The rest of my life.

Yesterday, we took one of our granddaughters on a grand day out. It pretty much went to plan, although I thought--fancifully, as it turned out--that we might take her to Les Madeleines for a pretty, magical lunch-stroke-snack. In actual life, we went to McDonald's, of course.

the granddaughter, at the beginning of the day out.

Granddaughter: I want Chicken McNuggets, fries, and a milkshake.

Me: Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry?

Granddaughter: hmmm...chocolate.

The historian: I'll have a medium Coke and--do you have those yogurt parfaits?

Crackly speaker: crackle crackle Yes.

Me: Medium Coke and large fries.

Crackly speaker: (do I sense a faint derision?) crackle crackle dollars at the crackle window.

Later, as we drove home, and I experienced a certain mild nausea stemming from my lunch:

Me: I think I've had just about enough of lunches made of Coke and french fries.

The historian: Yeah?

Me:  In fact, maybe I've had enough of McDonald's to last me for the rest of my life.

This reminded both of us of an interview once conducted with Ruth, of Ruth's Diner, wherein she was asked, at age 80, if she ever thought she might remarry. She replied in the negative, saying, "I've had enough sex to last me the rest of my life."

Now, what else have I had enough of to last me the rest of my life? Besides McDonald's, I mean:

1. Possibly syndicated episodes of Two and a Half Men. I had a spate there for awhile (several years ago, now), but I cannot currently drum up even the faintest interest. Certainly not in the Ashton Kutcher version, but also not in the old Charlie Sheens. That show is dead to me.

2. Possibly kung pao shrimp. It was once the best thing in the entire universe. Now: meh.

3. Almost every food you can buy in a convenience store. Is this sad? A little. Each road trip, however, edges me a little closer to closure on this point.

4. Maybe Doritos. But maybe not. But probably, actually (see 3 above).

My friend Ann says probably she's had enough

5. Slim Jims

to last her the rest of her life (see 3 above also).

I might have had enough of

6. uncomfortable shoes. But maybe not. But probably. Mostly enough, anyway.

Some things I have not had enough of (excerpts from an inexhaustible list): cherries. Peaches. Tomatoes. Watermelon. Cheese in its multifarious glory. Naps. Lazy afternoons. Sufjan Stevens. White jeans in the summertime. Justified. Poetry, despite the fact that it is lousy with frustrations. Literally rife. Eating breakfast out--other meals, too--with friends and family. The birds chattering in the trees. Morning. Bruiser. Grandchildren. Nostalgia. Evening. Cake. Sleep.

And now let us pause for a brief television review.

While we were driving in Los Angeles, we saw a billboard advertising a new television show, NCIS Los Angeles. According to the billboard the show would be featuring the dramatic talents of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J.

Fact: NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The show is about an agency that investigates crimes involving the Navy or the Marines. I, like the rest of the free world, have been mixing this show up with CSI, which, isn't it a lot of work for the free world, keeping these acronyms straight? When they're using the exact same letters? Television producers, get on that!

Fact: Even though the Ls in "LL Cool J" stand for "Ladies Love," as anyone in the civilized world can tell you, you don't punctuate them as you would L.L. Bean. Why? I don't know. You just don't.

Anyway, a show that's a police procedural AND it's set in Los Angeles AND has Ladies Love Cool James? I'm all about that. As I mentioned to the historian whilst driving in Los Angeles. While we were driving west on Santa Monica Blvd., I said, "I'm going to watch that show." ["Santa Monica Blvd." may or may not be the actual boulevard upon which we were driving.]

And did I look up this show to find out when it was on? And did I watch it tonight? Yes, I did.

And was the show as good as its particulars might imply? I am sorry to report that no, in fact, the show is terrible. Stagy, poorly paced, not well written, and, sorrowfully, drawing dramatic interest neither from its military nor its police contexts.

"Who thought of this?" I said to the historian, after one particularly stagy moment, "and why are they wasting the charisma of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J?"

Also, the charisma of Los Angeles. Criminal.

Meta-blogging: I have apparently crossed a terrible and consequential blogging threshold, as I now have 2000 tags, and Blogger informs me that no blog can have more than 2000 tags. Sadly, some of the tags I need, like "Los Angeles," "acronyms," "charisma," not to mention "LL" or "the people cry out for justice," I may not add. Blogger! Why do you have to be so harsh? Can you not accept that sometimes we may need to articulate categories that exceed your limited view of what a category is? Blogger! Let my people go!

Nothing on.

Currently, I'm watching Mean Girls. Actually, I'm in the other room, so technically I'm not "watching" it. I'm blogging. Also, I have put away some clothes and started a novel and taken a little nap with Bruiser. And had a cup of hot chocolate. With marshmallows. Now I feel a little sick and possibly a bit overheated.

College daughter watched Extreme Home Makeover and cried her eyes out, and now she's recounting the whole sad, horrible story. What the hell.