Mockingbird never says a word but his pretty music must be heard

[austin_dern]

I do have a fresh guest report to write and hope to write all its installments in a reasonable time, unlike my July experiences, and so will write at the natural-feeling length and not worry about my roughly 450-word natural average.

Matters began the day before New Year's Eve with bunny_hugger arriving, at a light-rail station just a few blocks from the office where I go to sit nervously many hours each day. She was coming to see me most of the holiday-interrupted week after a professional conference, and was able to take a train --- actually, two trains --- to a spot very convenient for me to pick her up and to take her to a hotel near my home. To some frustration and only modest worry it turned out there were problems on the rail lines, and one of the links running much less frequently than the posted schedule dictated, so that she arrived about a half-hour later than we anticipated. (And on the other set of tracks than I figured because my understanding of relative geography is shockingly bad for someone who finds it so important to follow.) But she arrived, safe and sound. And I was able to wait for her in the adjacent McDonald's, buying two hot apple pies as symbolic rent for the parking lot space I had to use.

The big, exciting planned event for that night was dinner with my parents, who were growing more anxious to meet bunny_hugger while also trying to not look anxious, which offered the chance to amuse me by pretending I didn't realize they were looking for so many details about her life. We did have to rush a bit to get back across the state and to her hotel, then to return to the Mexican restaurant where we'd agreed to meet. The choice of Mexican restaurant was because it's usually straightforward to find something vegetarian and acceptable there, although this particular restaurant's location lead to a bit of nostalgia --- it was next to a Jersey Mike's where we'd eaten back in July --- and confusion as it's also next to a Taco Bell.

I can't speak for how bunny_hugger felt about the experience, but I thought the dinner went very well with my mother swiftly seeing her many charms, and my father doing a rather good job at keeping roughly up to speed with our conversation. He was at the time between his old hearing aid that he never turned on, and his new hearing aid that he doesn't wear. So conversation with him is an approximate affair. Still, my mother got to hear confirmed the things I'd said over the months about where she teaches and what she hopes to do, and about hobbies like roller coaster riding (in reality and in simulation), and my father was sure that everyone was happy. And I kept getting distracted by a kid at a neighboring table who'd brought a portable video player and seemed to be watching some bizarrely almost-familiar cartoon that I couldn't figure out.

Come the end of dinner, and leaving the restaurant, my parents returned home, and bunny_hugger and I thought to go to a nearby bookstore where we'd be able to talk and wander around somewhere warm and undoubtedly stimulating. As it happens we got caught up on talking in the parking lot, and didn't get out of the parked car until we noticed that it was getting uncomfortably chilly and we could really appreciate going to the bathroom. Thus motivated to get into the bookstore we discovered the curious person who'd gone to the store's front doors and tugged them in an odd fashion had been, most likely, an employee locking them for the night.

Well, no problem there, right? There's the Target to which I go regularly in the hopes of buying something and coming away with a Cherry Coke Zero and a peanut butter cup. It turns out that Target closes at the same time as the bookstore.

But there's also a Stop and Shop supermarket, which it happens I'd never been in, but they often have different hours and we walked rather hastily as it was getting colder yet and windier. The supermarket was open and enjoying that latter-evening emptiness that happens when the only people around are employees stocking the place and members of the public looking for a bathroom.

Since we were there, and chilly, we started walking around the supermarket, comparing it to the supermarkets of Michigan and the supermarkets of upstate New York and of Singapore, and we discovered things like at that hour of night they lock up the DVD section. Railings right across the aisle, so that we couldn't hold up any movies or even books or magazines to express an amused opinion. We carried on, though, noting such things as the sadness of cereal boxes that were still running their promotions for whatever that animated movie that came out in August that nobody saw was. You know the one I mean. I think they still had some Bee Movie Honey Nut Cheerios too.

Where we hit a real and delightful surprise was in the international foods aisle. We did talk about what we might find, such as Singaporean candy bars, and then discovered that they consider English candy bars to be International Foods too. I haven't had digestive cookies in a while, for example, but I was able to hold off my urgings for them when I discovered that they had Aero bars, and MilkyBars, and other similar snacks I'd gotten into in southeast Asia. And it turns out there were some of them under five miles from my home. I had no idea. We stocked up a bit on these proper British-style candies and headed back into the cold night, to return her to her hotel and me to get to bed.

Trivia: The Aero bar was debuted by Rowntree of York in 1935. Source: Sweets:A History of Temptation, Tim Richardson.

Currently Reading: Shakespeare: The World As Stage, Bill Bryson. My proper office `pollyanna'' Christmas present, incidentally. For the record.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

My father loves digestive biscuits, which he found at my house one time (a liking I picked up from being married to a Brit all those years). He can't get their name right despite being corrected several times, so when he comes over now he sometimes asks, "Have you got any of those digestible cookies?"

Our local Meijer has a similar selection of British goods in its International aisle. I was excited when they began carrying Aero, then crushed to discover that my favorite flavor of Aero, orange, no longer exists. My favorite British candy bar overall is the Starbar, also called Moro in some countries. I recommend that if any reader ever sees a Starbar or Moro, he or she should buy it immediately. It's bliss, with this wonderful creamy/crispy/gooey texture. Unfortunately the only place I know of that sells them is a particular grocery store in Ann Arbor, and they don't have them reliably, so I might make an hour trip to discover that they currently have a million Flake bars but no Starbars. I suppose it's just as well, given my desire to lose weight and how little self-control I have when it comes to Starbars.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The digestible cookies were prominent in my mind while thinking about this. I haven't yet been back to that Stop and Shop, but then I haven't eaten the Aero bars we got then either; between one thing and another (and the WiiFit measuring my weight every day) I haven't got around to them just yet. I've meant to investigate the nearer Stop and Shop for its international aisle too.

Stupid domestic market. It wasn't hard to live in creature comforts in the United States while in Singapore --- I could even pick between Hellmann's and Best Foods mayonnaise --- so why can't I do the reverse?

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I ate the Lion bar that I bought as soon as I got back to my hotel. >:)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'd meant to eat some of my candy that night, but when I got home I ended up distracted and figured I could put them off to the next night, then the next, and, well, I've still got them. This happens a lot to me.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

See, that's abut the time I had been used to going to Stop and Shop, the crazy late/insanely early times. Until my then-local Stop and Shop (I've moved, not they) decided that 24-hour operation most days wasn't really what they felt like doing.

I like Aero bars. I remember they had an actual US marketing push about the mid-90's, but that passed. Now they're sadly import-only.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The advantage of the crazy times is not facing other customers; the disadvantage is the stock palettes that are left in insane places because the staff knows the customers coming through are mostly drunk college students who'll be adequately distracted by giggling over the off-brand cereals.