(Today has been a day of odd grammar. This may affect this entry.)
Guess what I rarely do, even when I drive a lot? Go through drive-thrus. Which I first felt should be spelled drive-throughs, but the correct spelling now actually looks wrong, so I'll stick with "drive-thrus." Anyway. Drive-thrus. Out of curiosity, today I went for the first time to one of the Portland-area Sonic restaurants, the one in Hillsboro. I actually braved the suburbs for fast food. Reminded me that I no longer have much of a feel for suburbs. Lived in them before -- does Rancho Bernardo count as a suburb? I lived in Northern Virginia's suburbs from the mid-Eighties to the mid-Nineties. And almost all of Virginia Beach might as well be suburbs considering how spread out Virginia Beach is -- but no longer really like the "spread out but not too spread out" quality of them if I ever did. I can go to rural areas, deserts or parts of the coast for that "really spread out" quality, but for me, suburbs are no longer real "there-there" sort of places.
So. Back to the Hillsboro Sonic. I pulled into a parking spot and then took nearly 10 minutes deciding what I wanted. First time there. I wanted it to count. I actually chose well by just choosing sides -- chili-cheese tater tots and cheddar-filled jalapeno peppers -- and a lime Rickey. (Newsflash to Jennifer "
But the big thing today for me was driving. (And cheering the Jets to a win and cringing as the Eagles lost, because I didn't want the Cowboys back in the playoffs.) Before reaching Sonic, I drove through and near Beaverton. Even tried getting to the Nike campus, which is right next to Beaverton but on unincorporated land, because from all accounts it's a neat campus. Plus the company I work for has built several buildings there. Turns out it's no usually open to public, especially not on weekends, according to the nice older-guy of a security guard waiting near the front of the campus.
(I did once, back in Northern Virginia in the Nineties, drive into a Reston parking lot to turn around only to find out thanks to security guards -- plural -- that I'd gotten near a building with CIA offices and unless I had reasons and clearance to be there, I'd better get back to the road expeditiously. I did. I don't think they were about to draw guns that time...)
Maps got me to the Sonic after that, and that's good because I don't really recall the lay of the land in the suburbs, especially suburbs that I go maybe once every two years. I used my map skills. I'm proud of them. (That could be its own entry sometime.) Then, once the food was consumed, I scenic-routed to the Beaverton Powell's and browsed, which I do plenty. From then on my night travel was errand-based, gas at one place and groceries at the Safeway nearest my apartment, and I indulged myself another way by buying a 12-pack of Pepsi Throwback. Pepsi has even brought back the Eighties Pepsi logo. A couple of guys saw my box and got excited over it. I told them, "That design's older than some friends of mine!" (I thought of
The stuff in this entry: all accomplished thanks to driving. I can do it.