The Border and me, sittin' in a tree...

I love Taco Bell. There, I said it. Whew, weight off my chest. Actually, it's not the first time I've proclaimed my love, and it surely won't be the last. It is the first time I've put it in print, though. And if it's in print, it must be true.

There's a certain measure of indignity concomitant with a statement like 'I love Taco Bell'. Shouldn't be, but there is. 'Taco Hell', 'Taco Smell' - the nicknames aren't pretty. If your average American chooses to malign a fast food chain, perhaps to make a joke about flatulence or diarrhea, TB will be cited nine times out of ten. I take it personally. Every week, I visit the TB near work - Thursday's invariably the day - and when I return to my desk, Cruiser Cup full of Mountain Dew in hand, my co-worker just rolls his eyes at me. He's amazed I go back, time and time again. It's not just ritual, either. I honestly look forward to Taco Bell Thursday each and every week. Scary, perhaps, but true.

I am a self-avowed fast food devotee, but my dedication to TB eclipses all the others. I could happily make a run for the Border five times a week, every week; it's only better judgment and lack of lunch partners that keeps me from becoming a semi-permanent TB fixture. How did I develop such an adoration for basic Tex-Mex fast food? What spurred this devotion to a faceless megacorporation peddling burritos stuffed with meat of questionable origin, rehydrated beans, and sour cream shot from a gun? My obsession stands on several legs, specifically: nostalgia, innovation, marketing, variety, and flavor. The elements are inextricably intertwined, but I'm going to try to separate them out, examining each one, in the hopes of, well, I guess in the hopes of reestablishing my sanity. Which, if you're read this far, you've already begun to question.

Relaunch.

Okay, time for a fresh start. It's painfully obvious that the existing 'format' (or lack thereof) isn't working, at least to the extent that I haven't been moved to post in nearly a year and a half. Completely unacceptable. I was about to really go for a fresh start and just begin a new blog, but truth be told, I like some of the Nora stories, and I like the word 'jawn', so I'm just going to stick with what I've got.

I don't particularly like the pointless vignette below. I think I wrote that mostly because I thought 'Batch' was a good character name. And I wanted to try out some slang I'd just heard. Whatever. And then there's the 'rant', which actually scares me a little. Not sure what state of mind I was in when I came up with that.

Anyway, moving forward, I think I'll just pick a topic and rail relentlessly against it, or for it, whichever seems appropriate. When I grow tired of that, I'll just come up with a new topic. Sound good? Great, then, let's get started. I'll begin with several treatises on fast food. Perhaps that seems a bit random, but fast food has always been near and dear to me, and my opinions and thoughts on the subject are pretty broad. And quite possibly a bit frightening. But we'll get to that.