• Record all of my dreams

• Host the second-annual Alice in Wonderland Picnic

• Make art

• Make more art

• Get ready to go to India!

• Finish my novel

• Tackle my ever-expanding reading list, the first of which is Price and Prejudice and Zombies

• This

• Start a band with Margaret

• Spend more time in the Land of Make Believe

• Start running again

• Everything about this outfit

A Summer Engagement by airguitar23 featuring Marie-Helene de Taillac rings

Today is my day off, and it’s 70 and sunny here in Ohio. I just got done doing yoga in my backyard, starting to reconsider whether Oregon really is more green than Ohio. It’s certainly greener for longer.

Anyway, my job isn’t the most exciting, but I’m trying to make the best of it. Mostly, it really emphasizes the curious and often petulant state that is Ohio.

Here are a few tidbits of information and things I encountered in my first two days of work.

The high school senior who trained me doesn’t know who David Bowie is.

Almost everyone buys bananas.

A lot of kids I grew up with are in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I get hit on regularly by bag-boys and other cashiers who aren’t done with puberty.

The only black person I saw en-route to or at my job was employed by Acme.

Unfortunately/thankfully headbands, leggings, and scarves haven’t hit Ohio yet.

Too many people my age have kids. And planned it that way.

In Ohio, “vegan” is synonymous with “wiccan”

I heard the “play your own kind of music” song from LOST on the radio. Purgatory.

The novelty of swiping groceries gets old after about 90 minutes.

I can’t tell if some of the people I work with are mentally disabled. But one of them calls me “Miss Helen,” and I’m not sure if I’m just being polite, or if he thinks I’m flirting with him. But at least I never have to bag my own groceries.

I have another two and a half weeks of this job before I escape to New York, and I already can’t wait. Until them, I’m going to try to ease myself back into running. The standing for 9 hours at work doesn’t do wonders for my back, but maybe running will.