judecorp | "Look at you this morning, you are by far the cutest..."

As they pause to sneer at the two girls from out of town.

I've been listening to "Little Plastic Castles" in the car for the past couple of days, and every time I hear the first song, it makes me think of a funny traveling experience from not too long ago.

When Jennifer and I drove to Pittsburgh to visit Rachel and The Meltons, we stopped in Washington, Pennsylvania for gas and food. (We chose this particular exit because it had a Denny's, and we don't really have Denny's in C-bus, so...) As soon as we walked into the Denny's, people started staring. Like, everyone. The hostess, the servers, the customers.

There was this older man eating alone in a booth beside us, and he kept chatting at me. I was shivering, and I went back outside to get my hoodie, and then when I came back in he was teasing me about eating ice cream in the winter (I had a strawberry milkshake). He was very good-natured, and seemed to be speaking to me in a fatherly or grandfatherly way. We're also pretty convinced he thought I was a boy. After he paid his bill and was walking out, he put both of his hands on my shoulders and said, "You kids have a safe trip." I guess we had "WE'RE FROM OUT OF TOWN" stamped on our foreheads. I can't imagine why. ;)

Of course, the people in the booth behind him could have been guests on The Jerry Springer Show. There was a man, a woman, and a teenage girl (and the girl had those ghetto-bun-pigtails that are always on Springer), and they were staring at our table hard core. They were also talking fairly loudly. About us. When we were finishing up our food, the daughter asked aloud, "Is that a guy or a girl?!?!" We chuckled, wondering whom she was referring to - me or Jennifer. We're actually pretty sure it was me, and that they thought Jennifer was a man. Ha! I kept staring back. It's a bad habit I have.

So I made sure, when we walked back to my car, to go to the window closest to their booth and plant a big fat tonguey kiss on My Favorite Girl. Of course they were watching. In horror.