Jackson, Tennessee. Rain, sun, heat and chill...all in a day down South.

RANDOM RIO SIGHTING
While reading Wired magazine the other day, I saw a little news clip about exercise gym buses that are equipped with bikes and stepping machines. People get picked up, pay their "gym" fee, and get to see the city from the air-conditioned bus environment. Just looking at it I thought, "now that's Brazilian..." and sure enough, it was from Rio. I've never seen the buses, but I have a hard time believing they go outside of the Copacabana area!

I saw the Burger King "Manthem" commercial today. People, it's shot in Rio de Janeiro! I noticed it the minute the guy runs out into the street: 89 Manhattan Place is on the Rio Branco, the main street that runs downtown...and I'm not sure, but I think that wher they push the van off the bridge is really close to where we used to work with the street kids...

It is fun to see my city on television and recognize it from the landmarks that only the natives are going to get...but what is so much more interesting to me is that the commercial is for the "Texas Double Whopper." Texas. Shot in Rio, where there is not ONE SINGLE Burger King. Not in the whole city. Go figure.

THE GRADUATION
My brother is officially graduated. When it began to rain in huge, fat droplets half-way through the name-calling, the entire audience, minus the smart people with umbrellas, went running for cover. Under trees, in the protection of buildings, or even by stealing the chair you were sitting in and inverting it over your head: anything went. Smart administrators cut the ceremony short, removing the school hymn, the class president's speech, even the recessional! Of course, when the professors are all running out of the ceremony, fearful for their expensive velvet robes, it's hard to keep the pomp...

Now, anyone who has been to a graduation knows about the crazy lines at restaurants after. But my family doesn't wait in line. We joined three other families in the banquet room at a chain restaurant. The last people to show up, we created quite a scene, with a massive room and table overhaul, re-seating practically every one of the 35 people already in the room. What a way to be unobtrusive. It wasn't intentional. That's just what happens when your family has seven members. We spent most of the first half-hour posing for other people's cameras. Now I find myself doing this same thing from time to time, so the criticism applies equally to me: why do near-strangers find it necessary to take pictures of people whose names we know we're going to forget after a few months? But it makes the models feel special!

Feeling special. A different kind of special than I'm feeling right now. Why did I think that mini chimichangas, bacon, sausage, eggs, and waffles would be a good combination?

Tomorrow, perhaps, I will share the dinner conversation that had tears running down my face...