I dunno.

That's response I keep getting.

What kind of trees are those, covered with the pink flowers?

What's the name of this lake?

How do you get to [insert name of any town or street within a five mile radius]?

Are there any decent restaurants around here that aren't chains?

Suburban somnambulists; sleepwalking their way through life. We all already knew this, but to see the dreary reality of it is nearly too much for me. Rush, rush, rush to the train for your hour-plus commute and come home to sleep, or, anesthetize yourself in front of a TV for a few hours before sleeping. They can tell you where their school is, their church is, their convenience store is (where you can always find a bounty of questionable looking doughnuts), but not much beyond that. What good are these people? Do they have anything positive to contribute?

Towns blur together. Remuddled buildings covered in aluminum or even worse, vinyl siding, stripped of any architectural details. Roads that guarantee my newly rebalanced tires are no more. Crabby looking people. Yeah, sorry for the generalization, and I'm more than likely projecting myself onto these cretins, but I suppose I would look like that too if I had to live here. Too many people. People all over the place. People who have inane conversations. People who eat way too many doughnuts. The real estate publications up here advertise for homes in Orlando. Perfect.

Maybe it's the weather.

Today is gray and drizzly. Quick self-diagnosis: Weather related dysfunction, perhaps? Or I'm addicted to sunshine. Either way, living here would make me suicidal -- or homicidal.

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Now this might lift my spirits.

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We opted to do laundry today, Philly tomorrow. Not sure yet if we're driving or spending hours on a train, but not driving and maybe reading for a few hours sounds OK to me. Naturally my parents will not be attending. Too much work to be chauferred around town for them. Much easier to ride the couch all day. My mother seems to have forgotten that this is not just meant to be a fun vacation, although we are certainly having fun, but was primarily planned to supplement and celebrate S and G's education for the year, and that her ticket to ride included babysitting services. There are always strings attached. Don't know if they will keep an eye on L, who is having a terrific time overloading on 500 channels, or I will take her along. We shall see.