I’ve waited several months for this day, and I can’t believe it’s finally here. Football season has begun. Goodbye to the summer. I wish it well, and may it never come back again. I hate it. There’s nothing to look forward to anymore. I feel that way, and I’ll keep feeling that way from here on out. Let the fall take over and winter to follow. I can’t wait for the cold to arrive.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, softly gazing out a window at parked cars and other cars drifting down Adams Street in La Quinta. I want to sit here for days, even when the table is wobbly. I hate wobbly tables and chairs. They drive me nuts. It’s like a squeaky wheel on a shopping cart. It won’t stop, and it’s broken. Minor disturbances in my life, like ringing in my ears.

I’m going to sit all day and watch football with my parents before I drive back home and prepare for work tomorrow. I wish I didn’t have to work, but I’m taking a week off at the end of September, which I look forward to at least. Whatever I do doesn’t matter as long as I’m away from work and the nightmares that come with it since it has taken over my life.

I went shopping yesterday at Nordstrom Rack and bought two T-shirts and two pairs of shorts. The shorts were two colors: blue and gray, while the shirts were blue and yellow. The yellow one has a drawing of a bear with sunglasses on as he plays a keytar. The keytar was popular in the eighties when rock band players used them. I believe bands like Cheap Trick. I’m not positive, but they’re the first band that comes to mind. Either way, the shirt made me smile, which was the reason I chose it. I’m wearing it right now. I was anxious to wear it today as soon as I woke up.

After shopping, I went with my parents to a restaurant named Pacifica, where I ate a cheeseburger. The place is known for its seafood, but I don’t like it very much. It doesn’t get me excited. Don’t get me wrong. I like lobster and some crab when it’s cooked right, along with shrimp and maybe scallops if I’m in the right mood, but I’ve never been hankering for a plate of fish. It just doesn’t excite me too much. But my parents chose it after we couldn’t get a table at Tommy Bahama’s for another half hour. I knew it would happen because at that restaurant it’s always the case. We didn’t want to wait that long.

Pacifica was booked, too, so they made us sit in the bar, where the tables were slim. We could barely fit our napkins and utensils. We also sat next to a couple of old drunk ladies cackling between dialogues. One of them ate the biggest plate of steak and mashed potatoes I’d seen in a while. They shared the hugest strawberry shortcake while we waited for our orders.

Our waitress had nothing of a personality. I had a hard time choosing something to eat, not because the menu was crappy but because I was torn between the Wagyu burger and the fish and chips. I’m a burger connoisseur, so my policy is to go with the burger if I have to decide. The soda was flat while I waited. They’re always that way at a restaurant with a bar. For some reason, the sodas are always flat from the nozzle as opposed to fast food joints, where the sodas always fizz, and I never complain. The Wagyu burger made it to my top ten list of burgers of all time. The Wagyu was cooked just perfectly with gruyere cheese on top. Chefs across the world should include gruyere on burgers more often. I never thought it would be such a delectable combination.

“This place gets an A,” I told my parents. My only beef (pardon the pun) with the burger was there was too much lettuce, which was no big deal because all I had to do was pull some of it out. And the tomato was mushy. I like my tomatoes tender but just hard enough to eliminate the mushiness.

After dinner, we capped the night off with ice cream at Handel’s in Indio. My parents ordered a pint of ice cream each. Mom chose mint chip, while Dad, along with me, chose the peanut butter chocolate brownie. Except I drank a milkshake. It was going to be peanut butter ice cream alone for me, but Handel’s had decided to discontinue it, maybe because it wasn’t ordered enough.

“Most people order the basic chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla,” my father said.

And maybe he was right. People are bland and don’t take enough chances. Ice cream could be a perfect example. Kids love ice cream, but they’re never daring enough to eat a flavor like peanut butter, and I love peanut butter anything. If peanut butter were a soda flavor, I would go with that over Coca-Cola. I’m sure it would be nice.