Say That Again?!

Someone just called looking for a person whose name she pronounced as Ah-REE-Kah. I know there are some funny names out there, but this was a first for me. I asked the lady to spell the name. This is what she spelled:

E-r-i-c-a

Here it is the 21st century, and this lady has never seen the name Erica before? Never had a friend named Erica? A classmate? An acquaintance? Ever?

I wonder what color is the sky on her planet.

Secret Agent Homeless Man

Last Saturday, as I was driving down 95th Street, I passed the boarded-up Dunkin Donuts near Ashland Avenue. (Actually, it's closer to Bishop Ave, but who's heard of Bishop?) It always surprises me to see it-- I have never seen a DD go out of business here in Chicago. I guess there are a number of reasons why this store went belly up. I know of one in particular that convinced me to take my business elsewhere.

The thing that I loved about this Dunkin Donuts is that it had a drive-through window. I could get my Dunkaccino fix without ever leaving the car.

I was doing just that one late evening several years ago. As I sat at the pay window waiting impatiently for my super-sized cup of sugar and caffeine, a homeless guy walked up to my driver side door, asking for spare change. I told him I didn't have any change, which was true. The only money I had on me was the $20 I just got out of the ATM. (No, I didn't tell him that part! Give me some credit!)

But then he just stood there. Suddenly, it occurred to me that it occurred to him that I would certainly have some change once I paid for my items. How nervy!

It's at this point that the cashier returned to the window for my payment. I looked at her, went "Uh...," then looked back at the homeless guy. That was my eloquent way of saying that I had no intention of flashing my cash to an audience. The cashier immediately leaned out of the window and said something like, "Is that homeless man back?"

And here's where it got surreal. Like some kind of homeless spy, he pressed himself flat against the brick wall of Dunkin Donuts, where the cashier couldn't see past the window's ledge. Then he placed a finger to his lips in a "Shh" manner for me to keep his location a secret.

Wait. How the heck did we become partners in this endeavor? Apparently, in Secret Agent Homeless Man's mind, I should join him in his fight against the tyranny of the Dunkin Donut cashier for the freedom of hassling her customers for money.

Well, no. Absolutely not. In this case, I am a big fan of tyranny. I can't get enough of Dunkin Donuts' iron-fisted authority. So, I immediately busted the guy out, and he went scampering into the night.

Needless to say, that was my LAST visit to that DD. And judging from the cashier's comments, SAHM was a regular visitor. Consequently, I'm pretty sure they lost a lot of customers that way.

New and Improved!

So, when I first created this blog, I was really new to the whole blog-making concept. And let me tell you, I was overwhelmed. So many templates and designs and backgrounds and fonts and widgets and... Whew!

Needless to say, the look of my blog was a little claustrophobic. But my half-baked design took sooo long (three agonizing days!), that I said Screw It, Good Enough! Also, at the time, I had an older version of IE, which made working the Template Designer feel like I was using an Excel spreadsheet on a calculator watch. It was frustrating, is what I am saying.

Fast forward to today. I've got a more compatible version of IE, and some spare time. I had only planned to just play around with the Template Designer, but I stumbled upon a design I really love. It's certainly not original (it's one of the standard templates without any tweaks from me), but it's a breath of fresh air compared to what I had.

One more thing I found: I was able to change my settings so anybody can comment on my blog. I have gotten a lot of flack about that in the past. And I thought I couldn't change that. Looks like I can. Imagine that. Of course, this opens me up to possible abuse from trolls, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

So, feast your eyes on the beauty that is my revamped blog. You're welcome (smiley face).