Fun You Can Bank On

We have survived yet another encounter with my family. It was a pretty brief trip but the lack of sleep my wife and I had made it a very long day. We got up early but still had to drive to State College with the sun in our eyes. I had no idea that my Dad was off so we went out with my parents for the afternoon. They wanted to take us to a local restaurant that had been built in an old bank.

It was a cool place, added a picture of it below, but the waitress was a little scattered. We walked in around 11:45 and were promptly handed breakfast menus. We proceeded to look at one side of the menu, at the other side and then at each other. We repeated that process more than a few times. We soon asked for the other menus and eventually got them. I got a pretty good laugh at the hours of operation as we were leaving. I took a picture but I am afraid that people reading it may suffer from brain hemorrhages. It takes a degree to figure out what hours they may be open and what meal you can expect them to be serving at that time of day. It really should not be so complex.

We then went and did some random things around the area. We hit up a town wide garage sale. We went to the mall and I was able to pick up the 3D movie poster for The Rocky Horror Picture Show as well as Neurotically Yours Volume 3. My Foamy the Squirrel collection is once again complete.

It was then time to meet my family for the birthday gathering. It was a pretty good time even if they were watching football the whole time. My aunt was in a pissy mood since Penn State lost and it took her a bit of time to come around and be sociable. We ended up looking at photo albums and other than my Dad making fun of everyone else’s pictures it was enjoyable.

After dinner it was time to meet a former girlfriend. My wife was nervous about the experience and my family was baffled by it. Luckily I don’t care what my family thought and I knew my wife would survive the experience. We met at Perkins to chat for a bit. It’s very weird to talk to someone you have so much history with especially if it is a 50/50 mix of good and bad times. We both still care about each other but there are things about our past we can never get past. I guess you will run into that.

It was a fun trip home but we got up tired and struggled all day to stay awake. I am glad I got to see my family. We don’t have much in common at times but we really do have a good time together once we all just relax and act “normal”.

There Can Be Only ONE!

So Kevin Smith posted an update on MySpace. It seems that Bryan Johnson, Steve-Dave from Mallrats, has been in charge of the West Coast Secret Stash and it’s another job in a long line of jobs he hates. I guess he was in charge of the East Coast Secret Stash and hated it. Then he was in charge of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash for some time and hated it. So when Kevin needed someone to run the West Coast Secret Stash I guess Bryan was the logical choice……? Anyway, as with the other jobs he grew tired of this one too. Kevin made him a deal and said that if they couldn't find a new person to run the store by the time the lease was up they would close the store and Bryan would be free. I guess Kevin believed he could find a close friend he trusted in time. Turns out he was wrong and the store will be closing in about a month. You can read the full story here.

It’s sad news as I’m such a fan of Kevin but I have to say thank god it isn't the East Coast Secret Stash. Kevin said that he is sad that the store is closing but it was never a real cash cow like the East Coast stash is. That blew my mind until I realized that I've only been there twice and dropped about 400.00 between those trips. Then you look at the record line we had for the one Kevin signing. I guess either we have bigger fans out this way of else there just isn't much else to do. There is a signing event coming up on the 29th of this month and of course I am tempted once again to make the trip. My wife is on board knowing that we can take our camping gear and really see the sights. My sights I am sure she doesn't mean going to see the Quick Stop yet again. I promised my family I would see them during my vacation and I promised my wife we would spend some time together. This really is a way to do those things as well as meet Kevin again and get more shit signed. I can almost taste the White Castle burgers.

The Crazy Man Poses Little Danger

Tonight at work the one guy who works for me called me out to our back dock. He happened to see someone behind our dumpster. I guess there have been a few cases locally of suspicious activities and he had heard a few bizarre stories. I had to stand out there a few minutes before the shadow behind the dumpster moved enough to recognize that it was a person. My view was obstructed by what I was told was a bike. After staring at the black blob in the dark for a bit I clearly saw a hand move around a bit. The thing was over 30 feet away and still creeped me out. I went to tell the boss about this odd event. Before I knew it this one server pacing the dock calling out to this person. He asked if they were ok and they exchanged a few comments that I didn't hear. He said that he had seen the guy eating and he seemed normal. The cops showed up a bit later and took the man, who was pretty drunk from what I heard, away to sober up for the night.

The only thing odder than the mystery man behind the dumpster was the casual way the server blew off the whole thing. Using the defense that the guy had just been inside eating doesn't make the situation any less creepy. I asked him if he had ever heard the phrase “casing the joint” in my usual sarcastic manner. It seems to me that any potential crook would have better odds of success if he knew the number of people he might have to deal with and the layout of the location. It really blew my mind how easily he just brushed the whole thing aside. Maybe I've just seen way too many movies but it is very clear he hasn’t seen enough.