Never Never Land

I've got two words to describe my mood right now--bored and restless. I'm torn between wanting to get out of the house and do something--anything--or staying in and being a good boy and not spending any money.

I thought about going out to play poker, but not at any of the local joints around here. I have to work again tomorrow night, and for the next few nights after that, and I don't want to spend my free time in a poker room. I had thought about going down to the Bellagio and feasting on some of the tourists, but the idea of driving down to the Strip and all that it entails just doesn't appeal to me. And since I've eliminated the local rooms and the rooms on the Strip, well, that doesn't leave many options.

I finished off another book earlier this evening, but I didn't enjoy The Ionian Mission as much as I thought I would. Seriously--there was too much poetry that didn't add much to the story, and the author's description of the local Turkish politics in the early 19th century was tedious at best. Or maybe I just wasn't catching the subtlety of it all. I dunno. Maybe I was bored and restless while I was reading. But then, that's about all I've been doing lately besides household projects. Even TV doesn't appeal right now--300+ channels and I can't find a damn thing interesting to watch, either.

I guess I have a case of the Blahs. Or a head-start on a case of the Mondays.

I've been trying to think of something interesting to write for a couple of days, but I've kind of been drawing a blank there, too. The other day, on my way home from work, I was listening to ESPN radio and the hosts were talking about stuff they've never done, more specifically, stuff they've never done that other people find quite common. It was in interesting discussion, and I thought Oh man, I could easily write about this!

Some of the more interesting things that were brought up were that one guy had never had a condiment in his entire life--he'd never had mayo, mustard, or ketchup on a burger, hot dog, or sandwich in his life. Another person said they'd never eaten a banana. Listeners were emailing in, and a few offered up random things like never owning a wristwatch, never having driven a stick-shift, never lived in a house that had air-conditioning, etc. And, strangely enough, a lot of people wrote in saying they had never seen a single one of the Star Wars movies. Which I guess isn't so strange to kids born after say 1988 or so. Besides, the last three were so god-awful that I can't blame people for not seeing those.

After listening for awhile, I thought I could easily come up with a litany of common things that I've never done, but having had a couple of days to think about it, it's tougher than I thought. I thought of Linda Lou who has never eaten guacamole, and tried to think of common stuff that I've never had. But she's a picky eater, and her list is probably long and distinguished, where as mine, I'm still thinkin'. I'm willing to try most anything, but I never had sushi until about 1998 or so. And it took awhile longer before I tried caviar.

But something common that I've never tried? Hmmm... I don't think foie gras or truffles are considered common (but I may have eaten stuff where truffle oil or shaved truffles were included, I just couldn't tell), but, truthfully, I've never tried either of those. But that's a far cry from never having eaten mustard.

So foodstuffs probably isn't really a great category, as far as this litmus test goes. On the other hand, I can proudly say that I have never, ever, in my entire life, even tried to smoke a cigarette. Oh there is a photo or two of me out floating around in the ether of me holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, with a satisfied glaze on my face, but it was staged. I've always thought cigarettes to be nasty and distasteful, and I was never tempted, even as a teenager, to try it. Cigars, on the other hand, are refined, tasteful, relaxing, and civilized...

But digging deeper into the 'Common Stuff I've Never Done' topic, one other thing I can think of is that I've never read a single Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies. It just never appealed to me, so that was an easy thing to miss.

I've also never seen a single episode of the original Star Trek series, either. But that's about all that I can think of.

What about you guys? Anything rather common in the everyday world that you've never experienced?

Mikey