Chris and I took off late afternoon on Friday, heading towards Charlotte taking whatever path we felt like. We stopped for gas just outside of a town called Metropolis in Southern Illinois. So, like any rural town with a vague tie to a fictional character (see Hannibal, MO or Riverside, IA), they’re going to go overboard trying to milk some tourist dollars from aforementioned tie. So we saw the giant Superman. Then someone yelled at us as they drove by “You need to find something to do.” Indeed. Maybe we could head over to the two-story Dippin’ Dots this joint sported. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and just when we thought we were on the homestretch to getting to Asheville, we see there’s a detour. The detour, which I located on the map after reading various flashing signs, was going to be about two hours out of our way, with no real option to avoid. SERVED. Little did I realize my friend Michelle, who we were going to visit, called and left me a message about said detour that I failed to listen to so it was my own damn fault.
It’s actually almost 1 here in Asheville. We got served by a 1 1/2 hour detour only about an hour outside of Asheville. Didn’t get here until about 12:30 after eating, so I’m technically good for Friday by seven minutes, MO time. Will document more of our adventure tomorrow.
I missed posting last night, and almost missed today. I will make up yesterday’s. I swear.
Tonight, I procrastinated from doing homework by re-reading the Thanksgiving issues of various food magazines and making a detailed list of dishes I might want to try, for either home, Friendsgiving, or Thanksgiving with my family in Iowa. Making lists soothes my anxiety, for real. Half the time, I never even use the list for its intended organizational purpose, but I like organizing things on paper. I’ve narrowed the magazines down to a few recipes I want to make in the next month.
The only downside to this incredible-sounding toasted corn pudding from the very last issue of Gourmet, ever, is that it calls for a corn you have to order. I don’t know if I want to commit to that. Yes, I will waver horribly on the *commitment* of buying a specialty food item. No, I don’t know why.
Despite my bacony dreams, I was a vegetarian for a long time. Well, not long enough for me to not have bacon dreams. That’s probably why I’m not a vegetarian anymore. ANYWAY, I always hated Thanksgiving if there wasn’t some type of substantial main dish–or at least a super-hearty side. This butternut squash and cheddar bread pudding from BonAppetit is exactly what I was looking for then.
Gourmet <sniffle> also has a lemon custard pie, which sounds kind of out of the norm for Thanksgiving, but I think it would be a substantial dessert that’s still kind of light with the citrus, so fuck it. Let’s do lemon.
So there’s a good chance that several of these will be cooking in either my kitchen or my mom’s soon. I’m sure I’ll find
Chris and I up and decided to take an impromptu road trip this weekend. We have a long tradition of road trippin’ that we started the summer between us getting engaged and getting married, when we spent almost a month on the road driving out to and up the West Coast. Almost every summer, we’ve done some long trip together, except last summer, when I was working. These trips are an adventure and help us recharge ourselves and our relationship. It’s been a while since we had that feeling of adventure, so we decided that Chris would take a day off and we’d just drive with only the skeleton of a plan. We have great conversation and communication when we’re in the car for long periods of time. We take turns picking music, get shitty gas station snacks like beef jerky and slushies, take pictures, and watch the landscape change. It is extremely therapeutic.
We decided to drive out to Charlotte, North Carolina. Our friends Josh and Michelle and their daughter, Ansley, moved out there a while ago, and we miss hanging out with them immensely. Josh and Michelle were not going to come home for the holidays this year, so we decided to go see them so we can talk about pop culture, listen to music, and get insanely competitive in board games. Tentatively we’re going to drive halfway Friday, stay in Nashville, drive the rest of the way Saturday, stay with Josh and Michelle on Saturday night. Leave Sunday afternoon, drive to Louisville, stay the night, drive back Monday. This is all up for debate though. Any of y’all have suggestions on (especially) dining or things to see/do in any of those towns or in those general areas, leave a comment, please. We are flexible about everything except the final destination being Charlotte.
You may have noticed that recently all I do is bitch about the fact that I feel shitty but I’M NOT PREGNANT. And I’m not pregnant. But because I felt shitty yesterday and seriously couldn’t do much but lay and bed and wait for the nausea to pass (it didn’t for about eight hours), I decided to start watching FX’s show Sons of Anarchy because I had heard good things and it completely slipped under my radar. If you are a fan of The Sopranos or Deadwood, you should watch this show. Let me present my argument in convenient-to-read list form, favorite of rushed bloggers everywhere.
