Had an interesting venture to suburbia today. You remember suburbia, don't you? That quaint piece of Americana where everyone has space, cars, and you can't simply walk to anything? Yeah, that place. 'Minds me of home, except that the suburbs just south of SF are very Filipino, along with other backgrounds.

I had to go to suburbia today because I'm going to a wedding in a month in which I'm a groomsman. The groom is part-Filipino and so we're wearing a traditional Filipino shirt called a barong. So, since Daly City is one-third Filipino it obviously would have the store I needed to go to in order to pick up my outfit for the wedding. And off I went.

It's a little bit of a trek getting there, but very do-able and I should probably try to do that more often when the mood strikes. After picking up my outfit I shopped for a couple of hours around the mid-sized mall. There were your basic stores there attached to the major stores: Macy's, Mervyn's, and Target. Ah, if only the latter two were closer to me physically-- great places to go for every-day products. I kept my purchases from them to a minimum cuz I knew I'd have to drag them home physically-- without a car.

Ah, yes, you know you've lived within cities too long when the first question you have for everyone in the suburbs is: "Is it close enough to walk?" Anyone from the suburbs automatically looks at you like you're insane, even if things are just down the street. I remember that mentality from my days back home in Kansas City. Even when I lived in the city itself I never walked anywhere. It just wasn't done. But since I've lived in larger cities I know that walking gets you where you wanna go easier than burdensome, parking-troubled cars. I mention this because upon arriving to the area, before boarding the next bus, I asked the train operator if it was close enough to walk to the mall and his wild look told me the answer to that one. It was best that I rode the next bus since it was pretty far-- not far on the bus, but far for walking. Ah, yes, I must remember that everything outside of cities is far, far away. That's what the space is for, to keep things away from each other.

So anyway, I shopped and shopped and purchased more than I should and then sat down to do that all-American sport of eating at the food-court. Yes, the food-court. Invented to keep people in the malls longer I suppose, they always have such terrible versions of real food, yet close enough to real food that you think it's ok. But, lo and behold! This food-court, being in Daly City and all, had a Filipino fast food restaurant! How cool and fun. Treat myself to some traditional, fast food style, Filipino food. Now, before I go further, I should point out that two of my closest friends from my Washington, DC years were Filipino-- as I mentioned the groom, above, is Filipino. So I know Filipino food somewhat. In fact, I love to shock Filipinos with my knowledge. Let me explain. So I went up to the counter and pointed to what I wanted-- dinaguan. Now, usually, when I do this-- being a white guy-- most Filipinos are in shock that I know what it is, let alone that I want it. You see, dinaguan is this wonderful stew-like substance that's in actuality some type of concoction made out of pig's blood-- it's kind of a Filipino insider delicacy thing that even a lot of Filipino's dislike. But I love it! And so when I ordered it at the food-court, well, you should have seen the lady's face. Priceless. Anyway, I sat down and ate it with some really wonderful b-b-q chicken. Great, great meal-- even for a food-court. Yummy.

So that was my day in suburbia. I finally got home very tired and carrying too many bags. I coulda bought more. One of the stores there was this store devoted to those infomercial products on television. Priceless crap throughout. I got so close to buying Jessie a number of items because for some reason there seemed to be so much that related to him-- ha! But nevertheless, I decided not to purchase more since I was already overburdened with bags. Next time. Maybe, next time, Jessie will go with. That would be priceless fun, wouldn't it?