10:53 a.m. - 2005-02-23
too much
Yesterday I had a business lunch at this place we'll call The Track. This is a restaurant, next to a mall. I don't really understand this whole thing at all, but basically, somehow you can bet on horses there. There are dozens of televisions with dozens of hourse races on at all hours of the day, and you sit at a little machine and place bets. It was incredible in a really horrible way how many men were packed in there, sitting by themselves, smoking stogies and keeping track of their bets on these little cards, in the middle of the day on a tuesday. It's the Las Vegas of West Mifflin, I guess.
If full fledged gambling isn't legal, then people frequent these places. If those places aren't legal, they go to Dave and Busters and play Skee Ball, I guess. If that's not available they play that game that they have in bars, where you, like, find the hidden flowers in a picture of a naked lady or some crap. If that's not available...people drink a lot. Or have an affair. Or watch a lot of television. I think most people spend a lot of time trying really hard not to feel so bad by dulling the senses and numbing the brain...escape, escape, escape. It's the rare person who get up in the morning and decides that they not only are going to not seek after ways to dodge the pain that comes with living, but rather, to embrace the good, fight off the bad on behalf of themselves and others, and truly live in the moment instead of running from it. Is this too much for a pre-noon blog entry?
