Going Places Near And Far

Today we’re coming to you from the open road. We’re on the way to Columbia to see Jon’s goddaughter and to pass the time, I’m typing this on the drive. Laptops are cool. But unless we stop at a gas station with wi-fi, we’ll have to wait to actually post this until we get there. Jon, do you want to say anything to our readers?

Um……I don’t know. I don’t like rain and I don’t like traffic.

Don’t I know it. Before we were even married I adopted a personal rule of never telling Jon anything I wanted him to remember while he is driving. I have two words for you…road rage.

What?!?! I don’t have rage. I have frustration sometimes. But not rage.

Uh huh. Whatever. Okay, so really what I want to talk about today is something that happened to Jon earlier today. You have heard me rant about the strange system that our local St. Louis Bread Company (Panera, to you out-of-towners) has of telling people their order is ready. Actually, the system is not so much strange as nonexistent. Today, Jon ordered a You Pick Two (he says: it was very good) and he was given a pager and asked for his name. When his order was up, they actually called the pager number. Does that make any sense? No. Last time I was there, I asked the poor schlub behind the counter what was up. It was really just out of curiosity, I wasn’t upset or anything, but the kid got all flustered and apologetic and didn’t say anything that would help us solve this mystery. Now, I know that just about all of the other contributors at Apartment Five B are Panera fans. Do you all have the same issues at your local stores?

We bought our plane tickets for Costa Rica a couple of nights ago. I’m super excited. It’s my first trip that necessitates a passport. Jon and I are both sans passports right now. I just got one for the first time last year but, still devoid of stamps, I had to send it off for a name change. That was about 2 months ago and our trip isn’t until November so I’m not worried about getting it back in time…yet. Jon just sent his last week – his was actually full of stamps and about to expire – but his is expedited so it will likely be back before mine. We’re going to Costa Rica for a wedding – Jon is even a groomsman – and we’re going to be there for about a week. This wedding is going to be super fun – the reception will feature two bands and two meals. It might be even cooler than the luau. (I'm kidding - of course! it will be cooler than the luau - it was about 105 degrees! Ha ha!)

After I finished the first part of this post, we ran into some traffic problems. Turns out it was because of this. A truck had lost it's hitch, releasing the trailer holding the boat. Somehow the boat ended up completely upside down in the left lane. The poor guy standing next to the side of the road on his cell phone when we drove by looked profoundly sad. We must not have been too far away when this happened - the police hadn't even shown up yet. Despite the delay, we still got to Chris and Marianne's house in plenty of time to enjoy some Shakespeare's Pizza. Yum yum.