Some New Trend

FAKE BOYFRIENDS AND FRAPPUCCINOS :: BY CARRIE ROLLWAGEN

BLOCKBUSTER. KMART. STRIP MALL. APPLEBEE’S. BIG LOTS. STRIP MALL. What it lacks in topography, pancake-flat Florida makes up for in chains. The stores going by my car window are all the same — boxy, unimaginative, predictable. I kind of like the conformity, even though it contradicts my punk-rock roots. Mediocrity can be comforting.

And, by the way, I don’t really have punk-rock roots.

I’m trying to meditate on the meaning of existence — or at least the meaning of Applebee’s — but my mom’s in the driver’s seat (literally and figuratively), and she won’t stop trying to engage me in conversation. She has a way of staying silent until I’m sliding happily into a train of thought, then breaking out with some conversational gem.

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