sudden interest in the game of solitaire started up again but I do know it happened when I was staying at my parents house in August. After winning three games in a row I decided to catch up on my podcasts on the ol’ iPod. After an hour or so of watching Wine Library TV, GeekBrief and Geek Entertainment TV it was definitely time for a shower.

Shortly after getting cleaned up it was time to get some food. In order to do so I decided to take the long route and head into Dickson City and see what piqued my interest. A&W just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Here’s a difference for any of you Canadians reading (or Canadiana’s as most Americans like to call us), the Papa Burger comes in a basket, with a tomato and lettuce. The basket is the part that really threw me for a loop. Every A&W I’ve been to has always, and I mean always, wrapped up every burger in that foil or paper they use when you get take out.

Whilst I was digesting the Papa Burger I checked out Circuit City — for Xbox 360 prices and TV prices — and Petsmart — for some mice for Phillip. At about 8:30pm I decided to head out to the Cinemark Theatre in Moosic, on the Montage Ski Mountain. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get there and I wanted to see the 10-ish pm showing of Crank. Needless to say I arrived very early and had about an hour or so to kill. Good thing I have solitaire on my iPod.

Time did seem to move slowly playing solitaire on the iPod and I really, wish I would have downloaded Texas Hold’em from the iTunes Store on Friday but hindsight is always 20/20 right? Crank was great fun — it had loads of action, which I expected, but it was also quite funny in overall tone and actual dialogue and cinematography.

Sunday

Yay! More sleeping in this morning. Although I did enjoy my weekend of sleeping in I’m definitely not much of a fan in the overall scheme of things. I’m very much looking forward to getting set up in my own place with my own office (although working in an office with another live being is much better than a virtual being).

Sunday consisted of more solitaire but I also picked up Wild: The biography of Jack Nicholson from Borders on Saturday. Borders was an alright experience but I found it much harder to navigate than the Chapters I was used to back in Calgary. Also, while I was happy to see that Borders carried one of my favorite authors, Andy McNabb, I was disappointed that there was only one of his books in stock and it was in the young adults section. Guess Amazon is where I’ll have to get the rest of the “Adventures of Nick Stone” books.

Wild is a pretty good read so far considering that it’s pieced together from various sources and not a direct accounting by Nicholson himself. I’m a slow reader for some reason but I am a third of the way through it — almost — because of the time I spent reading it on Sunday.

Since I’ve gotten a taste for the movie experience in the area now I really wanted to check out another movie so I zipped into Dickson City to check out Best Buy — for appliance and TV prices — and hit up Ruby Tuesday for their Mini Burgers — which are damn good if I do say so. Funny story, sort of, while I was waiting for Kathy to bring out the Mini Burgers I was watching people, as I usually do, and noticed one of the better looking waitresses walk down the hallway towards the bathroom. I didn’t think much of it but when she stopped halfway down the hall and started looking in a mirror on the wall I became very intrigued. Slyly I watched as she proceeded to pop a few zits on her forehead and cheek. I don’t think she saw me watching her but I’m definitely glad Kathy was the one bringing out my food — because this other waitress forgot to hit up the washroom and give her hands a scrub before heading back to the kitchen.

After food and Best Buy I went back up to Cinemark and instead of checking out Accepted like I originally decided to, I went to see Little Miss Sunshine because it started earlier. Very funny movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve actually wanted to see it for quite some time and I’m glad that I finally followed through.

Monday (today)

Now I’m back at work, in the office, typing away while I await word on the apartment. Tomorrow is weigh in day and hopefully I’ll have more news on the living situation as well. Time to get some work done now so hopefully I haven’t wasted too much of your time.