Saturday was busy. My wife and I drove to downtown Plano, where we had breakfast at Aparicio's...she had wonderfully flavorful beef guisado tacos, I had badly disappointing migas. I'm sure I've been spoiled by the migas at Bigote's in Arlington, by far my favorite place to eat Mexican breaktast. The migas at Aparicio's were bland...nothing but unseasoned scrambled eggs, fried tortilla chips, and a bit of cheese. The sides were not bad, though: potatoes laced with nicely browned bits of thick bacon and grilled onions...but still no spices of any appreciable bite. But the migas...awfully disappointing! No jalapeños, no spices of any kind...dull and lifeless. But we didn't plan to let a disappointing breakfast ruin the day, so we drove a few blocks to the parking lot for the light rail line, bought two all-day passes, and jumped on the next train heading south.
The trains were already full by the time we boarded at around 10:00 am. Lots of families heading to the State Fair, lots of people heading to the Susan Komen Foundation Race for the Cure, a fundraiser for breast cancer research. If my wife, who is a breast cancer survivor, had been so inclined, I would have gladly participated in the Race...but her energy isn't what it used to be and she needs to be able to have frequent rest stops, even when we're not walking far. Anyway, the train was jammed...and it became more so with every stop. Before we go to the station where large numbers would disembark to take a bus to the State Fair, my wife was not feeling well; she needed to get out of the stuffy rail car and into the fresh air. So, we got off at Mockingbird Station, which is a relatively new upscale retail venue. We immediately began looking for the Starbucks shop we knew was there, because my wife wanted a bottle of cold water and we knew Starbucks would have it.
We bought two bottles of water and I ordered an iced coffee.
An aside: I am astounded at myself for liking iced coffee. When my mother drank it, I thought she was deranged; I loved her dearly, but I thought she was certifiably insane for liking iced coffee...my father wouldn't have it...he drank his coffee hot, black, and harsh...my kind of man. Recently, when my wife and I were in Boston, my wife's sister and her boyfriend drank lots of it, so I decided I had to try it for myself. I had been berating them for having poor taste and being impure coffee afficionados, so I needed recent evidence that I was right. My sister in law had accused me of being a dissembler, because if I did not order a plain black coffee at Starbucks, I ordered a frappacino...cream, ice, and sweetener blended into an icy froth and mixed with coffee...all the things I derided others for using in their coffee. Much to my dismay, I found I liked iced coffee. The more I drink it, the more I like it. But I drink my iced coffee black, with no cream and no sweetener. So, I can now legitimately claim moral superiority over those who sully their coffee with cream and sugar or sugar substitute. End of Aside.
We wandered around Mockingbird Station for half an hour or so, doing a bit of window shopping, then went into the Virgin Megastore at the edge of the Station to look at their selection of CDs and to listen to music. We must have spent an hour there, listening to music, looking for CDs, and just kicking back. My wife found a couple of Leonard Cohen CDs I do not have and offered to buy them for my birthday, which is coming up soon. I told her that would be a great gift, as would John Prine CDs, Sheryl Crowe CDs, an iPod, a gift card from Home Depot, a satellite radio and subscription to a satellite radio service, a summer home in Nova Scotia, or a surprisingly well-funded retirement, beginning immediately. We didn't buy anything.
Rather than proceed south as we had initially intended, my wife suggested we take a light rail line we had never ridden before to the end of the line, then take the same line back south. It sounded like a good idea to me, so we jumped the train north to downtown Garland, which it turns out is a depressing place where lots of very nasty looking rednecks and hicks seem to hang out. It's very much a blue collar area, but not blue collar folks who are the hard-working, good neighbor type of people you'd be proud to call your friends. These blue collar types have Nazi tatoos on their shoulders and spreading down their arms. They are likely to be missing multiple teeth, no doubt lost in redneck brawls and attacks on blacks and Jews and other dangerous minorities. They wear camoflauge shirts. They talk about their guns and slapping the shit out of their children when they get out of line. These are the people who give me reason to support the death penalty as a deterent...kill enough of them for relatively minor infractions and they just might start treating people like...people. Speaking of the death penalty, I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I have supported it nearly all my life and it's hard to change something I have believed in so fundamentally (not because of its deterent effects, but because I'm a supporter of revenge killings). But there are too many people who I believe are put to death for crimes they did not commit. Then again, just today, after I stepped into a large, sticky wad of chewing gum in the grocery store parking lot, I was advocating loudly for slashing the throats of youths (and everyone else) who chew gum and throw it on the ground forsomeone else to step on, thereby ruining their day. And I launched into a tirade on Friday, as I was driving home from work, about how someone (I think perhaps it was Tom DeLay) should be butchered in public as a lesson to other criminal politicians. I think I may have suggested that DeLay's flesh should be carved, dried, and given out to passers-by as jerky-treats. But I digress from my travelogue.
Once we arrived in downtown Garland, we decided we'd seen enough and waited for the train to reverse direction. We hadn't decided where to go when the train left the station, so we discussed it along the way and decided to go only as far as a stop in downtown Dallas, the West End station. The West End is a restaurant and entertainment district; we chose to go there because we were beginning to get hungry for lunch and knew we'd have no trouble finding a place to eat there, albeit most eateries in the area are overpriced national chains. Once we arrived at the West End, we wandered about and decided upon the single one-location, locally-run restaurant we could find, RJ's Mexican restaurant, a rather upscale, trendy place that serves much more than traditional Tex-Mex fare (I subsequently learned it is owned and operated by Anglos...I do not hold that against the place).
