Welcome to Brunswick, Now Serving Mexicans

Though that's not nearly as progressive as it might sound. On my way to Beans in the Belfry, the local church-turned-coffee-shop, I passed through the Railroad Day festivities here in Brunswick, MD. Eager for something to eat, I stopped at one of the food tents and examined the options: Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Hot Dog, Mexican, Chili Dog. Wait a minute... did I read that right? Yes, I did. They had Mexicans on the menu. Either a wave of xenophobic pride has swept through this small corner of Maryland or I'm missing something - hopefully the latter. I began my lengthy investigation.

"What's in a Mexican?" I asked.
"Well, it's just like a sloppy joe," the attendant responded.

Don't know what a sloppy joe is? If so, you probably didn't grow up here. The sandwich was a staple of my childhood, though I don't remember my mom ever preparing it. That leaves school cafeterias and friends' houses, the former of which could be drawn to the recipes simplicity and the facility with which it can be mass-produced. One thing's for sure, in my months in Mexico I never saw anything closely resembling this. In fact, the ground beef that is central to the sandwich did not feature prominently in any of my Mexican fare (not even in the tacos, if you'd believe that).

This might add some clarity to the peculiarly named El Sloppy Tacos that I stumbled upon earlier today, but I still find the whole idea a little hard to stomach. (You see what I did there?)

In other news, my weekend away from Baltimore has been very relaxing. I've split my time between running through the backcountry roads, sitting on the porch reading, cleaning up hairballs, and turning into a prune in the hot tub. Yes, I'm bragging about how awesome my weekend has been, but I hope I'm doing it without being too self-important.

It's been great to get out of the city and have some time to think. I actually opened up the blog today with the intent to write about something entirely different. I've been thinking about the paradox of wanting a companion and in waiting for the right person. I feel like this is a paradox only in initial appearance and that a sensible solution will present itself in time. Meanwhile, I feel myself both wanting to rush headlong into some romance while also wanting to hold back and cautiously approach the topic so as to not get burnt. Anyway, these thoughts are for another time (and another post), but if you happen to have any wisdom feel free to share.

That's all for now. Time to try to squeeze some productivity out of the remaining hours of the day.

Update 8:53pm EST: I meant to include two tiny tidbits for the curious reader. I've recently taken up Spotify for my music and have discovered two artists that I enjoy: Canadian indie-rock band Stars and US-based group Late Night Alumni (Wikipedia labels their genre as "house," but I disagree. Listen to this or this and be your own judge.)