However, this time around, things were different. It had only been a few months since folks had seen me, and sadly I'm not THAT awesome, so the novelty of me just wasn't there. And that's fine. I got to spend a lot of time with my family, and a lot time with my close friends. I ate pizza, drank Harpoon IPA on a nightly basis, and watched TV. I saw 'Lost' for the first time, and naturally didn't understand a damn thing of what was going on. I discovered the coolest show I've seen in a while, 'The Deadliest Catch' on the Discovery Channel, which chronicles the lives of Alaskan king crab fisherman (sounds fascinating, no?), and by the end of two weeks I had finally figured out where all the light switches are in parent's new house.
One more note on television. I find that TV is the area where I find myself the most out of touch with America. Most things don't change that much. People and places in my hometown haven't changed that much since I've been in Japan. I remember driving down the road last summer shortly after I arrived home for the first time in a long time, and being surprised at how little had changed, and how it really didn't feel like the last time I had driven down that road was several YEARS ago.
But TV, man, I have no idea what's going one there. The thing that stuck out to me, other than the fact that I hadn't heard of many of the popular sitcoms/dramas on TV , was that how many of them use terrorism, or the threat of it, as a central theme. It's an interesting way the entertainment industry has tapped into post-9/11 America, and I'm not sure what to make of it really.
The other thing that I noticed, and I'm not sure when TV stations started doing this, was that practically every channel, during any given program, puts up adverts for other programs on the bottom of the screen. Very subliminal. I'd bet that most of you in America don't even notice these anymore, but next time you're watching TV, check it out.
OK, that's enough rambling from me. I've still got one more post to make before I can call it a night. Here are some pictures from Cape Cod. They revolve around the beach.
One day we took a drive up to Provincetown, haven for gay folk, artists, and fishermen, and all around cool place to visit, though if you're looking for action (of any kind), the middle of March is probably not the best time to visit. The place was dead, to the point that we couldn't even find a place to eat. But it was cool to roam the streets for a little while. Here's the big'ol phallic Pilgrim Monument (ahem, note the angle of the picture), from which you can get a really great view of the Cape and P-town, when it's open of course, otherwise you get stuck at the bottom taking pictures like this.
On our way out to P-town we stopped at numerous beaches along the Cape Cod National Seashore. The fact that the beaches were numerous means I forget which one this was, but the picture is pretty, and that's all that matters.
When I was in 6th grade, for some reason the school made us wait outside after our bus arrived until the school officially opened. Why the bus dropped us off before the school was open I have no idea, but we generally had to wait for 15-20 minutes, as I recall. That's plenty of time for a group of several hundred young people to do horrible things. In this case, I remember some kids would kill time by killing seagulls, feeding them alka seltzer which would cause the seagulls' stomachs to explode, thereby killing them. Horrible ain't it?
This woman was feeding the seagulls bread, but I take a segue when I can get one. Anyway, I don't like seagulls, but apparently some people do.
If I did like seagulls, this is the kind I would like. Peaceful, not making any noise or trying to eat my food or crap on me.
We had a pretty good winter storm while I was home. This is my local beach, Sandy Neck, being all feisty.
And this is the same beach in a much more hospitable state.
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