Blueberry Dreams

As I often do just out of curiosity I googled the title of this post only to find that a great many things use the name Blueberry Dreams. A band, a crocheting style (or something like that), and a lip gloss. This is, of course, not about any of these things. It's just that I had a fantastic blueberry muffin from Dunkin' Donuts. Usually I toast them or have them buttered and heated up, but today I took it just plain and was surprised to find it actually tastes much better that way.

I only had one muffin as well. Usually I eat two. But that's something I'm working on after talking to the doctor. If I usually would eat three of something now I eat two, if I usually ate two now I eat one. If I ate one of something, maybe I don't eat it at all. I've cut back on soda a little bit, but that has proven harder than I expected. I already drank a lot of water, but I also drank a lot of soda. Most days I would have a hot chocolate in the morning, two cans of soda in the afternoon unless I ate lunch and then I'd have two with lunch. And then another two cans when I had dinner. Sometimes three. That's a lot of soda. Sometimes I would have an iced tea or two in there somewhere as well. Lately I've been drinking a lot of iced tea from 7-11. It comes in a half gallon jug. I'd drink a whole one in a day between the office and home, but then I wouldn't drink any soda. Either way that can't be good for you. So I've got to cut down on that too. My only (and not remotely serious) fear is that it's all the chemicals in these things that have been keeping me in good health despite it all, or like in that Mayo Clinic episode of The Simpsons where they tell Mr.Burns that there's a million things wrong with him that could kill him but that they're all sort of jamming each other up so that nothing can kill him. I'd be like that with Sprite. The carbonation is stopping the cholesterol from clogging my veins somehow, but the minute I stop drinking Sprite that cool clean water is going to push that cholesterol right into my veins. Or perhaps Rosenberg's Iced Tea from 7-11 has some kind of cancer inhibitor in it and when I lay off that all the second hand smoke I've been inhaling all these years will instantly form into lung cancer. I kid, I kid. Really.

Last night I stopped for gas at the Lukoil nearest my house, and recognized the guy pumping gas as the guy who used to pump gas at the Lukoil near my office. He was always real friendly, real nice guy. I asked about the other station, he asked what happened to my old truck. Just a nice guy. When I was leaving he said, "Have a good night Chris."

I was already out of the parking lot by the time I stopped to think about it. How does this guy know my name? I never introduced myself, don't know anyone else at that station, I pay with the company Lukoil card that doesn't have my name on it and there's zero chance you could guess my name by my signature. He wears a nametag, I don't. So how does he know my name?

That reminded me of this one time when I was in the Dunkin' Donuts I go to every morning and the counter girl said, "Anything else Chris?" And at the time I was just so pleasantly surprised that she would remember my name that I didn't think much of it till I walked out and thought, "How the hell did she know my name in the first place?" I can't ever imagine paying for a donut with a credit card, and I'm certainly too shy to have ever introduced myself. I know a lot of people that go to that Dunkin' Donuts, but how would I come up in conversation? So how did she know my name?

It's all got me thinking. How many people do I see everyday, all the time, whose names I don't know? Lots of people who work in stores I go to I recognize by their faces as the guy (or girl) from such and such a place. But how many of their names do I know? How many of them wear nametags that I never bother to look at? I remember most of the people at the bank, some of the girls and one of the guys in Dunkin' Donuts, a few of the people at the gas station, and a few at restaurants I go to on occassion. I never forget a face, and I'm pretty good with names, but how many faces did I never have names to go with?

I think I'll work on that too.