Faking It and San Diego Zoo

Over the weekend I read Faking It. It's sort of an advice book for people leaving college. Mostly it is just being funny, partially giving real advice on how to fake it, and partially giving real advice. It is completely aimed at guys. It has some stuff like a few authors to know in case anyone ever talks literature and stuff like basic advice on buying and wearing a suit. If you're interested spend 10 minutes in a book store checking it out - you should be able to skim through a good portion. Or if you're not a guy in your early to mid 20s then just skip it. The cover on amazon is different than the one I have - a 40 being poured into a fancy liquor glass. The book also confirms a number of things my parents had to slowly convince me of - like that the stuff in my bathroom should match, that I should get a decent set of towels, and I should put artwork on my walls (that's some of the less funny advice).

On Sunday I headed to the San Diego Zoo. I would say that it is a rather nice zoo, but I could also tell you there is some good food in France. I actually think that the San Diego wild animal park is nicer because it seems so much more natural having a bunch of different animals out in a large area. In defensive of zoos in other cities I do think the San Diego Zoo cheats by designing everything based on knowing that the weather will be nice. I won't go into too much detail, but there's a lot more animal sex going on at the zoo than I remember from childhood zoo visits. Not sure if I just caught an interesting day or if that's what happens when you don't have parents to pull you away and you have a sick enough sense of humor that if you see something starting you get closer rather than walking away.

In foreign countries where I do not speak the language, I have little shame when it comes to trying to communicate with people I do not know in order to get what I need. Rather than state an example - I'll just encourage you to think of your favorite of my stories about me finding my way around another country - if you know me well enough to read this, you almost certainly have a long list to choose from. But when I'm within driving distance of my home and everyone around me speaks english (well, ok, maybe not everyone, I am 70 miles from the border, but everyone relevant to the situation), even if the other person initiates the conversation - I have no idea what to say. And often end up mumbling half a sentence or just smiling dumbly. And afterwards wonder if my half sentence meant anything or if the other people were left guessing what country I'm visiting from. Well, I guess it does save them from trying to parse my run-on sentences and trying to figure out who taught me it is ok to put sub-sentences in parentheses and split parts of sentences using hyphens.