My New Boyfriend!

Last Friday, I went to dinner with some friends. And this was no ordinary dinner. I had been looking forward to this since September when Ross and Maggie first told me about their amazing experience at Bryan Zupon's Z Kitchen. If you don't know about Bryan, you can read about him in this NY Times article. Read it. After some rescheduling and more rescheduling, we were finally able to get over to his dorm room for dinner on Friday night.

Our courses included:

Scallop, avocado mosaic, olive oil-poached grapefruit, tomato-cumin chutney, mustard, Sichuan peppercorn, Old Bay



Red snapper, fennel, raisins, candied olive, pomegranate


And then there was the course that changed my life. The course that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven. It was BACON-WRAPPED BACON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Bacon-wrapped pork belly) Oh. My. God. I fell in love. See that picture below? That is my boyfriend. My boyfriend is BACON!

Seattle Meets New York – Bacon Wrapped Bacon Buns: Pork belly, Nueske’s bacon, miso-butterscotch, snow peas

Bryan said that this dish might be his "greatest achievement and contribution to humanity at large." I agree. It was so delicious.

To see some of our other dishes, go here. I even licked my dessert plate!!!

After the meal, I went home and cried. Never has a meal moved me to tears before. But this one did. I love bacon. Bacon loves me. Maybe I should write a song for my new boyfriend on the ukulele. Woot!

Bowled Over and Over-Bowled

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Maybe to lose weight or to practice guitar or to ride your bike to work? I have a few. None of those that I mentioned. I have things on my list such as practice ukulele two hours a week, floss more, and to throw away socks.

One resolution that I might need to make is to cut down on bowling. I seem to have a bit of a problem. When my bowling team finished the season this fall, I was pumped to become a better bowler. I wanted my own ball, my own shoes, my own bowling bag. Right before Christmas, my teammates granted my wish and bought me a ball of my own. There it is on the left under the Christmas tree angels.



The day after I got my ball, I bowled eight games. I bowled eight more games the day after that. I even played hooky from work to bowl! I was sick with a cold/flu/sinus infection for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, so I wasn't able to bowl at Village Lanes those days, but I bowled with my nephews on the Wii at which time I bowled a 210.

Yesterday I was feeling better and I bowled eight games. Alone. And tonight, my intention was to only go bowl two games to try out my new wrist support, but two games quickly turned to seven games. When I am alone at the bowling alley, I just can't seem to stop. I am going back to the bowling alley tomorrow, but I'll have friends to tear me away from the lanes after a reasonable number of games.



You might think that all this bowling is improving my game. It's not... which is so frustrating. But I now know that with this new equipment and my new knowledge, I have the potential to bowl in the 130s-140s. (Before I was bowling in the 90s.) But trying to master my fingertip-grip ball and this darth-vader-looking wrist support is causing me to score all over the place... as low as 66 and as hight as 145. I just need to practice more. I need to bowl. MORE MORE MORE!

Tonight, my arm hurts. I think I have bowled over my arm limit. How much bowling is too much? When does enthusiasm turn to obsession?

Gutterglory & Gut Glory

My senior year at UNC, I realized that I needed to take one physical education class or else I wouldn't graduate. Yikes. I had taken an 8am aerobics class my freshman year and I knew that I didn't want to do anything like that ever again. Who wants to work out that early in the morning? As a college student, I sure didn't. During my senior year, the only time I worked up a sweat was dancing all night long at a local rave somewhere.

Anyway, there were stories about an easy PE class that didn't require any physical exertion or sweat and even allowed SMOKE BREAKS. (I am so glad that I grew up in this state.) I needed to take that class. It was bowling. It was hard as hell to get in the class because everyone else at UNC wanted an easy PE class, too. I took a gamble my final semester of college by signing up knowing that there was a great chance that I would be rejected. Thank god I made it into the class.

Bowling met on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons around 3:30 or so, which was great, because it allowed me, some of my classmates and a huge group of friends to go to Papagayo's for margarita pitchers before class. So not only did we get smoke breaks, we went to class tipsy on margaritas.

