More break stuff

- I guess I ride the particular Amtrak route I take a lot, comparatively. It's funny, to walk into the dining car, and have the dining car LSA (who is usually the guy who's on the runs I take) greet me like an old friend. (Funny, but also kind of nice. Generally the people I run into who work Amtrak - at least, on the trains - are pretty nice to me. I don't know if they're just generally chosen for friendliness, or if it's because I tip and also don't do special-snowflake requests (or get upset if they're out of the thing I intended on ordering) or what, but it's sort of nice to have someone familiar serving me).

- Tons and tons of huge student-apartment complexes going up in my parents' town. I really think they have more housing capacity now than they have students, and I wonder what will happen if the supposed higher-education bubble-burst happens, and far fewer people attend college. Also, the campus is tearing down the old married-student housing (it was built in the 50s; some of my friends in grad school lived there and they referred to it as a 'crackerbox' but also didn't seem to think it was so bad given what rent was). They're replacing it with some kind of big new dorm. (Again: I wonder about the funding; Illinois is practically broke, from what I've heard).

- The Borders' in my parents' town closed. Closed fast - it looked like they were loading up the last stuff to take to another location when I was up there, so I didn't even get a last chance to look. It makes me kind of sad; as I said, I remember the old flagship Borders' in Ann Arbor, and it makes me sad to see them crashing and burning. (My dad blames Amazon and e-books but I suspect that maybe there's more involved that's hurting Borders; Barnes and Nobles still seems to be OK.)

- Speaking of e-books, given the supposed hipster penchant for "outdated" technology (like typewriters and vinyl records), I wonder if someday soon pulling out my Big Fat Train Reading Book will brand me as a "hipster." (E-books are okay, I guess, but I admit I still think I prefer ink-and-paper books.)

- I am envious of the choice and size of grocery stores my parents have in their town. (One of them - its produce department alone is almost as big as the entire little Green Spray). On the other hand, I definitely don't envy them the traffic they have to deal with.

- The last day I was up there, we had a little scare. Because of a recent electricity price increase, my parents have shifted to all cfl bulbs to try to save energy. They have a lot of recessed lighting and the bulbs for those are a cfl inside a glass "sheath" to make them look kind of like the "real" recessed lighting bulbs. Unfortunately, a lot of the cfl bulbs are kind of cheaply and badly made. One of the "sheaths" fell off of the bulb (the glue holding it on just let loose) and it crashed to the floor. I jumped up and moved back from the area fast. I thought the whole bulb had fallen - given the concerns about mercury in them, and the arduous clean-up and decontamination procedure - I had visions of having to abandon the knitting that I was doing at the time, as the ball of yarn was sitting close to where the sheath hit. But it turned out that the bulb itself was still in the socket - it was just the outer glass sheath that let go. (But still- if I had been right under it, I could have been cut). I really wish incandescents weren't being phased out in favor of cfls. I understand all the arguments and everything, but I find myself wanting to go to Congress and say, "If I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, to turn off all unused lights, and not use electricity wastefully, will you please still let me have incandescent bulbs?" (Though now I read that 3-way bulbs will not be phased out; good. That's what I use in my bedside reading lamp and I'd hate to have to replace that with a cfl. I am sure there are "good" cfls that are not yellowish or glare-y, but I haven't found them for sale anywhere nearby.

- I bought a pair of brown dress shoes (pictures, maybe, later.) They are fairly "PTA Mom" shoes but they fit, they are comfortable, and they shouldn't kill my ankles. (I admit, I was a bit taken aback - I went to one of the "healthy foot specialist" shoe shops. I had picked out a couple pairs to try, and when I tried one on, the woman helping me said, "You have very flat feet and you pronate terribly! Those shoes will destroy your ankles!" I admit I was a little taken aback - for one thing, I've been walking on these feet for just shy of 42 years (I think my mom said I walked at 9 months), so I KNOW they are flat, and I KNOW I pronate. (My reaction was not unlike what my reaction would be were someone to tell me I was fat - "Duh, I live with this body every day, how could you think I don't know?"). I realize she had my best interests at heart, though, and the shoes I had on at the moment really weren't comfortable - so I wound up with a different pair, still ones with a low heel (I've decided my knees don't like perfectly flat shoes). As I said, they're kind of Banker Lady or Suburban PTA Mom, but they're nice enough shoes.

I do wish sometimes I could wear the really outrageous shoes some women do, with super high pointy heels and stuff, but I also still want to be able to walk when I'm 70. So I go with the plainer, blander shoes. (Well, also, I'm cheap, and I buy maybe one pair of shoes a year, so they have to be (a) well-made ones that will last and (b) ones that will look good with a lot of things in my wardrobe). So no bright-yellow pumps or ladybug-bedecked shoes for me, I guess.