Downtown Salem is a very interesting place. Since Salem is the capital city of Oregon, it is home mostly to state government buildings. My mom works in one of them. Right next to it is a park, Waldo Park, home to one tree and a bench. I used to think it was the smallest park in the world until I heard about an even smaller one in Portland. Oh well.

Back to the topic. But just west of most of them is the real downtown. The stuff you'll find is mostly local shops and restaurants, with a Quizno's and a Starbucks sprinkled here and there. There are two record stores I frequent. One of them has just moved right across from the bus station (very handy.) This is the one where I got the used scratched CD. I hope to go to the other one this weekend so I can hopefully get it fixed up and unscratched, maybe find something else to buy. I have never ever seen Van Morrison's Common One in a store until that time, and i doubt i'll ever see it again. Sure, people have the other stuff except the one i want. So that's why i want to get it fixed, and cost is not an issue. (well, we'll see how much it is.) The other record store is just south of downtown, south of the library on Commercial street (like you live in Salem, anyway.) It's near where my shrink's office is, and a lovely little restaurant (Kwan's) that advertises weird food on the billboard, but actually has nice Chinese food there (although I discovered i don't like Egg Foo Young anywhere.) There's this nice hippie-like dude (I don't think he is one, he just looks like one.) that owns the very small record store (but with a large selection of records.) that is usually there when I come round. Well, anyway, that's it for today.