Country Girl, City Girl

Woke up late to a mostly sunny day. It was a bit more humid than yesterday, but otherwise the weather was still pretty decent. Had blueberry pancakes for brunch while listening to WOGL's Brunch With the Beatles show. (The soundtrack for the animated film Yellow Submarine was the theme today.)

I called Mom for the weekly chat after breakfast. Had a nice long one, too. Mom was getting ready to do some garden work in preparation for a big Fourth of July party she and Dad are having. Or, to be more specific, Dad's having. According to her, he saw a neighbor's Memorial Day shindig and decided he wanted to out-do them. Mom just doesn't like it when people don't give her two week's notice on anything first.

Mom and I talked about Rose and me and how much I like living here. I do like living here. This area isn't really suburbs so much as they are a bunch of small towns mashed together that happen to be near two major cities. I just wish some other people like me wanted to live here, too. Yes, sometimes I do get bored. Yes, I wish the libraries were bigger and better-organized. Yes, I feel out-of-place among the older couples and families who also live here. I really wish I wasn't the only single working person in the South Jersey area who would rather live in inexpensive peace than noisy, expensive lunacy. As much as I like visiting the city, I honestly don't think I'd want to live there.

Rose, on the other hand, loves the city. Mom thinks she ought to go back to Washington DC, where she went to school. Mom used to live near DC as a young teenager, and she loved it there. It's all theirs. As nice as the Smithsonian is, I don't think I could live in a town whose population is 3/4 politicians. I don't like the ones in New Jersey, much less on the Federal level.

Rose has also discussed trying to move to Florida, maybe Miami. She's fonder of the beach than I am. Yeah, we both grew up next to it, but I'm happy next to any body of water. She's the one who truly loves the sand and the surf. Her problem is trying to get her boyfriend, whose family lives in the area, to go with her. I think she loves him too much for that.

After Mom got off, I just hung around online until it was time to go to work. Work was pretty much the same as yesterday, on-and-off steady. Unlike yesterday, I was done at an "off" time...and once again, my relief was the boy with a second job who is always late. A manager was nice enough to take pity on me and come in for me. (And I'm sooooo glad he did. The next customers were more of those chop-shop people I mentioned yesterday, with a cart filled with sale soda, cartons of Snapple, and boxes of cereal and fisfulls of coupons.)

I came home and watched Nashville while making Flounder with White Wine Sauce, Rosemary Sweet Potato Fries, and Spinach Salad. Nashville is an unusual film from the mid-70s. Director Robert Altman interweaves the lives of at least 20 different people during 5 tumultuous days in the Country Music Capitol of the World. So far, I'm surprisingly enjoying it. I'm not a country music fan, so I couldn't tell you how accurately that's portrayed, but the cast of 70s character actors really get into their roles. Lily Tomlin comes out especially well as a gospel singer and housewife with two deaf children.