Two nights in a row now, we've eaten far too much for dinner. But mom and dad have been here, so that's a good excuse, right? Besides, Rick and I have walked to and from dinner (about 4 miles round trip) both nights, which helps me to justify the huge amount of chocolate cake I ate last night, and the slightly-smaller-yet-still-huge amount of carrot cake I ate tonight. (Hey, I probably would've eaten the same amount had we taken a cab or driven ourselves, so I'd say we made the right choice...)
Our friend Faisal joined us for dinner tonight, and at some point (I can't remember who started it, although I distinctly remember mom bringing up the "Obama's birth certificate" question ;)), the conversation swung in a political direction. At which point I sighed heavily and ordered a shot of whiskey. (Just kidding... I don't even LIKE whiskey...) Actually, everyone remained quite civil, although I kept myself out of the conversation. Faisal is probably my most liberal friend -- or at least my most liberal GOOD friend... I probably have a few super-liberal acquaintances -- but I've always appreciated his willingness to simply listen and DISCUSS other points of view (as opposed to immediately dismissing anyone with an opposing viewpoint as a moron or idiot -- something I hear from both sides of the political spectrum far too often). So even though he's always wrong (just kidding -- he's only ALMOST always wrong ;)), he can discuss issues without getting into some kind of heated, angry debate. And fortunately, mom and dad and Rick are usually like that, too (and I, of course, stay away from angry debates altogether by never throwing myself into the middle of them... I'm like Switzerland personified...). So it was an interesting dinner...
Our walk to and from dinner was interesting tonight, too. It was dusk when we headed out, and our route took us past the Lincoln Park Zoo. As we got closer, I kept hearing a strange noise, which at first I thought might be a bunch of neighborhood kids, yelling and running around in the park. But as we neared the zoo, it became apparent that the sound was an animal of some sort... or rather, I have to assume, a PACK of animals. A pack of animals howling and yelping. Wolves? Hyenas? Plain old dogs who happened to wander into the zoo?? (Werewolves?!?!?) If we hadn't been on our way to dinner, I would've detoured into the zoo to find the source of the howling...
About a mile farther along our route, we met a girl talking on the phone, and she was walking a dog who was straining at the leash, trying to get into the foliage at the base of the trees along the sidewalk. As she passed by, we heard her say, "I'm walking the dog -- he just saw a rat, so he's trying to get away..." Rick and I glanced around at the sidewalk, but saw nothing but concrete and low patches of ivy. On our way back from the restaurant, however, as we neared that exact spot, we saw TWO rats scurrying along the sidewalk. As soon as they noticed us, they darted over to the other side of the sidewalk and disappeared somewhere in the darkness of a brick-enclosed patio...
And the weird thing is, the rest of the way down that street, I heard the most annoying, high-pitched screech. Rick thought I was crazy (I believe he said so several times, as I complained about the noise), because he wasn't hearing it. When we reached the end of the street, it stopped, and my ears were met with blissful silence. (Actually, that's not true -- they were met with blissful regular old sounds of traffic, etc.) When I got home, I did a little Google research and discovered that high-pitched noise is often used as a rodent deterrent (although it's not always very effective... obviously). So either that entire street is outfitted with high-pitched rodent repellents, or my ears were seriously screwed up on the way home... I'm going with option A...
Anyway, I'm off to bed, where I hopefully will have dreams of chocolate and carrot cake, and NOT werewolves and rats...
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