Our instructor was cute, but he wore those god-awful, tight, polyester coach shorts. Ew. But he was cool. Well, at least he didn't seem to mind or notice the margaritas on our breath. He encouraged us to do midnight bowling (bowling with the lights off)... which is always fun when you're a little tipsy. We had ridiculously easy multiple-choice tests, like how many pins are there in a frame? He didn't grade us on our bowling scores or number of strikes or technique really... if he did, I would've flunked. I never even broke a 100 in my bowling class. But I did make an A.

UNC offered its final bowling classes this past Spring semester. The student union's bowling alley is now closed and the university plans to turn that space into offices.

In March of this year, I joined a bowling league. I became part of a super team with some guys who are bigger music geeks than I am... I love it. They came up with the brilliant name Gutterglory, a nod to the now defunct indie rock band, Butterglory. The day before Gutterglory's first game, I fell and sprained/fractured my ankle. Luckily, the boys were able to find a last minute sub, who's been covering my slot since April. But last night, I was back in action! We got beat by the other team 2 out of our 3 games. But the one game that we won, I bowled a 120!!!! My cute, polyester-shorts-wearing, bowling instructor would be proud.

I wanted to celebrate my incredibly high score, so my teammate, Mark and I headed over to the Federal to meet up with some of the other bowlers. After a couple beers, Mark, who was starved suggested that we drive over to Cook-Out to get a burger and a milkshake. I was a little hesitant because for one, it was 12:30 at night and two, I am not a fan of fast food burgers. But he said that they had really good milkshakes. Let's go!!

As we were driving, Mark was telling me about Cook-Out's seasonal WATERMELON MILKSHAKES. Oh. My. God. We pulled up to the lighted menu board and then everything after that was a big blur. Before I could blink, we were driving away with two bacon cheeseburgers with grilled onions and two watermelon milkshakes. Mark and I sat at my kitchen table and enjoyed an incredible, late-night, gluttonous meal. The burger was really great for fast food. It was a decent thickness and rather juicy and had a good meaty flavor. The bacon on it ROCKED.

Oooooohh. But that milkshake. It was incredible. The watermelon chunks were so large that they kept clogging my straw. You couldn't help but use a spoon. I was afraid that the creaminess of the milkshake would overpower the sometimes delicate taste of the watermelon. But that was not the case at all. It was great. They had a gazillion milkshake flavors on that menu board, but the watermelon will only last another month or so.

I think that a late-night trip to Cook-Out might be mandatory for all future bowling nights.

Hotdogs on Sunday

Ok folks! Hold onto your seats. I have some very exciting news!! Durham will soon have its very own downtown hotdog stand. Look for its premiere on June 23rd at the Durham Rising Festival. I was told that this festival was to be a celebration the completion of all the downtown sidewalk and street construction. But the website doesn't say that. Heck, the website doesn't even say what the festival is for... probably because I don't see how in the world the City is going to finish the downtown mess in two weeks.

Claud (pictured standing by her brand new hotdog stand above) will be premiering her hotdog stand at the CCB Plaza on the 23rd. Today she had a trial run in her backyard. She has a couple adjustments to make on the cart and she needs to work on some bun issues, but overall, I think it's going to be a big hit! Durham just keeps getting better.

Ew, You Write Like A Boy

I've been interested in what various Durham bloggers have to say about our downtown revitalization and the role that Greenfire Development is playing in this. Today, there was a grand opening ceremony for TROSA's Furniture & Frame Shop downtown on Foster Street (close to Piedmont). The City Manager was there along with members of Durham's Chamber of Commerce as well as folks from Greenfire who lease the building to TROSA. It was a very nice event all around and I was very impressed. (AND I MADE IT OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!)

As I was reading the various Durham blogs about downtown and demolition and revitalization and that Oprah sign, I stumbled across the Gender Genie (via). Cut and paste some text into the box and the Gender Genie will run some algorithm on it and determine whether the author is masculine or feminine.

I ran about a dozen of my blog entries through and all of them came back that I was more masculine than feminine. Some by alot. And I am trying so hard to be girly these days!! Hmmm.. Maybe it's because I still have Ross McElwee stuck in my head narrating my life. Maybe it would be different if Charleen was in there instead.

