Just where is everyone going in such a hurry?

I was heading to Whole Foods this morning and the place was packed. I turned down a parking row and a woman was getting ready to pull out so I stopped my car to wait for the space. The butt end of my car was sticking about 5 feet into the lane which exits the parking lot and I had been sitting there about 5 seconds when a car pulls out of the next row heading for the exit.

The butt of my car is in the way so they immediately start honking like mad and flipping me off. I ignored them until the lady pulls out and I pull into her space which was a whopping 20 seconds. Once my car was out of the way this car zooms past me with the windows down and the mother (I assume she was the mom) and kids hanging out the car windows all flipping me off and foaming at the mouth screaming stuff at me. Nice role model.

I stood there with a big grin on my face calmly flipping them all off as well and I think that made them madder as they started yelling and practically spitting.

The entire incident lasted about 30 seconds and when it was over I was laughing and wondering just where they needed to go in such a hurry that 30 seconds made such a difference in their life.

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

This book gets 1 USG. I hated it.

It was basically a romance novel with a stupid side plot about a father's suicide. The main character's (Jessie) mother (Nell) cuts off her finger which causes Jessie to go back to some backwater island where she was raised. Jessie's been feeling outta sorts lately and looks at this as an opportunity to get away from her dull marriage/life.

She returns to the island to help her mother and finds out something mysterious is going on which caused her mom to hack off her finger, tries to figure out the mystery while helping her mom, meets a monk, has a fling with him, her mom chops off another finger, her husband (who happens to be a shrink) comes out to help her, they find out the big mystery is that her father commited suicide (as opposed to just being blown up in a boat), she realizes she loves her husband, goes back to Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the reader is subjected to all sorts of ridiculous romance novel drivel and the writer tries WAY too hard to be precious and clever. It was really, really bad.

This was a silly, worthless read. The only reason I kept going was to find out what the big mystery was and it wasn't even any big whoop. No wonder the unabridged audio book was only $9 or $7 - whatever it was.

Next up: Lay of the Land by Richard Ford. I have much higher hopes for this book.

The USG Book Rating System

1 USG = Hated
1.5 USG = Disliked it intensely
2 USG = Disliked it
2.5 USG = Lightly disliked it
3 USG = Indifferent to it
3.5 USG = Kinda liked it
4 USG = Liked it
4.5 USG = Liked it very much
5 USG = Loved it

Miscellanea

I was finishing up my taxes this morning and on my state return, on the "other income" page, they list the above as an additional income item and I found it very odd.

I'm off to my brother's house for two weeks to house/dog sit and . . . I don't know what I was thinking. They have a very cute dog that I like very much and when my brother asked if I would watch him while they went to Japan for my nephew's 16th birthday I gave an enthusiastic "Yes!" (thinking only about how much I like the dog).

And then . . . a couple of days later I was telling H about it and he pointed out that it meant that I wouldn't be able to see my cats for two weeks, etc.

And then I was telling a friend about it and she pointed out that I'd be spending two weeks alone in a giant house with a dog that isn't really any protection (I thought about bringing our dog down but my bro's dog is not other-animal-friendly). Not that I'm a scaredy cat or anything but, it is a very big house and it's all one level which, in my mind, makes it sorta bigger - like I could be in one part of the house and someone could be in another part and I'd never know. Also, most of the house has 20 foot ceilings so it seems even bigger and creepier. But, it just dawned on me -- everything in the house is all computerized and programmable so maybe I can program the lights to be on when I get home).

So, anyway, reality sort of hit but . . . I had promised and they have an alarm system on the house and it is in a gated community so . . . off I go. Dummy-me.