ACTUAL DATE OF TRAVEL: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2011.
SMALL PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY ROSE ON HER IPHONE; LARGE PICTURES ARE MINE.
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LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
Woke up too late for church – which I was bummed about because, well, as I always say, “Sleep when I die, bitches!” – but went with the CS boys to Virginia’s Traveler’s Café (3820 Cornhusker Highway) – a place that apparently the locals like to go to. Make no mistake! The locals are chubbbbbbbskiiiiiinnnnns indeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. And, as Rose noted, people fucking LOVE to wear SWEATPANTS!!!
Ostensibly, our young and agile and liberal CS hosts did not seem like the others… until… they… started… eating… Philly cheesesteaks and drinking sodas for breakfast… and that was like… whaaaat. Meanwhile, Rose had the sweetest fake strawberry-topped waffle… and I had oatmeal, with raisins, and also mixed in some peanut butter… wOooOOooOo! Different strokes!!!!!!!!! Different folks!!! Fuck American breakfast!!!! But yeah, seriously. Lots of sweatpants.
Jesse and Michael…
Funny post-meal photo of the boys… this is one of Rose’s iPhone pics, but there is a better one that she took with her film camera where they’re looking super Backstreet Boys-like.
Oh yeah, it’s worth noting that when we first got up, Rose was super tired and had no brain, and I was trying to discuss with her changing our upcoming CouchSurfing plans because she really wanted to meet the Saddle Creek people in Omaha and that would’ve only been possible if we stayed another day in Omaha. Well, ultimately, it was kind of shitty to have spent the extra day in Omaha as opposed to the infinitely more awesome Chicago, buttttttttttttt. Whatever. I was cranky about that at first, definitely, but got over it… or whatever… arghhhhh. But uh, yeah. I was being rather short with her because she seriously had NO morning brain! And I guess that’s not her fault but it was just so frustrating, haha.
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OMAHA, NEBRASKA
Anyway, the drive to Omaha is only an hour away, so we didn’t really do anything or stop anywhere. I slept the whole time. Went immediately to a coffee shop in downtown Omaha (which Rose had originally thought was a place that Delphine had suggested – only it turned out that Delphine was from LINCOLN not OMAHA, and had suggested places in Lincoln, only well, we blew it)… and worked for a couple hours. Which felt really good because it was my first time doing any work and it was long, long overdue. I was rather stressed for the majority of this trip because I really had stuff to do for the ladies at UW and no time to do it, or no internet access, and didn’t want to be the person who was constantly caught up with doing work and what not. But shit just fucking needs to be done, and sometimes it’s hard to not be given the opportunity to do the shit that needs to be done. Often I think that just because I make my own schedule or whatever it’s hard for people to understand when I do need to work because they think I’m just being like, a workaholic… but it’s not like that at all! (Though I’m not necessarily NOT a workaholic…)
ANYWAY. The coffee shop we ended up at was pretty neat. It’s called Aromas (1033 Jones St.), but I was most interested in the beans they roasted there. There one that was infused with chili pepper and dark chocolate or something? Or was it more complicated than that? In any case, it sounded good, and the espresso was REALLY fucking good, though the barista was not the most jolly dude ever.
After that, went to our CS host Bill’s house. CUUUUTE little house with lovely painted walls – which had colors he picked out, apparently. His roommates were great, particularly this one gal Alley (didn’t talk to the other dude too much). Alley had wanted to make us dinner and stuff one night but had to work so much and study so much that she didn’t really have a chance to hang out too much, which I was pretty bummed on cause she just seems hella rad.
We were going to eat dinner at this hippie-ish café, but it was closed. So we went to Mother India Tandoori Cuisine (3572 Leavenworth St.) pretty close to his house. It’s a teeny-tiny place run by a couple and really like, ghetto foreign supermarket status inside in terms of décor, though they did really love up on a good plant or two. They had plants everywhere, be it on metal exposed piping or in their crazy ass outside patio that looked pretty unsightly. But the food was amazing, and cheap, and actually came with rice included in the price! Outrageous for Indian food! Oh man, that shit was so good.
After dinner, Bill drove us downtown and we checked out this crazy vintage shop / candy shop called Fairmont. Place also has a freaking movie theatre that plays old movies for free all day which is soooo fucking rad. It has a lot of shit going on. Not really sure how much money it really makes, but I definitely bought some candy (mostly shitty peanut buttery kinds… man, I love a Chic-O-Stick), including some chocolate-covered jelly beans and some caramel apple and chocolate caramel caramel corn. FUCK, I LUBS CARAMEL CORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My sweet tooth was kiiiiiinda out of control during this trip. Not gonna lie. Anyway, the Fairmont has a pretty interesting history, which you can read about here. (SIDE NOTE: I’m at a 24-hour diner writing this right now, and they’re playing the radio with Deliliah’s show, and that shit fucking rullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllles. I’m so tired of music lately that this is music that works. Man, it’s sad. I dunno why but this road trip kinda fucked up my mental state a LOT.)
I guess this is a Blues Brother. I’ve never actually seen that movie so I don’t have much to say about it. Bill hated the movie so he refused to take a picture with them, haha.
[ROSE'S TUMBLR CAPTION: "Getting eaten by a hippo"]
[ROSE'S TUMBLR CAPTION: "I need these Omaha salt & pepper shakers" – girl was seriously obsessed with them.]
It should be noted that O! is seriously Omaha’s slogan…!!!!!!!!!!!!
Afterwards, we headed to the Homy Inn (1510 North Saddle Creek Rd.) which is honestly pretty fucking awesome. And a bunch of Bill’s friends came out and they were all really cool, though I must say that being in groups of strangers without a solid backbone friend to rely on – and by that I mean, one who socializes in a way that’s similar to how I socialize – I think I give off just the lamest first impression… because I have no interest in small talk, and would rather not talk, and therefore am quiet a lot in group settings. I also don’t talk about myself all that much, which makes it all the more difficult for starting conversations with people, particularly when the people aren’t the type to ask questions about you. I ask questions, but for the uninterested, my asking of questions can only be stretched so far. I dunno. It’s interesting. But these kinds of situations make me feel totally inferior and a bit suck, which is ultimately kind of lame.
Homy Inn has $1.00 peanuts, which they serve in dog bowls…
And so it ended. I talked to Troy outside on the phone for a long while which felt soooo great considering I was feeling sooooo weird — as well as drooled over how awesome this Saddle Creek Laundromat place looked (was totally bummed I didn’t have my camera). That evening, Rose and I shared this futon thing, even though we later discovered there was a spare bed upstairs, and I was totally bummed cause blankets kept getting stolen and Vivians kept getting pushed off. BUT WHUTEVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. SUCK IT, ME!!!!!!
