Come and visit! Eat our fine cuisine of many lands! Enjoy the many museums and cultural opportunities! Take a walk in our lovely parks! Scream and leap in the air when a rat shoots out in front of you after dusk! (I know I do)

We will be perfectly helpful and polite (if not effusive) as long as you keep moving.

But chatting while ringing things up still makes the ringing up and bagging take longer.

Not really. I can chat with coworkers and type up an email all at the same time. I can't imagine it taking more brain power to work a scanner and chat.

So, as I just posted on fb, it's been 10 years to the day since I left for Peace Corps. Damn, can't believe it's been that long. I should dig out my diary and a bottle of wine, eat some sunflower seeds, listen to Zdob si Zdub. I thought I was preparing for a life's work in international development, and kind of hoping to meet a life partner among my fellow volunteers. Those expectations, and many others I wasn't even conscious of, bit me right on the ass. Good times.

That also means it's 10 years to the day since breaking up w/ the gf I mentioned yesterday. Hah. Guess I shouldn't send her a breakup-iversary message on fb.

Scream and leap in the air when a rat shoots out in front of you

rats, possums ... you don't do well with wildlife, do you?

My sister hasn't quite gotten used to the limited personal space she has in NY. Where we're from there's back yard and front yard and different rooms to escape to. She's not quite adjusted to losing that.

Not really. I can chat with coworkers and type up an email all at the same time. I can't imagine it taking more brain power to work a scanner and chat.

It's not a matter of brain power, it's a matter of time, ::swipe:: is pretty instantaneous.

Pete's gonna hate me, isn't he?

I won't tell him that you were the one who told us.

In New Orleans, that would also include the cashier commenting on every item, asking what you're planning to make with the stuff you're buying, commenting on the weather, asking where you work and what you do, calling one of the other cashiers over to discuss an interesting item that you're buying, and it would take five minutes. And the cashiers would also just about always address me as "sweetie" or "baby," which I hated.

I haven't had this experience though I had been warned that I might. Rouses and Walmart have been pretty much all business.

One thing that I *love* here is the reduction in road rage and horn blowing, though.

rats, possums ... you don't do well with wildlife, do you?

Not when they're out to kill me, no.

Central Park has 40lb raccoons. They hang out in packs and glare at your dog when you walk her. They're like fuzzy adorable little Latin Kings or Crypts.

One thing that I *love* here is the reduction in road rage and horn blowing, though.

Have you gotten used to not being able to make a left turn?