I just returned from a trip to visit the family all over the mid-Atlantic states (by "mid-Atlantic," I mean Ohio and WV). I have to say, aside from the fact that it is perhaps the ugliest Toyota Corolla ever manufactured, my car sure does have some kick left in it.

Now, I know that I need to get a front end alignment and new tires for the same. But still, if you can ignore the fact that the car shakes like a San Andreas-brand Slinky above 90 miles an hour, it's a great car. The ride was smooth and quiet, and I get the feeling that a new alignment job will help to get rid of the shakes.

The biggest problem I have with my car is that it's incredibly old and ugly. However, student loans being what they are, I really don't feel comfortable trying to take on car payments along with everything else that I have to pay for now. I mean, I can't say that I wouldn't LIKE to, and perhaps it would be a wise investment. But, really, I have so many other things to worry about right now that the idea of another 150 dollars a month in payments to ANYBODY just freaks the shit out of me.

As for the vacation, it went quite well. I managed to schedule in the added pleasure of seeing Marlena Wu, a friend from school, in Dayton. She's doing a PsyD program at Wright State University, a school which has taken the whole "modern campus" theme to the extreme. I guessed that all of the buildings on the campus were built in the 1980s, and I wasn't far off: Marlena tells me they're all from the early 70s, including the graduate student housing (non-academics call these buildings "apartments." Weirdos). So on this visit, she took me on a tour of Dayton, which I have to say is among the most truly midwestern towns around. That is to say that it's boring. No offense, M-dawg.

Now, not all of Dayton is boring. They have a very nice mall, but the streets are straight, slightly dusty, and empty, as is the rest of downtown. Perhaps because it was a Saturday, everyone was at the mall. Or the could have been...
...in the porno district. Daytonians call this the "Oregon District." For those of you who are uninitiated in the ways of Ohio, there is an Oregon district or an Oregon suburb of just about every mid-to-large Ohio city. There's one in Columbus, one in Cleveland, one in Toledo, and one near Akron. I don't know why. But the Dayton Oregon district is special. Here, one may find a martini bar, a record shop, a gay-oriented book store, an Irish-pub-themed bar, and a leather shop. Don't forget the most eclectic book store around, with sci-fi on the left, comic books in the middle, and porno novels on the right. The porno novels have such great titles (see the post from 6/4 for further rants on this topic) as "Swedish Captives" and "She Takes All Comers!" Badly written for your adult-themed pleasure, but please don't touch the Batmobile toy, or any of the thousands of other Happy Meal toys, on your way out.

Now, the rest of the visit was quite nice. I got to see the folks, the fam, and the cats in Charleston, as well as my aunt and uncle's new house. Also, my cousin Rich's graduation in Toledo was a nice distraction from the otherwise mundane life my family can lead sometimes.

My mother suggested to me that my poor old Corolla be retired around August, and that I not ask it to make another trip back east. If it weren't such a pleasant surprise to see the car make it back and forth on the thousand-mile round-trip journey every time, I might be inclined to believe her. But really...that car's got spunk, no matter what else I or anyone else may say about it. And besides, Dayton just won't be the looking at it through a windshield which is actually cleansed by its wipers, and the guy-friendly dress store there in the Oregon District practically screams out for a car with a pink quarterpanel to be parked in front. Who am I to deny it that?