Things I Love Thursday

"I'm BAAACK!"

I don't know about you, but I really enjoy announcing that upon returning home.  It can be said so many ways: exuberantly, ominously, defiantly....etc. I really just love shouting it as though I'm returning from a decade-long journey of curing disease in Africa, even if I really only went to get the mail. If you really want to make things interesting, try exclaiming it when you reach a place you've never been before. It will introduce the element of mystery to your character...

Tangent aside, I'm back from a glorious two-week safari in Europe. Hey, safaris aren't just reserved for Africa. Rather than delve into that here, let us return to our regularly scheduled programing. I promise I have many a post up my sleeve about my adventures.

Things I Love this Thursday:

(1) PG Tips - The most common brand of tea that the English drink. To them, it's swill made from the leftover trimmings swept off the floor but to me, it's the elixir of the gods! The really posh drink Twinings or Harrison and Crossfield but a cuppa PG is good enough for me. Purchased a small box from Whole Foods upon my return to the States. I die of happiness.




(2) Wide open plains - I have a new appreciation for the vast tracts of farm land that characterize Indiana. I joke as much as the next guy about the giant cornfield that is my home state but it has seeped into my soul to the point where I crave it after weeks spent on tiny roads in cramped cities. There is nothing startling or dramatic about the landscape here.  The gentle rise of the land, the rows and rows of green stalks,  and the quiet sprawl of farm buildings are comforting in their uniformity and familiarity.  Driving away from the airport, I find myself unconsciously relaxing as these scenes come into view.

(3) The zoo - I used to be against zoos. This is part of my checkered past as a closet treehugger. I thought it was cruel to cage the animals in unnatural environments merely for the purpose of allowing selfish humans to ogle them at will. 
Ok that's only 20% of my anti-zoo perspective. I just can't lie to your sweet, trusting faces! Mostly I was against zoos because my family only seemed to visit them on the most sweltering, uncomfortable summer days. Us and hundreds of whiny, bothersome schoolchildren who did rude things like leave their ice cream cones melting on the ground for me to step in. And all the animals would do is lie in their enclosures and give us baleful, disgruntled looks.
But recently I've come to enjoy the zoo experience. We still manage to pick the most impossibly hot days to visit, but I really appreciate the diversity of animals found there. You have your pedestrian, run of the mill lions, tigers, and bears but then you have exotic, unusual creatures such as the Ibex and the Red Panda. What it comes down to is my high level of interest in animals and my high level of interest in having a fence/reinforced steel cage between me and them. The zoo is a happy compromise.

(4)  Blogging old school - Aka keeping a journal. While on the grand tour, I had access to a computer all of twice so it meant all my chitter chatter had to be recorded analog, a la my trusty Moleskine notebook. Many snippets to be shared here forthwith.

(5) Converse One Star bags - You can have your Louis Vuitton and your Prada and your Balenciaga. I'll keep my slowly growing collection of Converse One Star fake leather handbags from Target, thankyouverymuch. They are soft, roomy, and sturdy. My black carryall toted my stuff across the Atlantic and back. What more can you ask for?

Don't actually own this one. Though I totally wish I did.

So basically, this is the most random collection of things to throw at you but all the other things I've loved these past three weeks are tied up in stories of intrigue and adventure. You'll see...

I hope you loved your Thursday.