Since I'm free-time Sally now, I took the CalTrain to Hillsdale mall on Friday for a little inebriated adventure. The half hour train ride itself was uneventful and pleasant, and I have to say, the conductors they have now are vastly more pleasant than the ones I encountered when I first took CalTrain in the late '90s and early 2000s. Like the time a female conductor charged me a buck more than usual for the ticket, and I tried to ask why, not realizing there was a functioning ticket station at my stop, hidden in darkness. She just kept saying "thank you" before saying, "It's a compliment," and walking off. I promptly gave the bird-faced bitch the death stare as I exited the train that morning. A buck back then meant the difference between a bean burrito at Taco Bell for dinner versus an empty stomach. Now they keep saying thank you to everyone who deboards, so some customer service training must have been had in the past 20 years.

The mall still had an operating Barnes and Noble to which I occasionally went after work before having to head home to the room I was renting from a vile landlady. But the mall itself was fairly vacant save for a sprinkling of seniors. At one point, one of the older Taylor Swift songs was playing, and I thought to myself how there must be a massive contingent of conservative moms now who think her music has gone the way of the devil.

I made the rounds before taking a trip around the block to take in the suburban landscape and stopping by Trader Joe's for an orange juice to wake myself up some. There wasn't exactly a flood of memories or nostalgia I might have hoped for, but I'm glad I went nonetheless just to cross it off the list.

I plan to do lunch with LB somewhere downtown this Friday. That will be the first of November, and the beginning of the last two months of this year.