Who Needs Milk When You’ve "Got Conversation?" (written in Pennsylvania)

I rode the Capitol Limited for the first time in March of 2011.  That’s when I met Tony, my Amtrak friend.  Tony is the Lounge Car attendant for the Capitol Limited, and he’s awesome at carrying on a conversation.  So awesome in fact, I have spent the last eight hours talking to him.  Part of that time, though, we were also talking to a college student from the University of Delaware.  I call him Delaware.  Delaware is originally from the Chicago area, and he provided me with a very helpful hand-drawn map of downtown Chicago.  It should come in handy tomorrow when I explore. 

My friends have gone to bed now.  And me?  I’m sitting here on a travel high in the dining car typing up an update for all of you.  I’m getting a bit distracted while typing.  I have a beautiful view of the river on my left.  Maybe it’s the Monongahela or the Ohio or the third one that I can’t remember the name of right now.  Since I’m on my way to Ohio, I’m going to assume it’s the Ohio River.  But you know what happens when you assume.  Ass-u me.

Today has far exceeded my expectations.  I got on the train and met my seatmate who is traveling to Ohio.  He’s from Vietnam, but he’s going to college in Lynchburg.  I haven’t seen much of him, though, because I have spent all evening in the Lounge Car talking to Tony and Delaware.  With both or one of them, we talked organized religion.  We talked punctuation.  We talked corporate America, and we also talked celebrities Tony has met while on the job. 

Here’s a list:

Please forgive me for misspellings.  I don’t have enough time to Google all these names before I publish.  Bill Cosby, Jessica Alba, LL Cool J, Whoopi Goldberg, Lou Gates/Yates? (analyst on CNN), Steven Gergen, Jimmy Smitts from Star Wars, some of the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Mets, and Washington Redskins, Cecila Tyson, Joe Biden and his family, an actress from General Hospital, the Indian guy from Harold and Kumar, Tyrese Gibson, and Danny DeVito.   I’ll end with apparently LL Cool J lives up to his name…

Here’s another list for you:

Other topics of conversation included Pixar, feminism and fairytales, Snickerdoodle cookies which we discussed (and also ate), the confusion of the English very “love” vs. the Spanish verbs “tequiro” (sp?) and “amo” (sp?), Snoop Dogg’s favorite restaurant, Ireland, Switzerland, recipes (i.e. for beer, wine, cider, brownies, Peurto Rican food, and recipes as a technical communication document), Into the Wild the book and the film, and more.