revjim.net

It rained all day yesterday. For a guy who occupies his free time with photography, that's a bad thing especially considering how much free time he had. Today won't be much better. Instead of rain, there's snow.

I got up early intending to have breakfast at the B'Ville Diner in Baldwinsville. Half way there I realized I forgot my book and after many failed attempts to find a bookstore on the way there I ended up browsing the shelves of an Eckerd Drug Store. I found "The Lazarus Vendetta", part of a Robert Ludlum series, but written by Patrik Larkin. Not exactly the deepest or most meaningful novel I've ever read, but it beats gazing out the restaurant window staring at the same car lined street for an hour.

The B'Ville Diner was good. I had breakfast: eggs, sausage, home fries, toast, coffee. That's pretty hard to mess up. The place was *packed* and the service was slow, probably due to the aforementioned number of patrons. At 3 in the morning I'm sure it'd hit the spot. But, there's no reason to drive that far and wait in that line just for eggs and coffee.

It wasn't that far of a drive, really. Not by a Dallasite's standards. About 15 miles. Maybe 20. And the view getting was pretty nice, even despite the rain. I think anyone living in "The 'Cuse" however, would find that a bit far.

After breakfast I headed to MQ Camera in Syracuse. It was run by a very nice man who talked tripods with me for 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately, he didn't have what I wanted in stock. Tripods aren't commonly purchased and it's hard to keep a full range of stock.

Next I headed to RA-Lins. This place is crazy. It's like going to Sears, only smaller, and all the sales people sell everything as though they were seilling cars. The customer service was outstanding. I was shown the ins and outs of almost every bag that even remotely fit my requirements. Unfortunately, being as picky as I am, I never found what I wanted. I heard another salesman going over the benefits of having a point and shoot digital camera that takes "AA" batteries with an 11 year old.

Since those stops didn't take nearly as much time as I'd hoped, I found myself back at the hotel at 1pm fighting off house keeping as I tried to find a few more places to visit. Knowing that even driving by any state parks or industrial areas worth photographing would only leave me cold, wet, and bitter, I made the ultimate sacrifice and opted to kill some time at… (GASP)… the mall.

I opted for the super trendy mega mall about 15 miles north. Worse than I expected, it was packed with people and filled with boring stores and a massive food court where every turn met someone else cramming a pretzel or cookie into their faces. After running a quick lap around the mall, I started to feel bored and a little hungry, so I decided to find a late lunch.

I started heading back to the hotel looking for something to eat along the way. Right across from the mall I found a place called "Smokey Bones" that smelled decent from the road, so I decided to go for it. The parking lot was full, however, and I should have taken that as a sign. It was 3pm on a Saturday and there was a 45 minute wait. The restaurant was packed with the same people I'd seen cramming pretzels in their faces only 15 minutes prior.

This part of the Syracuse area represents just about everything that I hate about Dallas culture, especially suburban Dallas. I think I'll be much happier if I just never wander through there again.

Afterwards, I headed to Fayetteville to try a Italian restaurant, "Amore", that was recommended. Unfortunately, the are only open for dinner and it was only 4:30pm. From the parking lot it also seemed to be a bit less casual than the way I was dressed. Maybe Jess and I will check it out together when she's here in a few weeks.

At this point I gave up and decided to just sit at the hotel and read. I stopped in a area of town specializing in chain restaurants, found a Ruby Tuesday, had a burger and drove back to the hotel and read for a few hours.

At 8pm I brought a 6-pack of Labatts and headed to my poker invitation. At least one person from seemingly every personnel rank at the office was there — excepting the one big boss. It's quite unusual for me to see coworkers — managers and employees alike — drinking, playing cards, and cutting up in this fashion. In the end, I'd lost $50, had a few Jager bombs, a couple of beers, heard a guy puke twice, met 4 new people, geeked out about mobile phones with a girl, cleaned up 3 spilled beers and 1 spilled bottle of Jameson, and all and all had one of the best damn times I've ever had with people I don't really know and officially the best time I've ever had with a group of coworkers.

I feel into bed around 1:30am. I tried to read a bit but just couldn't keep my eyes open.

I'm not sure what I'm doing today. Maybe I'll try to find some more shopping. Maybe I'll break down and try to photograph in the snow. Maybe I'll go see a movie by myself. Maybe I'll just drive around the city looking for something interesting. Maybe I'll sit in the hotel and rot all day. Suggestions?