My wife and I both started with a cup of gazpacho, one of our all-time favorite soups, which was a bit disappointing. It was absent any spicy zip, but the flavor wasn't bad. The entrees were better. We both ordered salads; my wife ordered a smoked chicken and poblano pepper salad (ensalada de chile poblano y pollo ahumando) and I ordered a red snapper salad (salpicon de huachinango). Both were excellent, but more than we had planned to eat, so we got doggie boxes and went on our way. The doggie boxes promise to be nice lunches on Monday at the office.
After lunch, we wandered all over downtown Dallas, exploring places we knew about and some we'd seen but never really examined up-close. Despite lots of misgivings about Dallas, I have to say I'm impressed with quite alot of the architecture downtown...not the new buildings, but the old buildings that either have been restored or should be. Lots of beautiful details. We must have spent a good three hours looking at the architecture and learning about the lofts, condos, and other residential options in the city. There is still so far to go before Dallas is a livable city, but at least some people are trying to make it so...though their efforts are directed toward people whose annual salaries are probably triple my net worth. One place we found interesting was Thanksgiving Square, a spot with lots of fountains, interesting architecture, and intriguing sculpture. The down side, for me, was the fact that the sculpture and much of the architecture was devoted to the religious history of Thanksgiving and the "need" for people to focus on faith and devote their lives to Christ. What horseshit. If only people would adopt the humanistic elements of religion and reject the fantasy. But I digress again. I'm a religious bigot...and I despise those types.
Ultimately, we came upon the Adam's Mark Hotel, which thankfully has nice bathrooms. After a brief stop to make life worth living again, we went to the light rail stop just outside of the hotel and waited for the train. The stop is located directly across the street from what I assume is the original Dallas High School, an old building whose windows are all boarded up and looking neglected. A sign suggested that either the building or the vacant lot next to it are for lease. I wish I had the money and the reason to fix up the old school...not as a school, but as a museum or a community center.
Back on the train, we were getting anxious to get back to our car in downtown Plano and head home. It was after 3:30 pm and we were getting tired. But once we arrived at our stop, we decided to walk around downtown Plano, which is very small but very interesting. Something I find intriguing about downtown Plano is that someone has developed some buildings that have apartments/condos on the upper 2-4 floors and retail space on the first floor. The concept reminds me of something that's common in Chicago and New York, though on a much smaller scale. It's urban livability. I like it. As we were walking, we came upon a theatre building where we'd been to a play or two in years past and noticed the sign, "Porno for Puritans." After going around the block, my wife asked if I'd be interested in going to the play that evening; I said I would and we walked back. A young Black woman was sitting at a table in front of the building; we assumed she was selling tickets. When we approached her and asked if she was the person we should see about buying tickets for that evenings's play, she seemed confused. She said she was selling tickets to the dance event. We said we were interested in "Porno for Puritans" and pointed to the sign. She had not noticed it before. She said, "This building used to be a theatre, but I think they went bankrupt. We're doing a benefit here tonight to support the dance companies that use the building." Long story made short: there was no play that night. After another detour or two, we went back to the car and headed toward home, stopping along the way to pick up my wife's recently-repaired watch.
When we got home, we talked about what we'd do for dinner...neither of us were expecting to be hungry...and what we'd do that night. We're not very social people, so we usually stay to ourselves and amuse ourselves as home. But, instead, we decided to do something different. My wife is a big fan of the claymation Wallace and Grommet characers and we'd both talked about going to see the newly released Wallace and Grommet movie...so we did. We were both amused by "Curse of the Were-Rabbit," but speaking for myself, I was not as pleased with it as I expected to be. But it was fun.
Next, on the way home, we stopped at a bookstore because I had intended to try to find an affordable copy of Joan Didion's recently published The Year of Magical Thinking. Affordable is a relative term. I could afford $24.95 for a copy of the book, but I refused to pay what I consider an obscene overcharge. So, we wandered through the store, looking at books and (speaking for myself) listening to more CDs. Ultimately, we decided to buy some books...I tend to do that whenever I go to a bookstore. They were having a 3 for the price of 2 sale on selected books, so we poured over the table with eligible books and left with the following:
- Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, a book I've heard quite alot about on various NPR programs,
- Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, another book I've heard about on NPR and whose author I have heard interviewed about her experiences, and
- Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2, by Annie Proulx, currently my favorite author.
We also bought a book of low-carb recipes that my wife found very interesting.
After all that, we decided we were, in fact, hungry. So, we stopped at a Chinese/Vietnamese takeout place we like and got an order of green beans and beef and spicy vegetables to go. Back at home, we quickly went through the meal and decided we needed to watch a movie I had rented a week ago but had never watched...so, we spent the next 2 hours after dinner watching a DVD movie entitled "Chrystal." The plot of the film, which I saw after we watched the movie, is presented below (courtesy of www.billybobthornton.net):
Fleeing the police in a high-speed chase, Joe (played by Billy Bob) winds up crashing his car, killing his toddler son and leaving his wife, Chrystal (Lisa Blount) severely injured. Fast-forward 16 years, Joe is released from prison and returns to his home in the Ozarks to find Chrystal still wrestling with her physical and psychological injuries. Joe moves back in with her, and although they barely communicate, he begins to look after her in the hopes of making some amends for the damage he has done to her life. A local drug dealer (Ray McKinnon) tries to pressure Joe into returning to a life of crime, but Joe refuses. A reckoning is in the offing.
And that covers our Ides of October, in almost excruciating detail. I wish I were this prolific in writing about every day in my life (you, dear reader, probably do not feel that way)...I'd like to capture the world in a way that will enable me to write a believable book...I need to write more!
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