Tonight I hung out with Ruth. We watched some bad tv together, making fun of the shows.
When I first got there, Claire and her were talking about crepes, and she asked me if Americans had them. I told her yes, but I pronounced the word differently, and then she made fun of me.
We had a good series of giggles, and I laughed so loudly and long that I think I frightened other people away. Ruth has no tolerance for American television, which means she made a lot of faces of horror and disgust. I turned on a crappy sci-fi show and we began making fun of how racist and xenophobic it is. Afterwards, I turned on a show with a hot guy, and things calmed down.
Ruth was doing some research, and she told me that the Eisenhower Library charges seventy-five cents per page to print information for you. We talked about how steep and crazy that was. (It really is.) The library is in Missouri, and Ruth's not really interested in going all the way out there, "Even if it's in Kansas City, which is big," she said.
"Oh, there's Tennesse," she said, looking on Google maps.
"It's not that close to Tennesse," I told her.
Then Ruth went off about the middle of the country having absolutely nothing.
"Have you ever been to North Dakota?" she asked. Then she started planning her trip there.
Two minutes later: "Did you know that there are two Hicksville's in the U.S.? Do you want to go?"
I don't want to go, Ruth.
"Why not? What more do you want in life?"
She is very cross with me for not going.
"It has a mall," she said, trying to get me to come. And then she started talking about how malls are awful.
"It has a vitamin shop," she said, trying, again, to get me to come.
"I saw an advert for IHOP; I don't remember what it is."
"I might have to go to Hicksville. It's probably just as shit as the rest of New York."
Then she started using Google's Streetview to look at the city.
"There's nothing here! I'm going to check out the mall."
Then she found a store that sold shoes for "problem feet." Which led into a fight over how to pronounce "podatrist."
She explained to me that England only has dentists. And then looked up a list of the famous people from North Dakota.
"Sam Anderson's from North Dakota?" I asked.
"Apparently."
North Dakota has some famous people, who I hadn't heard of.
We both knew who Leonard Peltier was, so I guess we weren't completely out of our league.
"We can go to a rodeo and a powwow. It's part of their culture."
Okay, okay.
"I think they are faking this 14 days of fun. It won't load!"
Then she started researching weird deaths. In between, the North Dakota page loaded. "Look, they have peacocks and snow! People jog there!"
"People jog here," I say.
"That's because you've never been there," she said.
They also have the world's largest catfish, which she told me all about.
"North Dakota has a special place in my heart," she said.
She got excited for their manufacturing plants and their tax rise. "They must be crazy," she said, about the latter. "And they extended it for 2016, because they're crazy."
I told her I was tired, and she gave me the chance to go to bed.