I thought I was going to puke for the majority of the day. Missed the kickball tournament. Missed most of the beautiful day outside. Got nothing done except some knitting and made stock. Hopefully more tomorrow.
It’s late on Saturday night, and I just got back from an unreal dinner at an underground supper club. Watch for my column on it in Tuesday’s Novice Foodie. Thanks to Matt for the invite, and the whole team who put on the event. Great food, great company, great conversation. I can only hope my column does the food justice.
I’m off to put on sweatpants and watch shitty television, then rest up for our kickball tournament tomorrow, as well as some garden maintenance and garlic planting. We’ll see how it goes.
Here’s a fun game I’ve been playing. So when I was first diagnosed with depression, my doctor gave me samples of a name-brand antidepressant to try to see if it would work (you probably know it, it’s got annoying commercials with sad music that possibly make you more depressed when you watch them). And it did. Very well. But, of course, it’s not a frontline (read: generic or cheap) drug, so my insurance company will not authorize it unless I try two other frontlines first. I tried one, and I didn’t like it. It made my brain kinda fuzzy and it was not time-released and I’d forget to take both, and they upset my stomach. I am currently weaning myself off that one so I can try the next one.
There are some really awesome side effects of this. I thought that I had the swine flu. At first, I had moderate headaches and nausea. Then (and currently), I constantly feel as though I need to stretch, but stretching doesn’t help. I also feel like every single thing that could crack on my body (like my back and neck) needs to be cracked. I will also twitch randomly. Finally, you know that sorta white noise you hear in your head when you yawn or stretch? Yeah, that comes and goes, unprovoked. This makes me feel restless ALL THE DAMN TIME. I am in for fun like this for another two weeks of weaning, then whatever party this new drug brings to the table. GOOD FUCKING TIMES. And, to top it all off, it makes drinking not very fun. OH, THE HUMANITY!
Woe is me. Thank you for all this, Express Scripts.
Alas, all is not lost. I’ve been listening to some new stuff, namely the new State Radio. the new Avett Brothers, Neko Case (live! Last night! at The Pageant! She was awesome). I got the Ben Gibbard/Jay Farrar Jack Kerouac project on vinyl and will listen to that later tonight. My friend also burned me the new Lucero, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. By the way, word is that Lucero is coming back to Off Broadway, so let’s all go and see if there’s another ladyfight. Also, Jon Stewart’s in the world, which always makes me feel a little saner in a mad world.
Have a great weekend. I’ve got some stuff on tap, including my friends’ baby’s first birthday party tonight (LET THERE BE ROCK), a very cool food thing tomorrow night that I’ll be writing about at Novice Foodie, kickball tourney on Sunday, and HOMEWORK. Fun times.
What kind of quitter do you think I am? I’m no quitter. I’m more of a half-asser. But this, this my friends, is an awesome video for me to give you, if I’m not going to grace you with my own wisdom.
One of my best college girlfriends, Vanessa, gave birth to the first baby in our group of friends on Saturday night. She, BabyDaddy Dan, and Baby Oliver are doing just great. Love you, V and Dan! I even cropped out the rest of your boob before I posted this picture on the interwebs. THAT’S how much I love you.
Then someone yelled at us as they drove by “You need to find something to do.” Indeed. Maybe we could head over to the two-story Dippin’ Dots this joint sported. 
Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and just when we thought we were on the homestretch to getting to Asheville, we see there’s a detour. The detour, which I located on the map after reading various flashing signs, was going to be about two hours out of our way, with no real option to avoid. SERVED. Little did I realize my friend Michelle, who we were going to visit, called and left me a message about said detour that I failed to listen to so it was my own damn fault.
I missed posting last night, and almost missed today. I will make up yesterday’s. I swear.
You may have noticed that recently all I do is bitch about the fact that I feel shitty but I’M NOT PREGNANT. And I’m not pregnant. But because I felt shitty yesterday and seriously couldn’t do much but lay and bed and wait for the nausea to pass (it didn’t for about eight hours), I decided to start watching FX’s show Sons of Anarchy because I had heard good things and it completely slipped under my radar. If you are a fan of The Sopranos or Deadwood, you should watch this show. Let me present my argument in convenient-to-read list form, favorite of rushed bloggers everywhere.
