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I just heard from someone here at work (unconfirmed) that Bank of America is now issuing credit cards to people who do not have social security numbers. No, not that you don't have to give your SSN to be approved, but that you don't have to HAVE one to be approved.

Somehow I don't think the constitution lists among our inalienable rights the right to be up to your ears in debt. But hey, now even our illegal immigrants can join us in our indebted state. Let's hear it for the land of opportunity!  Woohoo!

I've never really been considered a "regular" anywhere (you know, a "regular" at a restaurant, pool hall, bar, etc). Partially because I've never had the time to commit to going to the same place all the time, and partially because I've never had the desire to. But all that changed today, at, of all places, Bojangles fast food restaurant.

Since I moved down to North Carolina, I've been going to this specific Bojangles restaurant fairly often on my way to work. They don't have Bojangles in the north and I really like their spicy chicken sandwiches and biscuits (and their coffee isn't half bad, either).

So anyway, for $3.71 a day, I can grab a cajun filet biscuit and a large coffee on my way to work, without driving out of my way or waiting in a long line. I'm usually back in my car and on the road within minutes, but that doesn't mean I haven't left a "lasting" impression on some of the people who work there.

One of the guys there (Jamel) started to recognize me in the mornings, and said hi to me every day, and pretty soon all the employees working the register recognized me by face (or when I'm wearing my packer hat, recognize me by hat). I started to get a little preferential treatment in some cases (pushing my small order ahead of large orders, even if they had also ordered the same sandwich). But it wasn't until today that Jamel knew exactly what I was going to order and entered it into the register without me having to say a word. So now, there are no two doubts about it, I'm officially a regular at the Bojangles of Harrisburg…at least for a few short minutes in the morning. Not my ideal place to be a regular, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Now I just need to move my way up to being a regular at the main dining establishment in Trump tower….

*Transcripted from drive home on 10/26*

I still am not sure I like the word "blog" (which makes it ironic, considering the title of this one). I don't like "journal" or "diary" either – they sound too little-girlish for what this is supposed to be for me. I guess weblog is okay, but I've got to think of another word…I'll ponder that for a while.

Just recorded a 5 Minutes of Violet entry on this drive home today, and was thinking about how I really want to write more, but haven't spent any time doing it. I guess that's like saying, "I want money, but I don't want to work". Sort of nonsensical – but I'm not exactly sure yet what I'm going to do, since I've been spending so much time trying to get the house in order, and I've got to have a little bit of free time to watch some TV or read a book or listen to audiobooks, right? But I guess writing could be my fun thing to do in my spare time, so I have to think about that a little more and decide what to give up to allow me the time for writing.

I don't think I can invest enough time to participate in the NaNoWriMo activity this year. A novel of 50,000 words in the month of November is definitely beyond my reach right now, and I know that, and I know that I can't be that ambitious in my goals right now. But I do have a couple short-story ideas that I wouldn't mind outlining and fluffing out the details and pushing out a couple 5-10,000 word stories over the next few months.

I know the quality of those won't be all that good on these stories, especially on the first few drafts, but I heard a really interesting podcast on 43 Folders about the "shitty first draft", and I think that's sort of been holding me back – I've wanted to make things perfect the first time around and so I haven't written anything. And yes, my writing isn't great, but I think if I do that shitty first draft, and get my ideas out there, I can pound out a few thousand words, and fine tune it, and expand it, and come up with something halfway decent.

I was talking on my 5 Mins on Violet about Halloween this year, and that's going to be really fun. We're going to take Violet trick-or-treating for her first time, and she's dressing up in the tiger outfit that I wore, when I was 2 years old. It is a costume that was hand-made by a friend of my parents, with little orange and black onesie pajamas, with a little tail, and a hood with tiger ears. We tried it on Violet and it looks sooo adorable on her. So we'll put it on her, and take some pictures, and take her around to get some candy for Dee and myself to eat – Violet's too young still and there's no way I'm letting her get a cavity before she's 2 years old (now after, that's another story! :P )