Yesterday turned out to be quite a trip. Now, those of you who have been paying attention should realize that I've been obsessing over Shaman King lately--my random divergences into the worlds of either Digimon or Pokemon not withstanding. Let's just say that yesterday didn't really help matters any.

You see, it all started with the fact that my mom actually decided to wake me up to help make a run to the store sometime in the early afternoon. Keep in mind that my sleep schedule is completely out of touch with reality given that my internal clock was recently reset from being more compatible with the idea of living in Japan than to a setting more practical for living in New Jersey. I have no idea how my internal clock managed to do that in the first place because I didn't even notice the irony of the time difference until I went and looked it up. Anyway, I'm trying not to get back into the habit of that, but my sleep schedule is still kind of erratic. So, we did the shopping that we needed to do and somewhere along the lines I became subject to a seemingly open-ended discussion about going to the mall later in the day that, for all intents and purposes, my mom made sound like it would include me. Now, my brother, who was going to drive us came back a little over an hour later after completing some other errands he needed to take care of and I was a little wary when he acted all surprised about the fact that I was going with them especially after I had bothered to get myself ready for the trip.

So far, so good. It turned out that my brother was actually going to drop my mom off in the city (not that city) after going to the mall so she can stay with a friend for the rest of the week so she'll have a reliable ride to work. We did some shopping, I secured the 2nd and 3rd volumes of .hack//G.U. as well as a copy of Digimon World 4 that shall occupy my attention for the duration of the week, and then my brother completely failed to register that we were planning to stop at the bookstore on the way out from the mall at my request, but my mom was the one that told him. No, we never got around to going to the bookstore because it was inconvenient for my brother who had already made other plans by the time we would have had the opportunity for it. However, the evening had something much more interesting in store for me.

After we dropped off my mom my brother and one of his friends had to attend some kind of a meeting which meant there was definitely no time to run back to the bookstore and there wasn't enough time to stop and eat on the way to the meeting either. Since it wasn't of any concern to me I decided that if there was anything within walking distance of the place they were having the meeting that I would grab a snack while they were busy. This is where things got a little bit weird. First I started talking about how a simple vending machine would suffice and gradually worked my way into the typical subject that whenever I role-play with my friends online we inevitably arrive at a random cafe or tavern with bar stools. I meant for this conversation to be in jest, but upon arriving at our destination it turned out that there was indeed a nice little cafe less than a block away.

I was in a neighborhood I had never been to before and I happened across a cafe with bar stools! On top of that it was called the Potbelly Riverside Cafe and it was actually next to a river which just made the atmosphere of the place that much harder for me to resist. So, I went in and had a some delicious hot chocolate that was actually made with milk instead of water and a marvelous BLT half of which is presently sitting in the fridge awaiting the moment I determine the time has come to finish it off. More over, shortly after I was seated in the dining area an advertisement for a psychic reading service came on the radio and it ultimately turned out to be the same station I've taken to listening to at home. I even stopped to stand by the river for a few minutes after I was done eating before returning to the car to wait for my brother and his friend to get done with their meeting and certainly the irony of the situation didn't escape me when I started thinking how much I was acting like Yoh and if I didn't walk away right that instant I would be standing there for hours at a time when being blissfully unaware of when my ride would be leaving was an extremely bad idea.

All in all, it was rather fun. I would apologize for any logical inconsistencies this might bring to the fabric of reality, but I think for the most part it was fairly harmless and even reinforced what little faith I still have in humanity. My brother and his friends really aren't the best representatives for me to associate with so this was a very nice change of pace.

I really need to get out more.