Friday, October 1, 2010

"Morris is weird," I've told Nader over and over. "Be prepared."

He usually just laughs when I say that, but after today, I think it's crucial that he believe me. I just went on a walk around town and so much weird shit happened. Morris astounds me sometimes... occasionally in a good way, but often in a way that defies adjectives.

Today, I went to my landlord's address to drop off rent. I had never been there before, and was unsure which house actually was Dale Peterson's. I passed the gas station, looking concernedly for No. 106...

I found it. It had a giant sign that read "Peterson Enterprises!", written in large block letters. The sign was surrounded by a wagon full of pumpkins, a platform full of squashes, and multiple other piles of root vegetables. Dale was standing in the middle of them, a hunched man in a plaid shirt, puttering slowly away from me.

He took my rent check, and then he gave me a butternut squash.

Then I went to the co-op to buy coffee, and the woman there told me "Take some vegetables!", and so then my backpack was full of potatoes and tomatoes, in addition to the butternut squash.

At the bank, where I went next, there was free coffee.

And then I went to the grocery store. There was no free food there -- rather, while I was standing awkwardly filling up a jug with water, the woman next to me went brightly, "So you're in college!"

I looked down at my tie-dyed shoes. "Yes?"

"What year are you? Freshman?"

... By the time my water jug had filled up, she'd learned that I was an English major who planned on moving to Germany to teach English and live with her boyfriend in December. Then she said, "Well, seeya!" and walked away, happily pushing her cart.

Also, Pamida Pharmacy had apparently last time given me only 1/3 of my prescription, even though I'd paid for all of it, and the woman at Thrifty White Drug -- the rival drugstore -- told me, "Go kick some ass!!"