Female Score: 184
Male Score: 350

It's A Good Day

Today was an extremely painful day at work. I finally gave up at 4pm and came home to writhe in my polka-dotted chair. But instead of dwelling on how much my ankle hurts or how depressing it is to be confined to this chair, I'll celebrate some good things:

1. I now have a water pitcher in the living room so that I can have a glass of water while sitting in my polka-dotted chair. (I couldn't figure out how to get a glass of water from the kitchen to the living room without crawling with it on the floor or filling a ziploc bag with water and carrying it with my crutches.)
2. After rearranging some things in my kitchen, I can now maneuver around and actually eat something more substantial than cheese and crackers. I was able to heat up my dad's amazing bean and sausage soup and fix a glass of juice for supper this evening. I even sat at the kitchen table to eat.
   
3. I ordered some crutch pads to help relieve my blisters.
4. My Netflix movies will be here tomorrow. I am excited about seeing The Jerk again especially the ukulele section in the special features.
5. I am really happy about the azaleas in my yard and my green grass!! My yard (as overgrown as it is) looks really good right now.
6. I've got some books coming in the mail from Amazon, one of which should be here tomorrow or Wednesday so I can finally put down this lame memoir I've been working for the past month at a rate of a page a day.
7. I am obsessed with looking out my front window. I took alot of pictures this afternoon with my camera phone. Once my foot gets a little better, I want to clean it to get a better view. I should open the blinds more often.
   
8. I learned to play my all-time favorite song EVER, Dinah, on the banjo uke... after being inspired by an amazing old-time concert at the Q-Shack last night. I can sing that one in tune, too. "Dinah, Is there anyone finer in the state of Carolina? If there is and you know her, show her to me..."

I have an entire mix cd of all my favorite versions of Dinah. I haven't shared it with many people... just Christa and Lightnin' because they are the only ones who I think might appreciate my obsession with that song.


As I go back and read the contents of this post, I hear Ross McElwee in my head speaking the words. But when I read the title, I hear Kay Starr (pictured above) singing it. That's pretty cool. Or maybe I am slowly becoming even more crazy. Or maybe it's just the pain pills.

Can I Be A Band Geek?

Yesterday, I had my first performance with "my" band, the Scene of the Crime Rovers. "We're" a noise-punk, free-form marching band (drums, cymbals, flutes, horns, etc.) and I am in the color guard. For those of you not in the know, that means that I twirl a flag. The reason for the quotes around the first-person words is that I am not sure if I really feel like I am in the band. I have gone to two practices and one performance. And each time, I really struggled.

I LOVE the Scene of the Crime Rovers. It is really cool to see some folks all dressed up and marching in downtown Durham. If you have never seen "us," you should make every effort to get out and see one of "our" gigs. Your kids will love it, too. Yesterday, we performed at the grand opening of the Farmers Market Pavilion in downtown Durham. It was also the official opening of the Farmers Market season. YEAH!!!

But, I am not sure if I'm cut out to be a flag twirler. The idea of the performance was great, but the execution was a huge struggle for me. My mind does not work in a free-form way. I like things to be black/white or right/wrong. I like structure and rules. I also feel like I need to learn something about flag-twirling before I can just "do whatever" which is the instruction I had been given. Yesterday, I hit another flag twirler twice with my flag and I bonked myself in the head (only once though which is much better than how I've done in practice).

The most positive aspect of this experience is getting me out of my comfort zone. It's hard to twirl a flag standing in front of other people... even just in front of the other band members. The older I get, the more shy and socially anxious I feel. And it's also hard for me to just "do whatever" given that my brain just doesn't function like that. Because of this, I know that I must keep this up and continue trying.

If anyone wants to teach me some tips on flag twirling, please do. I would love the help. My thought was that being in the color guard would allow me to live out my Busby Berkeley fantasies. Va va va voom!

UPDATE: Christa took some pictures.

Did You Lose Your Wig?

