Bowling Balls and Coffee Cups

Last night I dreamt I played this song for a class in Egypt at the base of a pyramid. I said, "And that's Kenny Rogers!" but none of them knew who that was. Then we investigated the pyramid, looking for a tomb.

I drank wine and watched The Big Lebowski last night. It was an end to a rambling day. It's summer break right now but I went to one of my schools looking for the groundskeeper I befriended so I could return some blu-rays and DVDs he lent me. But the school was closed. There was a baseball game going on there so I sat and watched them a while, letting the sunburns get worse on my arms. I left at around 11:30 and walked to a nearby McDonalds for lunch and had a big mac, large fries, and an orange juice. I don't really like fast food but I had a dream about McDonalds last week. It's much nicer in Japan, too. Cleaner and they bring the food to your table.

To complete my American nostalgia day, I walked to the Starbucks and drank coffee and read for two hours in the beautiful air conditioning. I had two cups of coffee, the second one at a discount because I kept my receipt. The cashier, when she saw me come back, told me to look for my receipt so she could give me the discount. That illustrates a key difference between Japan and the U.S. In the U.S., she wouldn't have mentioned the receipt, she'd have just given me the discount because obviously she'd seen me there the whole time and she'd rung up my first coffee. But nothing's real in Japan if there's no paperwork.

At Starbucks, I was reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a book that's getting talked about a lot lately and I realised I should try to live in the modern era sometimes, even if this particular book is thirty years old. It's time is now, though, and I'm developing theories as to why that is. I'll say more when I've finished (I'm about two thirds through). So far I feel it's a bit overrated. It's kind of like an episode of Columbo without Columbo. Parts of it benefit greatly if read with alcohol; such parts are kind of cosy.