6:25pm… And we’re off to Wichita! What’s cooler than Amtrak?

7:25pm… We’re stopped in Fort Madison, Iowa. I’ve just finished a delicious veggie and hummus sandwich called the Healthy, and washed it down with some sweet green tea and spinach bisque. I made the right choice in grabbing dinner at a spot a few blocks from the train station. The observation car is nice, with a lot of people quietly reading, but it’s drafty. So I’m back at my seat, which is bordering on too warm. Bonus: small pillow left for me by steward.

7:55pm… Silence interrupted. Apparently a family is sitting in front of me. There’s potty talk. And the father is one of those dads that makes a lot of noise when sitting down in his seat. It sounds like a yawn, but with a lot of volume. He talks the same way. Slight bonus: watching people try to walk the length of the train while it wiggles through Missouri. Drunken sailors!

8:04pm… An attractive, young female conductor surprises me. Very, very business-like in that cap and suit. I hope I’m in trouble?

10:39pm… All’s quiet for the past few hours aboard our car. Snickers bar. A very cute girl sits behind me, curled up and smiling at me. Or is she squinting?

3:30am… Is there a term for someone who can’t sleep well in a plane or train?

4-something am… In my old bed, I fall asleep.

My Netflix queue has become somewhat of a running joke among friends. And it’s for good reason, I assure you. Since May of this year, I’ve tightly held onto ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.’ I am Linus, and this is my security blanket.

I hear gasps, yes, but it’s true. Originally a movie I intended to see in the theater, it was quickly bumped to the top of my queue 6 months ago right as I moved into my new apartment. I mean, you just don’t ignore a movie that gets a 92 on metacritic.com. But like many who’ve had trouble with certain movie downers, it’s sat under my TV for half a year, through a summer that I still need to write about, a TV that was replaced, and friends that were lost (although not in a deathly way.)

So maybe it was the needle-like sleet that hit me the entire way home, or the fading traction of my car on the slick pavement, but tonight I accomplished something half a year in the making. Sadly, it’s just a movie. Loser.

Since when did Pam get so bitchy?

Could we blame it on medication? Or should we blame those unsatisfied writers at The Office, so bored of their creation that they’re willing to kink up America’s favorite couple? It’s not a good change, we can be sure of that. In the Pam v Karen competition, I always stuck up for the less sophisticated girl. But I may have finally changed my mind.

One can look back at all the short-lived television shows that have left before their time. Let us weep for Arrested Development. Rend our garments for Freaks & Geeks. Usually we are sad, like a drunk holding a weightless paper sack. But maybe there’s a reason for everything, as some say, and we should be thankful for the television-euthanasia that spares us from shows getting too old and pointless.

(How about that 30 Rock, though?)

Like my long lost iPod Touch that disappeared many months ago (only to reappear in the bottom of my laptop bag,) I’m back in action here at ofadam.com. You should know, though, that I may be wearing shoes that are too small. I resorted to having my left shoe off most of the evening last week while working at my desk.

I had a little jaunt through Nebraska this past weekend, one that cleared the mind and recharged my batteries. I’m throwing together some words and photos to do it justice.

There’s also that new job to talk about. You’ve heard, right?