Today, I took a day off from work to try to catch up on work for some of my clients. I had a somewhat productive day, but I am still way behind. But it was really nice to work at home today because I was able to open up all the doors and windows and get a little breeze and feel the sunshine. My office at work is windowless and lit by overhead fluorescents and there is a constant stream of people in and out of my office all day. So, it was a nice break from that. I also ran alot of errands today, so I was able to get out and stroll down Ninth Street and chat with folks which was nice, too.

This morning when I left my house to run to Lantern, I saw a little black smooshed thing in the road. My first thought was "OH NO! NOT PAM JUNIOR!" But the lump in the road was too small to be a cat. And it didn't look like a once-living creature. So, I didn't think much of it and got in my car and headed out. But when I drove past this squished thing in the road, I slowed down to get a closer look. I just thought it was a black plastic bag or a plastic bottle. But it wasn't. It was a *WIG.* Well, I guess it was a wig. Is that a wig or a wiglet or a hair piece or what?

I laughed out loud when I saw it and continued on to Chapel Hill. But when I came home mid-afternoon it was still there! And then when I went to the grocery around suppertime, it was still there! So at that point, I had to go take a picture of it. I really wanted to add this wiglet to my scrapbook of Front Yard Found Objects and Art, but it's too creepy for me to pick up some random wig out of the road. Besides, rubber cement + hair = mess. Stepping out in the road to take this picture made me laugh. A car had to stop for me to finish the picture since I was having trouble with my camera. I think that the owners of the Mexican restaurant are now even more puzzled by their neighbor.

But what is the story of the wig in the road? What happened that someone lost his/her wig? Was there a fight and someone ripped it off his/her head? Did the wind blow it off someone's head and out the car window? Did someone decide to free themselves of this hairpiece on a trip to the Food Lion for a jug of milk? Did it itch horribly? Was it ever attractive? Is this some sort of sign or omen? And who wears wiglets!?! Where does one get a little wiglet?

I really like the word wiglet. But I can't imagine wearing one on a regular basis. Maybe just for special occasions.

Crash! Bang! Boom!

Friday night, I went to David and Jennifer's rehearsal dinner, which was fine until these female lawyers at my table starting talking about how great their work is, why living in the Triangle is not fun, and then giggled about how their doctors told them that their eggs were old (even though they were 31 and married). How depressing. So, I left. I came home, grabbed a beer and a blanket and watched Gene Kelly movies. I finally went to bed around 2am.

Around 5:30am or so, I heard this huge CRASH! A few seconds later, I heard another crash at which time I saw a flash of light, right before the power went out. I heard a car outside, so I thought that there was some sort of car wreck on Chapel Hill Road and that maybe they hit a light pole. I was groggy and the house was really cold since I had turned the heat down very low, so I just turned over in bed and went back to sleep. I finally got up around 8am at which time I heard chainsaws. I went into the kitchen and looked out my window over the neighbor's fence to see two guys in cherry pickers. They were working on the light pole and cutting a tree that was lying across James Street. I immediately called Myers (who knows everything in Lakewood) and asked what happened. A tree in my neighbor's yard was BLOWN OVER and hit another tree and a light pole and caught fire!!!!!

I couldn't believe it. This was a huge old oak tree that was blown over from the wind. Was the wind really blowing that hard? We were all lucky that there were 4 or 5 houses extremely close to this tree and it didn't hit any of them. It took the power crews until sometime Saturday afternoon to restore power to the 'hood. I had left for David's wedding at that point. The tree was left in the road all weekend.

This morning when I was leaving for work, I heard more chainsaws, so I guess the tree will be removed from the road today. I would really hate to lose one of my trees and I know that the James St streetscape will miss this one, too.

David and Jennifer's wedding was really beautiful on Saturday. The ceremony was one of my all-time favorites. I gave them my latest mix CD for a wedding present. I unknowingly included a Beatles song that was played during their ceremony!

RIP Bob Groves

We will miss you, too, Starlite.

