they say three weeks, I say not so fast

Three weeks to form a habit? I call bullshit! For three weeks I've managed to post every single stinking day before midnight (or, you know, at least get the posting window open before midnight) and now, almost exactly three weeks later I am posting willy nilly after midnight for the second day in a row. (Willy Nilly After Midnight sounds like a really bad chicago blues cover band. One I would drive across town to AVOID, and yet here they are, cluttering up my brain. Thanks so much, WNAM! Why not just add a 40 minute harmonica solo and the words "Blues Explosion" to your name and then sit back to watch the Willy Nilly After Midnight Jen Brain Explosion?)

I cannot even form/break habits correctly. I would worry about it in a "this does not bode well" kind of way (a distinct category of worry chez jen), but I am too tired. (it's a whiny kind of tired -- the kind of tired that would vanish if I drank a bunch of water and ran around the block. Only it's way after midnight and 20 degrees outside, so I don't really see that happening -- yes, the only reason I'm not running around the block is because it is cold and late! ha ha.) Plus I have an excellent excuse for the second night in a row. (end of book + bathtub = pruny pageturning) Maybe I am forming a new habit of excellent excuses! things are looking up!

Speaking of good news (which I was, kinda), I can confirm that I did indeed win season passes to Roller Derby! The phone call was to determine if I was over 18. I get two tickets to each of the seven bouts of the season plus a voucher for two t-shirts! All for having my laptop on my lap while watching the simpsons. Woo Hoo!

Brown Gravy Saga: "Do you have brown gravy today?"

"We don't have brown gravy on any day."

I had such a good lunch yesterday, not least of all because I got to hear the above exchange between the Old Man asking and the tattooed pierced waitress who was helping him. I was working at Belmont and decided to try someplace I had never been for lunch -- I get an hour and there are a lot of restaurants in the vicinity, so it wasn't an Impossible Quest. I ended up at The Cricket Cafe and I'm so glad I did! I had a veggie skillet, which was chosen at the last minute because someone at another table ordered one and it sounded really good. (artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, eggs, spinach, potatoes and GLORIOUS CHEESE. I would eat one right now if it miraculously appeared in front of me.) I was going to get something else (boring, safe) and had the sudden impulse to just trust that a place that specializes in breakfast could maybe come up with something wonderful and they did! The clientele was an interesting mix of mostly young creative class slackers/hipsters (work in other restaurants by day and bands or art collectives by night, at least in my head) who were just getting going at noon, a few random strays like myself and the aforementioned Gravy Man. He and his wife wandered in and sat right in front of the door, where all of his brown gravy desires were thwarted. He asked about the soup and nixed it because of the unknown curry element. (I'm projecting here -- maybe he knows curry and hates it, or it reminds him of his childhood spent on the sub-continent and makes him cry for hours if he tastes it. I know a lot more (which is not much) about his longing for brown gravy, which they do not have on ANY DAY.) I think he got a sandwich, but to be honest I was reading my book again by the time his food came. Anyway, if the presence or absence of brown gravy is not a determining factor for you, I would recommend the Cricket Cafe on Belmont.

(Photo note: this picture cracks me up! it was on the side of a dumpster that had been painted by elementary school students. I LOVE the almost perfectly rendered stink-eye. I predict that this kid has a future as a political cartoonist.)