So,I came across this bench today, while dropping off unwanted items at the thrift store...
and there was a note tacked on.
Uhm... "Someone is watching" ..
Does that make any sense?
Then there was this person, that I saw today at Londenderry Mall while visiting my mom...
Kind of a bad shot, but it's a safety inspector girl who looked a lot like Gina.
I don't like knowing if a coincidence is a coincidence, or if it's something else altogether. The post I wrote a few days ago wondering if there was something "up there" that was watching, and then this girl who looked like Gina (and was a safety inspector to boot) showing up out of the blue... Not just once, but while I was at the far side of the mall, she walked by. Like I had to be reminded.
I then spent the next few hours thinking about her again. Driving back home, I kept noticing my eyes darting over to every red car on the road, checking to see who the driver was. And there was this flutter in the pit of my stomach, like it was halfway between excitement and.. something else. I have no idea how to explain it, but thankfully, it didn't last all that long.
And, I have to drive to Red Deer tomorrow morning to meet some girl for lunch. Red Deer.. that's like an hour and a half away. I'm actually a bit excited about the trip, but not to meet the girl nearly as much as going to the Donut Mill, which is where we will be meeting.
Tim Horton's has the worst monopoly on donuts in Edmonton, I swear, they're just not as good as they used to be before donuts were made en masse in some factory somewhere and then shipped out frozen. I still remember Country Style Donuts (back in tha day) and I still remember the dough mixer they had in the back room, with some guy dressed up in white mixing up delicious, gooey, FRESH donuts on a daily basis. With a pained expression on his face, but still. Now, there are no other donut "places" but Tim Hortons. It sucks.
Capitalism, you son of a bunch. Uh, bitch.
I was so excited when they announced that Krispy Kreme was opening up a location in South Commons years ago, but they never did get a store going. Best donuts ever. These warm little round morsels of heavenly goodness would parade themselves all seductively-like down the rollers of this assembly line, and you could see the whole batch get made from scratch. Then this light comes on and it means super ultra-uber fresh donuts are NOW available, for the consumption of donut afficados (avocados? oh, aficionados) like myself. I'll never forget my first bite of a Krispy Kreme. Las Vegas, 2004. Next to the Bellagio fountains, it was probably the highlight of my trip.
It's a shame that we live in a world where a good fatty donut is vilified and under-appreciated. Then you have the issues with cost, so the ingredients get cheaper and cheaper, and lower in quality as time goes on, until the donut is pretty much "to the metal" as far as getting it made as cheaply as possible, and for the maximum amount of profit. It extends out to other foods too. And to things like cars, and electronics. Everything is disposable, quality comes second to marketing, if it even is second place and basically we get stuff that's "ok" but not as great as they used to be. Whether trans fats are taken out of the equation (hey, I didn't mind them), or beef tallow is no longer used in making McDonalds fries, or if rumors are to be believed, that the headphone jack from Apple iPhones are going to be removed later this year.. I mean, it's ridiculous what power corporations (and ignorant consumers) have over the products on the market. Bottom line, bottom line.. money and marketing/perception seems to be all that matters these days. And if a well-made toothbrush is sixty cents higher than the cost of something completely inferior; guess which toothbrush is going to sell? Yeah. Usually the cheap one with the bristles falling out twelve days into using it.
Then there was this thing I read today, about how flossing was actually a myth perpetuated by the inventor of the product (in 1908) and that he was clever enough to get dentists to recommend flossing, thereby making him millions of dollars off his patent. According to the article, there is actually no evidence that flossing is good for you. None. No studies have demonstrated the efficacy of flossing. Yet another example, of a product that we don't actually need that gets pushed on us regardless. Kind of like shampoo and conditioner. And the Slap Chop.
And things like this awesome bottle opener that I spent 22 bucks on.
It looks like King Kong climbing up a building! It was totally not worth the price, but the positive vibes I get just from looking at that thing, well.. it's still not worth it. Heh. But at least it's magnetic!
I guess I'm just as a dumb a consumer as anyone else.