Chapel Hillian in Durham

In 1994, I made the bold decision to move to Durham. I had been living in a rat trap apartment behind the Wendy's in Carrboro and was desperately searching for a new place to live. Everything in Chapel Hill and Carrboro was SO EXPENSIVE! My friend, Craven, just got a job in Durham and we decided at the last minute to look for an apartment in Durham. I didn't want to live in Durham. But the houses were beautiful and the rent was cheap. We ended up with a gorgeous two-bedroom apartment in Old North Durham in a historic house that had orginally been built as a duplex. We lived upstairs where we had hardwood floors, a fireplace, french doors to my bedroom, and TWO balcony porches. I think that the rent on that place was $400 when we moved in.

However, I hated leaving all my friends in Chapel Hill. I felt isolated in Durham. No one that I knew lived in Durham. I went out almost every single night in Chapel Hill or Carrboro. It was a good 25-30 minute drive! But at that point in my life, I claimed that I was not a Durhamite but a Chapel Hillian who lived in Durham. In the mid-90s, it was impossible for me to just bump into friends around town. Every now and then I would run into someone I knew at Schoolkids on Ninth Street, but that was rare. I missed being able to just run into people on Franklin Street or in a restaurant or bar. My Chapel Hill friends considered it a chore to have to drive all the way to Durham for anything. My social life in Durham consisted of renting movies from the Carolina and that was about it.

But over the years, my attitude drastically changed. There are tons of bars, restaurants, hangouts, and music venues minutes from my house. I travel less and less to Chapel Hill for social activities. So many friends have taken the plunge as I did and have settled down here. And Durham has definitely become a place where I can run into a handful of friends at the grocery or walking down Ninth Street.

Take for instance, last night after returning a DVD to Avid Video, I wandered over to Bull City Records where Chaz recommended some new music and was excited to do so! (He didn't make me feel old and out of place when I asked for music-buying help.) With a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and a Fruit Bats CD in hand, I stopped into Cosmic Cantina for supper where I ran into Rebekah. After finishing our burritos, we decided to keep the evening going so we drove over to the Federal for beers where we ran into even more friends. It was an accidental night out, which was so exciting.

I gave up on claiming to be a "Chapel Hillian who lives in Durham" ten years ago. I am truly proud to call myself a Durhamite. Durham rocks.

New Records

I love buying music. I buy enough that I even track it as a separate item in Quicken. (Geek! Geek!) Last night I really wanted to find that Vetiver record, so Chris and I stopped in Bull City Records after dinner and margaritas on Ninth Street. Perhaps under the influence of a teeny bit too much alcohol, I bought:

CDs:
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Joanna Newsom - Ys

Vinyl:
Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me (pre-Buckingham/Nicks)
Marshall Tucker Band - Long Hard Ride (featuring a guest appearance by Charlie Daniels)
Flip Wilson - Cowboys & Colored People
Christopher Cross - Self-Titled
Fetchin' Bones - Monster
Little River Band - Self-Titled from 1975

My friend, Bill, whose musical tastes are very similar to mine, told me that the new Shins CD is really good and is already on his top ten list for 2007. So, I had to buy it. And everybody's talking about Joanna Newsom. So, I had to try that one, too. But then I went crazy with the records. I had to whittle down my stack of ten LPS to a more manageable six.

Chaz talked me out of the Charlie Daniels Band record. Is Charlie Daniels really that bad? Is my newly developing obsession with Southern/Country rock something that I should keep to myself? Nah.

I'm still waiting on my Donovan Catch the Wind record and my Say Anything DVD. The bozo that I ordered it from through Amazon never mailed them and won't respond to my emails!!! Jerk. So, my obsession with Donovan has been put on hold for the time being.

Jiminy Cricket!! Free Dinner For Me

Holy crap, I had the best burger at the Federal tonight!!! It was the rawest burger I have *ever* eaten. It was heavenly. I ate the whole thing! After dinner, I pointed to a figurine on the wall and asked Chris if it was Jiminy Cricket. He said yes.

And of course, I made the comment that the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the Walt Disney film Pinocchio is the one and only Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards.... one of my uke heroes. Chris replied, "No, I think it was somebody more famous. Bing Crosby." I couldn't believe that Cliff Edwards wasn't famous enough to be in a Disney film for Chris. I replied, "Wanna make a bet?" Well, pay up, dude.

New Years Resolution (same as last year): LEARN TO PLAY MY UKULELE!!!!