Friday, May 23, 2008
I am still having difficulty believing what I accomplished this week, and the ease with which it proceeded. Tuesday morning, I flew out to Chicago via Charlotte. I arrived in time to catch a quick snack and an tire pressure check before heading out to the Mizrahi Grill for lunch. They, like the gentlemen at Pita Palace, have a tendency to not discriminate between "some" xarif and "the whole bucket." Therefore, when I asked for a little bit of spice, I wound up searing a hole in my tongue. My grandmother, who was clearly wise to this scheme, ordered no heat. For dinner I met up with America's Future to sample some real deep-dish pizza. It was so good, it had spinach in it. Also, while we were waiting for it to be made (35 minutes, as listed on the menu) Da Bulls pulled off the almost impossible, winning the first pick in the NBA draft, a 1.7% possibility. I navigated to the pizza parlor with only one major error, and I took the highway back, because the GPS suddenly began to function. I went to bed early in anticipation of the day to come.
Wednesday dawned bright and early. Apparently, Chicago's location in the Central Time Zone is such that it begins to get light before 5:00 AM. Grandma and I hit the road at 6:00 and only saw minimal traffic before the Skyway(where there was none). At Kimball, on the other side of the highway, there was a major stoppage that made our slowdowns pale in comparison. Once free of Chicago, the ride to Columbus was fairly pleasant. We stopped at a tourist dairy farm, saw a line of Corvettes heading down to Indianapolis, and gasped in horror as one of them was ridden off the road by a truck (he was fine, he just gunned it in the median and pulled ahead). Dinner in C-town was Indian, with huge (16-inch) crepes. Wednesday night, I learned how to play GTA IV for XBOX. It is insane.
Thursday the drive was a bit longer, but much prettier, winding through West and Regular Virginia. We stopped at Tamarack for lunch and a bit of shopping, thankfully I was not held there overlong.
On the way in I stopped at an out-of-the-way tag office to get temporary plates. Much to my surprise I was issued real plates, eliminating my inconveniencing another prisoner with more work orders. The entire process was much smoother than anticipated.
Now I am home, thinking about packing for camp, and what a short trip it will be to drive there.
Monday, May 12, 2008
One Last Visit
In between this post and its predecessor, I have done a lot of looking forward to the summer and legwork for both the car and the apartment. Just when I had finished that, my FAFSA response arrived in the mail today, necessitating another round of form-filing.
Far more fun was this:
Another trip, another corresponding blog entry. This past weekend I made use of my remaining Airtran voucher to visit Atlanta. As usual, I began my trip on Thursday. I drove to UNC to submit apartment papers and then to visit my graduating seniors and accomplices. We celebrated a birthday with Panera and pottery painting, and then a trip to Lake Jordan. I will likely see all of them again in the near future, be it over the summer or next year at school, but it was difficult to simultaneously say goodbye and express how grateful I was to them for being my only friends within what we like to call "spittin' distance."
I drove directly from the lake to satellite parking at RDU. I passed through security, beard and all, with nary a second glance. Did I mention that I am growing a playoffs/Omer beard? It will probably last until Lag B'Omer, but I think five weeks will be enough.
My first Atlanta activity was a late-night publix run. Somehow this came to include eating a whole yo-yo, which is a delicious, if unhealthy chocolate-covered cookies and icing sandwich. Late-night set followed, and then sleep. Friday I worked at CSI, exercising my expertise in sending out mailings. Rabbi Avi and I then went to the Bresserie for lunch, though not before I introduced her to the wonders of the Great Harvest Bread Company. I could not bring myself to try something new and different, so I settled for wings and the steak burger, without regrets. After lunch we made challah dough in the bread machine and then braided and cooked it in the oven. While I was waiting for the dough to rise, I had Avi's brother Aaron, smack me around with every single Brawl character he had earned. At least I had half the KOs that he accumulated.
Dinner was a hamish affair, with Misters Killip and Klein joining us. We had delicious fish, kinwa, sweet potatoes, green beans, challah and salad. We talked, sang ate drank late into the night. OK, 11. People get tired.
Saturday we walked to the baseball game to watch Tech hammer Clemson. Afterwards we went out to dinner and went bowling. I came close to breaking 100, but my form was more inconsistent than the Celtics come playoff time.
Early Sunday morning, a storm broke over Midtown and Jason and I tried to capture our first lightning of the summer, but with no luck. Sunday was Mother's Day, so we avoided the restaurants early, until we had a late lunch at the West Egg. We then went to the park for some work, napping and football. For dinner, we met up with the Killips at Pita House, the more northerly and less gastronomically dangerous of the Atlien shwarma dives. It was fairly good, with a lack of side effects, so no complaints here.
HJIA was nuts Monday morning, but I still managed to make my flight with time to spare.
I have one week to prepare for camp before I head up for my Midwest tour. Then, camp!
Far more fun was this:
Another trip, another corresponding blog entry. This past weekend I made use of my remaining Airtran voucher to visit Atlanta. As usual, I began my trip on Thursday. I drove to UNC to submit apartment papers and then to visit my graduating seniors and accomplices. We celebrated a birthday with Panera and pottery painting, and then a trip to Lake Jordan. I will likely see all of them again in the near future, be it over the summer or next year at school, but it was difficult to simultaneously say goodbye and express how grateful I was to them for being my only friends within what we like to call "spittin' distance."
I drove directly from the lake to satellite parking at RDU. I passed through security, beard and all, with nary a second glance. Did I mention that I am growing a playoffs/Omer beard? It will probably last until Lag B'Omer, but I think five weeks will be enough.
My first Atlanta activity was a late-night publix run. Somehow this came to include eating a whole yo-yo, which is a delicious, if unhealthy chocolate-covered cookies and icing sandwich. Late-night set followed, and then sleep. Friday I worked at CSI, exercising my expertise in sending out mailings. Rabbi Avi and I then went to the Bresserie for lunch, though not before I introduced her to the wonders of the Great Harvest Bread Company. I could not bring myself to try something new and different, so I settled for wings and the steak burger, without regrets. After lunch we made challah dough in the bread machine and then braided and cooked it in the oven. While I was waiting for the dough to rise, I had Avi's brother Aaron, smack me around with every single Brawl character he had earned. At least I had half the KOs that he accumulated.
Dinner was a hamish affair, with Misters Killip and Klein joining us. We had delicious fish, kinwa, sweet potatoes, green beans, challah and salad. We talked, sang ate drank late into the night. OK, 11. People get tired.
Saturday we walked to the baseball game to watch Tech hammer Clemson. Afterwards we went out to dinner and went bowling. I came close to breaking 100, but my form was more inconsistent than the Celtics come playoff time.
Early Sunday morning, a storm broke over Midtown and Jason and I tried to capture our first lightning of the summer, but with no luck. Sunday was Mother's Day, so we avoided the restaurants early, until we had a late lunch at the West Egg. We then went to the park for some work, napping and football. For dinner, we met up with the Killips at Pita House, the more northerly and less gastronomically dangerous of the Atlien shwarma dives. It was fairly good, with a lack of side effects, so no complaints here.
HJIA was nuts Monday morning, but I still managed to make my flight with time to spare.
I have one week to prepare for camp before I head up for my Midwest tour. Then, camp!
