blog topics are unrelated

Last night, I was completely winded from going to work. Is that dumb, or what? I've had this starting/stopping cold for weeks now and it flared up again on Wednesday and so I made it a relaxing work at home day. I didn't overtax my brain, I ordered wonton soup and by the end of the evening I felt much much better. But going to the office yesterday where I, of my own volition, overtaxed my brain and instead of curling under my desk for a nap during lunch, I went on a brief shopping excursion, so that by 3:30, I pretty much just wanted to put my head down on my desk and cry. But I trudged on and got home around 6 (thank you light traffic!) and declared myself 'ready for bed.' But Ryan begged me to go out to dinner, which I agreed to, since I could just be on cruise-control.

We went to a local teppan restaurant that we both like (Benihana with better food and about 1/2 the cost) and were seated with a family of 6 that was celebrating a birthday. We were at the end of the table, which was great, so that we didn't disturb them and we just chatted and dined except when, randomly, the family would pull us into their conversations or butt into ours. It was... challenging, to say the least. All 6 of them, individually, wanted to be the center of attention. So everything was the SMARTEST thing they've ever heard or the BEST food they've ever had or the FUNNIEST joke and they'd look to us for validation. Ryan and I tried to just ignore them and carry on but then, from across the table, someone would yell something at us, like HEY! HEY! YOU WANNA HEAR A JOKE?

Ryan: [interrupted] -- are you asking me?
Dude: Yeah!
Ryan: Um, ok.
Dude: Knock knock
Ryan: Who's there?
Dude: No man! You're not doing it right!
Ryan: What?
Dude: Knock knock
Ryan: Um.... who's there?
Dude: [exhasperated sigh] eyes
(meanwhile, chef is lighting an onion volcano and serving food, so it's kind of noisy and distracting)
Ryan: Did you say 'eyes'?
Dude: YOU'RE RUINING THE JOKE.
Ryan: .... eyes who?
Dude: What?
Ryan: Eyes who?
Dude: Oh.... I's your 44th president!

Fortunately, the chef served him his food and the Dude, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday incidentally, stopped talking to us and started shoving all the food into his mouth and then randomly yelling about how it was a "six pack night." Which, okay, that in itself isn't all that strange. A young-ish dude wanting to party it up on his birthday, EXCEPT that he was there with his ultra-conservative family who went to great pains to ensure that we heard all of their Bible jokes and who the special guest would be at their prayer meeting. They also inserted themselves in our conversation more than a few times to discuss which neighborhood they live in (big, expensive houses). The Dude acted almost like someone who's been brain injured with the way he was so impulsive*. In a nutshell, the family was weird. We were totally uncomfortable the entire night and couldn't wait to get back to the car and start talking trash on these people. I mean, really, with that joke? Was it meant to be racist? Is he just ignorant? Did he actually mean 43rd president? Was that supposed to be a southern accent or a 'yessuh' slave accent? Did he have beef with Bush or Obama?

Item Two:
Have you seen Picture is Unrelated? Some bizarre and weird stuff. I'm terrified and fascinated.



*I studied brain injury and cognitive retraining for a long time, and this guy acted like some of the people I have seen