Light lunch, big game

Shane and I had a great lunch! We went to Panera, and I had never been there before. Yummy soups and sammitches! We ended up talking for over two hours, if you can believe that. (You probably can.) It was great to just get caught up on stuff, chat about things both serious and fun, and of course there was talk of Route 66. He said that about the only part he hasn't driven is between Vinita and Oklahoma City, and I think that's the stretch where Laurel's Afton Station is--how ironic that he hasn't done that part! We had a good talk and some great laughs!

When we were talking about Route 66, he mentioned Devil's Elbow in Missouri. That's a spot that I haven't explored yet, so I'm looking forward to that in the future. Shane said it's probably his favorite stretch of Route 66 in Missouri, and it has one of the old truss bridges. He also talked about the stretch in California that is probably a good 200 miles or so, one of the longest he's driven. Oooo, talking with him about it gave me Road fever! We also talked about our trip in June of 2001, and I told him that on our recent trip to Missouri, the radio station mentioned the McKinley Bridge which is apparently still open. That's one of our more memorable adventures from our trip, because it's a pretty old bridge, and we drove on this outer lane that looked like an addition to the actual bridge, like it was hanging by a thread. There wasn't even a guard rail, just a small curb between us and the Mississippi River. We both felt like we were going to drop into the river at any moment! Considering my fear of drowning, that was very creepy!

I was excited to see that my Ball State Cardinals are playing on ESPN2 tonight. This is the conference championship, and if they win this (they're still undefeated, 12-0), they could be going to a BCS bowl. Wow! And yes, our big cheer at games really was "Ball U!" It's not quite as bad as at Indiana's basketball games, when they were cheering for the IU defense and yelled, "IUD! IUD!" but I supposed "Ball U!" is close.

Back to my lunch with Shane...of course we talked a bit about the election. I mentioned my previous entry about the Emanuel [emanuel, whispered] brothers. He doesn't quite get the appeal, but I have to say that some of the comments on that entry were interesting! I'm also pondering the appeal, and I think it's a combination of power and intelligence. Is this a big difference between men and women? While I can't say that I'm a total sucker for power (maybe just a little bit), extreme intellect is definitely a draw, and that seemed to intensify as I got older. I've had relationships with those who were the direct opposite of intellectual, and believe me, it wears very thin very quickly. (One of my favorite phrases from one particular guy was when he was talking about someone being in danger, and how they were "in arms way." [snort] It always made me think of Robbie the Robot yelling, "Danger Will Robinson! Danger!" and waving his robot arms!) How much better is it to find someone who is intellectually stimulating? Oh yeah, babe. "I luuuuuuv your mind..." Grrr, baby, grrrrr!

But I wonder--and I hope some of my testosterone-laden readers will weigh in on this--is power and intelligence in women as attractive to men as power and intelligence in men is to women? I'm curious. I think there are some men that are intimidated by that in women, but I would guess that most of my readers of the male persuasion are much more enlightened, and into a broad who knows her stuff and can give as good as she gets. (Yes, I'm laughing, and yes, that was tongue-in-cheek! And even "tongue-in-cheek" made me laugh!)

As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating."