I know, I know...

two posts in two days is a bit excessive

Today i was on my way to church when through my speakers came Carl Castle of the NPR show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" I kept driving. I hadn't really been off the farm much yet and definitely hadn't explored enough. My veggie oil tank was half full so over an hour of scenic driving later i pulled into downtown Muncie. My goal was to find book and record stores and hopefully find The National's latest album.
My breath was unbrushed and needed some coffee. MT cup provided a splendid veggie sandwich with hummus and sprouts accompanied by a banana and chocolate decadence coffee. My fear was that the coffee would be too flavored, but there was a mere hint of chocolate and it complimented the banana extremely well.
While reading the paper in MT cup's courtyard, an older bearded man asked what i was up to for the day. I told him while a younger man, who obviously knew the older professor-ish man, approached.
"Do either of you know of any independent book or record stores around here?"
the younger, tatooed man replied,
"Actually I live in a record store right around the corner."
"What are the chances," i thought.

I walked to the house/store and hung out with six or seven others who were playing guitar and we discussed music. The irony is that I bought Sufjan Steven's Christmas set after looking at and talking about music in a very different genre.

With the banjo-laiden Christmas tunes blaring, the volkswagen took me to the east side of the city where the houses were more run-down and old, seemingly-abandoned factories provided amazing photo opportunities (i forgot my camera...next time). One factory was housing the beginnings of a flea market. It had a slight redneck feel to it (that's a good thing) and most booths had the Indy 500 race streaming from radios. After nearly buying a typewriter and looking through hundreds of vinyl records, I decided the camper didn't need any more stuff at the moment.

At this point I had not found an open record store with the album I was searching for. My dilemma was whether I should (could :) wait or give in to a larger store like best buy...
I drove around the city for a while more and decided to change my focus for a bit - my other goal was to find some (if they exist) relatively local beer. All of the liquor stores I passed were closed, so when i found a large grocery store I stopped. I carried Fire roasted tomato Triscuits, raisins, unsweetened applesauce and beer to the checkout but only left the store with the first three items. It turns out one cannot buy alcohol on Sundays in Indiana. And it was even Upland brewing company... I LIVE in Upland! (it's actually from a city over an hour away though)
"Seriously?" i politely said to the young checkout woman, wondering what would merit such a law.
"Yep, it's Indiana," said the clerk.
Disappointed and slightly-confused I walked to the car almost mad at the seemingly absurd law.
To cope, I found a best buy on my way out of town and purchased a few albums I've been looking at getting for a quite some time.

So that's my Sunday...yep, I skipped church for an NPR show - uh oh... :)