4 posts tagged “qotd”

What won't you miss about 2007? 
Submitted by uncagedbird.

I wont miss:

• The horrible data entry job I had for almost a year that made me want to jump out a window. (Seriously. I used to walk into my boss's office, stare out the window, tell him "just looking", and then leave again. And yet for some reason, he still said "I'm sorry to see you go" when I left.)
• Being a temp employee.
• That horrible broke and helpless feeling I had all summer as I tried to support two people on one temp salary.
• Coming home from classes after 11pm.
• Having glass explode on my back as I was getting ready for work... and then having to get new slippers because there was glass In My Slippers.
• Getting the flu.
• Finding out my mother will be going in for Yet More Surgery.
• Having my Goth Princess title usurped in class.
• "Trouble"
• Being fed steak cooked in bacon by our couchsurfer and the 20lb weight gain resulting thereof.
• Throwing out my back, and the residual backpain thereof.
• Shoulder pain from the new job.
• Finding out that my friend in Moldova isn't getting the letters I sent him.
• Working really hard to tread water and not feeling like I'm getting anywhere. Really, if I could sum up 2007 in a sentence, that would be how I feel about it. I tried Really Hard. I was stressed To The Max. But now it's a year later, and I feel like I have very little to show for it, other than feeling like Now, Finally, some progress might be possible.
  

Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick? 
Submitted by Melissa.

The farthest away I've ever been from home is northern Italy-- Milan and Venice. It was 1999, and I was a senior in high school. But I was there with twenty three other girls who were on my synchronized ice skating team, and there were probably about fifteen parents there as well, so I couldn't say I was particularly homesick! Besides which, there was hardly any time. Every day we were at the ice rink, except for the one day we had to tourist in Venice. And every ice rink is basically the same, I think. The converted soccer stadiums in California are more unlike a south-eastern Michigan rink than the ones in Milan were. I do remember us practicing outside and a guy seeing us from his window across the street, and then coming out onto his balcony with nothing on. Other than that, the only other thing of note was the not-so-friendly rivalry we had with the Finns, who thought that because no one in their right mind speaks Finnish, they could talk all of the trash they wanted about us to each other. Little did they know that Hennriikka skated for the US at the permission of the Finnish national skating organization.

Right now I live the farthest away from home I ever have, and it's really hard to be dependent on flights to get back for the holidays. I was spoiled the last couple of years I was in Pittsburgh... a six hour drive in my car is totally doable as a weekend trip, and I was making it back to my parents' house every six weeks or so.

Sometimes I think life in the city is based around the ability to navigate inconveniences.

Are you a registered organ donor?  Why or why not? 
Submitted by jacolily.

I think I am. Where I'm registered, it's not on the Driver's License, you have to mail it back in, and the question is only whether I did that, considering that by the time the card actually came, I was already away from home again. (Sometimes I wish I knew where I "lived")

On the other hand, I don't worry about it too much, because my mother always said that I was an organ donor whether I liked it or not, and that as long as I died before her, she was letting hospitals and scientist take whatever they needed of me. So I trust my medical proxy that no matter what my card says, Yes: My untimely demise will mean organs for the needy.

Now, please nobody going knocking me off before I finish my novel. Thanks bunches.

What is your favorite greasy spoon?
Submitted by S@ngarang.

Home to me is Fleetwood Diner, of Ann Arbor. Common, hippie hash? what's not to love? And chili cheese fries comprised of hormel chili with slices (aw baby, slices) of american cheese on top? That's the good stuff. It's also in a frickin' trailer, people. And if you puke on the sidewalk outside, it all flows downhill. How do I know this? Not from personal experience. No, certainly. Definately not. Didn't happen. That one time.

Of course, being a A2 diner conneseur, I would also have to put a shout out to the Baker St. Truck stop in Dexter, although it's hke. They've recently readded the Paul Bunyan breakfast of Death (everything you could want to eat all at the same time. EVERYTHING.) back on to their menu, so I don't have to be hating anymore. I was very excited about that at Christmas.

And also delicious, but sadly not 24 hours (a most important quality to a grease spoon, in my view) is the Uptown Coney Island. All the greek owned coney island diners in Michigan are pretty solid, but that's the one that's got my vote. Chili cheese omlette, people. And a feta, gyro meat, egg, peppers, hashbrown skillet mash up which is simply devine.

In pittsburgh, there's Pamela's, which is delicious, and would be the all around winner if it would ever be open when I want it to be. Or if you could get a table, ever, at any of the 5 restraunts, on a weekend morning. But they have those cheesy potatoes which are Oh! so good, and J. likes the crepes-like pancakes. Did I mention the cheesy potatoes? Yes. They are that good.

I also like Seven Cees on Liberty. It's one of those Bloomfield things. The owner is mean and wretched, and the food is exactly what you'd expect. It's Very Pittsburgh. If you're into that sort of thing. It's kind of an aquired taste. Unfortunately, it's also limited hours wise, so my only real 24 recommendation is Tom's Diner. Because, dude, man, you can get a side plate of gyro meat. And that's pretty cool.

My favorite place of anywhere right now, however, is the Florida Avenue Grill in DC. Now there's real food. If you only have one heart attack while you're there, you clearly didn't eat enough. Grits, y'all, grits. Allready yellow with butter, and then as they're being brought to the table, another SOUP LADLE of melted buter added over the top. A full plate of ham.

It's a good thing this place is several hours away from me. I would be there right now, otherwise. I'd be there All The Time. Biscuits and gravy. Mmmm.... delicious gravy. And grits. Can't forget about the grits.

******

Meanwhile? What diner to I go to now? Please, can someone tell me where they put the real american grease soul food 24 hours with skeezy wait staff in NYC? This is supposed to be the city of find anything. I find things that offer to put cottage cheese on my salad if I want to rebel, and whose breakfast offerings are so weak they make me cry. Y'all make me cry. Where's my hippy hash? Where's my grits? Sometimes it's just not fair.