Road Trip Begins!

To Waco! We left in the morning, the start of our non-stressful travel day. It’s only 3 hours or so to Waco, then we would spend the day with my sister Amy, and later add Aaron and Andrew too. I left home without a book, knowing we would pick up many along our route.

Our first stop was to pick up Amy, who’d taken a half day off work to play with us. We went to Mama Baris, an Italian restaurant, where Aaron joined us. He was late because he had to go scare his kid into a bit of discipline so he’d stop hitting on other kids (their babysitter doesn’t like to use corporal punishment). And I started a disturbing trend, not unknown to some of you, where I kind of adjust to incredible heat, walk inside a building that’s air-conditioned, and walk right back out to get a jacket because otherwise I would spend the next hour freezing and occasionally jerking in little spasms because of the chill. Repeat at dinner.

Next, we took off the bookstore, Golden’s. We like it because they’re all used books and it’s cheap. My sister likes it because the libraries in Waco are somewhat pitiful. We took in my box of books to get rid of and gave the credit to my sister (probably not much honestly) and spend the next hour or so wandering the aisles. My sister ends up with a basketful for herself. I find two, my dad finds two, and then we look for something for Aaron to read. I pick out my favorite Robin Cook book, Acceptable Risk, Mom suggests a random Tami Hoag book. Last, Dad, Amy and I wander over to the somewhat hidden, highly diluted erotic section (Waco eh) and picked out a little something something for the boy. Best we could do, now we just wait and see what he reads ;).

By the time we left, the accident that was attracting crowds when we arrived had been cleared up. A large 18-wheeler had been turning a wide right, and a little red truck had either been in the way or got in the way. So the red truck was still straight on the road, the problem was that the semi was now at a 45 degree angle crushed across the driver’s side seat.

We continue on, do some errands, run around, visit the mall, etc etc. As we drive around, I notice that Waco is the ugliest thing I’ve seen in a while. Flat, paved over, full of strips malls, lacking in aesthetics throughout the whole city. Strip malls never appealed to me much to begin with, and their sprawl capacities are now all too apparent to me. This was the first time I’ve noticed that it might be a little harder for me to adjust that I’d first imagined (besides all the fat people).

The night I got in it wasn’t a problem, I’ve spent numerous days in my home without a problem, my couple of trips to Austin weren’t a big deal (though generally I was occupied in my little seat and not noticing much around me), but Waco. Ugh. Waco was a problem. I looked around and felt disgust, that memory of my contempt for America, and my spirits noticeably took a dip. So much ugliness is hard to ignore, especially without anything to offer with it. All the strip malls seemed to offer really were various beauty stores. The irony.

The buildings all seemed to be made of aluminum and looked as though they weren’t finished. Everything was made to be a little box, one floor, next to another little box. There were no landmarks to be found and everything looked the same - ugly.

It’s made me take a second look at the schools on my list. Suddenly I realized that the location certainly did matter. Yes, there’s a school in Pittsburgh with a good program… but did I want to live in Pittsburgh?

This served to push me more heavily in the direction of the New York schools. Cities that are planned are always high on my list, cities with public transportation and parks. And really, when else am I going to get to live in New York?

Actually I have no concept of my future, but no sense in not taking such an opportunity.

Right. Back to the Waco mall. My family breezed through with our normal visits to Bath and Body Works, various places selling candles, etc. Aaron and Andrew met us there and we all took off to the Texas Roadhouse for my Dad’s birthday dinner.

Amy and I fed Andrew peanuts until we thought he would pop. Good times. He’s 2 now and starting to get fussy and wants to do things himself. Whew. Glad I’m not in charge of him, or any 2 yr olds.

Off to Amy’s house and Andrew to bed, soon after, everyone else to bed too.

G’night.