Taco Bell

Remember that commercial for Volkswagen? Or was it Coke?

Anyway... in the commercial I'm thinking of, one person did a small favor for somebody and made their day, so that person does something nice for another person and, before you know it, it's a big chain reaction of people going out of their way to help each other.

You remember that commercial? Even if you don't, do you understand what I'm saying?

I was reminded of this the other day when I went to Taco Bell on my lunch break. As I walked in, I was amazed to see the cleanest fast food restaurant I've ever seen!

I'm not kidding. It was amazing.

I stepped up to the counter to order a chalupa, and the lady behind the register smiled and asked me how my day was going.

This lady working at Taco Bell seemed happy to be there.

It didn't take long for me to realize that she wasn't the only one having a great day "Outside The Bun." I peaked inside the kitchen to see the manager and the cooks laughing and telling stories while making tacos.

The lady from the register brought me my chalupa and told me to have a nice day. I sat down at an exceptionally clean booth in an exceptionally good mood to enjoy my little piece of Mexican delight.

I hadn't taken two bites before I noticed something radical was happening.

Everyone was smiling. Not just the employees, the customers too. And not just smiling, but talking with strangers in line, helping each other throw away trash, holding doors open for one another... And the kicker is, the place was packed. I'm positive that I've not seen a busier Taco Bell, but the employees weren't bothered a bit. They were all having a great time at work.

I can't drive 55

So people in Omaha actually follow the speed limit. I know. It surprised me too.

I'm used to driving on I-235 in Des Moines where, while the speed limit is 55, it might as well be 85, because that's how fast most people go (unless you're out of gas).

So when I got to Omaha, I figured it'd be no different.

I was driving "rather fast" on I-80 the other day and realized that, while I thought I was driving a "reasonable speed," I was passing everybody on the road and getting some pretty nasty looks (somebody even thought I was "number 1").

I slowed down and got back into the flow of traffic and realized, much to my chagrin, that everybody else was driving exactly the speed limit.

Whasupwitdat?

I thought speeding was OK. Everybody on I-235 does it.

So is speeding OK because everybody else does it? Is immorality OK when everybody else does it? What happened a few thousand years ago when everybody turned their back on God?

Deviate from collective stupidity.

Lincoln School

I'm not homeless anymore! In fact, I'm living in an old school building in the beautiful Omaha, NE.

For those of you keeping score, I moved out here about a month ago to continue my education at IWCC, and have been living with Christine's dad, Dr. Warner, for the past month. Unfortunately, he has three cats, which I am allergic to, so I had to move out.

But everything is better now. I just "finished" moving this weekend. (I say "finished" because I feel like my stuff is still scattered all over the place, but at least I can live there now.) I am now living on the second floor of the Lincoln School Apartments. It's a sweet one bedroom with HUGE windows in the living room. I've even done some decorating.

I have a job, too. I'm working at Heartland Oncology & Hematology as the official Monkey Boy. Seriously. I'm pretty sure that's my official title.

I guess what I'm saying is, everything is starting to come together. It's been a rough month, but all of it is really paying off.

With work all day and school all night, free time is hard to come by, but I hope to start posting real blogs again soon, instead of just pictures of cats.

Sorry. It was a stnank...

I just took down the "Pat's Friends" section of my site. Even though I thought it was cool to show of some of the blogs I've been reading from friends, it turned out to do more harm than good. To make a long story short, if you searched for any of my friends online, you would find my blog instead of theirs! Oops. It was never my intent to steal anybody's attention or anything like that, and I hope that nobody is too upset about this. I made a stnank.

Paradise Lost

After a couple weeks of living it up with Christine's dad, The Enemy finally got the better of me. I can't live with the good doctor anymore.

I mean, I can't not pet the darned thing. As much as I hate cats, I love animals and can't just walk by a cute little cat while it's screaming "Pet me!" But then my allergies punish me for several hours, and there's no good way (that I have found) to get cat dander out of my nose.

More on this as it develops...