While waiting in line at Shoney’s breakfast buffet, I overheard this conversation between two waitresses.

Waitress 1: “You know what?  Never mind.  I’ll wipe down your tables for you.”

Waitress 2: “I just love working with assholes.”

~~~

While walking out of Spencer’s, I overheard this conversation between two young men.

Young Man 1: “Don’t hit my burn.  What the fuck were you thinking?”

Young Man 2:  “. . .  . . .”

~~~

Waiting for my mom in the food court of the mall, two girls walked past me.

Girl 1:  “Well, your such a fugly bitch!”

Girl 2: “laugh laugh laugh”

~~~

I just love listening to what people have to say.

A long time ago, I created a post that asked who my readers were.  I was curious.  Most bloggers are.  And well, I’m still curious.  Plus, I think enough time has passed to take roll again.  I’m pretty sure that my viewers have changed a little since I left China and started writing about my daily life here.

So, if you would be so kind to drop me a comment, letting me know you are, how you found me, or anything else you feel like sharing, I would greatly appreciate it.

The last time I did this, I got six comments.  This go around, I am going to shoot for the stars and hope for eight.  If you commented last time, and you are still with me – thanks.  Feel free to leave me some love again.  🙂 Comments, as you know, make me extremely happy.

It happened last night.  I dreamed in Chinese again.

For some reason, it sounds like something that I would say to a shrink.  And no, for the record, I do not have one.  Although, I am sure there are countless people out there who think I need one.  🙂  I’ll leave that discussion for another day.

The dream itself is rather fuzzy, but the little I can remember may amuse you.  I always ponder who all the yous are.  The stat counter Phil built says 50 some odd people come every day, some longer than others, but other than the few that leave comments on any sort of regular basis, I have no idea who they are, and if they care a wink about me.  I guess I never really will.  Oh, well.

So, yeah, I dreamed again in Chinese.  In this particular dream, I was at a big celebratory venue.  I am not sure if it was the New Year or if I was reliving a piece of the Olympics that I never witnessed in person, but it was big.  And there were lots and lots of fireworks.

The only reason I can remember that I was in this stadium like place was because it was also the start of new school year, and I was in charge of the freshman class.  I had to speak to them once the celebration came to a close – about what to expect and all that jazz.  This made me nervous in my dream just like it would have in real life.  I hate speaking in front of people.  How I managed to teach 30 some students nearly every day for a year is beyond me.  I guess I just got used to bull shitting on a regular basis.  🙂  (Yes, Mom, I just used the BS word!!)

As soon as the event was over, everyone started heading for the exits, all except for me.  Something distracted me and kept me back.  Well, before I knew it, everyone had left and I didn’t know which door to take.  I called up the stair wells, but no one could hear me.  I was too afraid of getting lost that I stayed there hoping I would figure out where to go, but my dream said I had to stay. Slowly, I noticed that my surrounding were changing.  It was getting darker, and the walls were turning into stone.  Lights on the walls turned into torches, and bars with electricity came down by the doors, keeping me from trying to run away.

I looked around and started noticing that there were some Americans chained up along the passage ways.  I ran over to them and begged them to tell me how to get out, but they wouldn’t unless I would unchain them.  One even handed me a key, but I told him I didn’t want to get in trouble.  I have no idea why a prisoner with a key would still be chained, but he was.  What can I say?  My dreams are weird.

At about that point, I heard some noise behind me.  The prisoner told me that I should hide, but I didn’t listen.  I ran to see who it was in hopes that they could help me.  The noise ended up being a line of freakish monsters.  The one in front looked like Skeletor from He-Man.  Behind him were some wickedly evil creatures that only my mind could create.  Insert you own creepy guys and you’ll know what I mean.

He looked almost exactly like this!

Well, since my dream was in China, the creepy guys had to speak Chinese.  This made everything super frustrating.  It is times like this I wish I had studied my Chinese a little more because I have no idea what they said to me.  It was all comptlete gibberish to me.  I’m sure they were saying something like, “How did you find our secret dungeon?” And, “We must kill you now.”  I just kept saying over in over in Chinese, “I am American.  I am a teacher.”  I added some “help me” in English, but they didn’t seem to care that much about my presence.

I was feeling pretty helpless, but for some reason I did not run.  I just kept standing there pleading with them hoping we’d finally be able to understand each other.

And then Phil’s snoring woke me up.

Part of me was greatful that I didn’t have to deal with Skeletor anymore, but I was mad that I wasn’t going to be able to find out what was going on.  I quickly closed my eyes and hoped that I’d be able to go back to the same dream like I am sometimes able to.

Fortunately, I was, but the interesting part of my dream was gone.  The little man operating my dream center hit the fast forward button.   I entered the dream looking over a lot of paperwork – all of the stuff I had missed while being stuck in a secret Chinese prison.   Hey, at least I didn’t have to speak to the freshman class.

I was reading through some of the Yahoo! news yesterday and came upon something very amusing.  Apparently, pranksters have been hacking into electronic road signs and replacing the real warnings with things like “Daily lane closure due to zombies”, “Raptors ahead – caution”, and “Zombies in area. Run!”.  So far it has happened in Collinsville, Illinois, Austin, Texas, and a county in Indiana.

Photo by Chris Nakashima Brown

Had I been an actual witness to any of these signs, I probably would have crashed my car laughing hysterically.  I would so pay money to see something like that on my way to work.  It would so break up the monotony of my day.  You can read the rest of the article here.

Finding out Michael Phleps’ smoked up at the University I graduated from just isn’t good enough.

96.7 WLTY AKA Steve FM is by far my favorite radio station in Columbia.  I love it because it is a no nonsense type of station.  It does what a radio station should do – play music – any kind of music – all the freaking time.  I don’t have to listen to some stupid disc jockey yapping in my ear about stupid stuff I don’t care about.  I get to listen to music – a nice range of music.

Steve FM’s slogan is “Playing Whatever We Want”, and I think for the most part they do.  There are certain types of songs they play more than others, but just when you least expect it, a song you have either A) never heard of or B) haven’t heard in ages comes on.  I think I listen just to see what will come on next.  🙂

The reason I’m talking about Steve FM is because the other day, driving home from work, a kick ass 80’s song I have never heard of before came on the radio.  I racked my brain trying to figure out who was singing it, but no bands would come to mind.  And since Steve FM doesn’t tell you what song or band is playing, the station’s only real pitfall, I had to try and memorize the lyrics so that I could type them into Google when I got home.  Traffic was horrible, so by the time I did get home, many of the lyrics had escaped me.  All I have to say is, thank God for the internet.  Thank God for Google.  And thank God for YouTube.  I can’t really imagine life without them.  🙂

I thought I had just about heard every 80’s song there ever was, but apparently not, because some how this song has stayed out of my radar since 1988.  Phil said he heard it before and that he knew I had, but I really believe I haven’t.  It was even in the credits of “Napolean Dynamite”, but I really don’t remember hearing it.  Perhaps I didn’t watch the credits.  I don’t know – either way, I think it is an awesome song, and thought I would share it with you.  The name of the song is “The Promise” and it was done by the band When in Rome.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=jqNZekTvzBU[/youtube]

That isn’t the orginal video, of course, but I liked it much better.  Do any of you remember this song?