The Apple of My (Worm)

I was lucky enough to spend last Wednesday through Monday in Charlottesville with all of my family, husbands and boyfriends included. Not all mine, of course. It was the most refreshing five days for me. Filled with family, friends, way too much food, laughter, wine, dancing, and the beautiful sights that Charlottesville has to offer. Besides it being as painfully hot as Texas, the bright green grass, blue mountains, and clear sky were still enough to take my breath away. I do miss home, but I am thankful to have such a beautiful one to come back to every so often.

Here's a sneak peek into my trip home.... we visited Carter's Mountain on Sunday afternoon, and enjoyed ourselves as always. Carter's Mountain has always been one of my favorite Charlottesville spots... besides it being an incredible lookout point, you can't argue with their apple cider donuts, peach ice cream, and good ol' apple picking in the fall.

My family always finds a way to add a little bit of humor to an ordinary day trip.........

Out of the Mouths of Elderpals

Fran (who used to be a recreation therapist herself): "There's something I want to show you that I think you could do with the other people here. It's not expensive to make, and it's really quite simple."

(She starts to pull something out of an envelope, but is having a tough time.... so I reach for it, and find my hand in a sticky mess... I pull out what seems to be a greeting card covered in blue and white paste...)

Me: "It's a bit sticky, Fran. What's on this card?"

Fran: "Toothpaste! I made stationary with toothpaste. I'm pretty sure it's Aquafresh, comes out of the bottle in red, white, and blue. Isn't that clever? And cheap too!"

Cheap, yes. Clever, debatable. Unfortunate for whoever receives the card, absolutely.

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Rodney (while pointing to a larger man across the table): "I used to be that fat."

Me (quietly): "Really? I just can't imagine that."

Rodney (while pointing): "Oh yeah, believe me. I was almost as fat as that guy."

Me (even quieter now): "Well, how did you get so thin?"

Rodney: "Chasing women, I suppose."

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(While visiting residents with a volunteer from the Catholic church, bringing communion to their rooms)

Edna: "You came!"

Volunteer: "You remember who I am?"

Edna: "You're JEEEEESUS."

Volunteer: "Well, not exactly..."

Edna: "No, you're the man who BRINGS me Jeeeesus."

Volunteer: "That's right!"

(They go on to say their prayer and Edna receives communion)

Edna: "Thank you for feeding me Jeeeesus! You made my heart haaappy."

Pretty, Pretty Please

I am not a reality TV junkie, but this performance moves me. Enough to watch it over and over and over again... and dance around in my towel, singing my heart out, doing those crazy tribal-like moves that the one girl Vicci has got going on. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

It's good. I promise.

U-Chi-Walla-Walla

I was told by my friend Brittany that eating at Uchi is an "experience". She was so right. It wasn't your typical break-the-bank sushi dinner. Yes, it was expensive.... but anything other than ordinary. Firas and I ate dinner at Uchi to celebrate our first year together, and we picked the perfect spot for this special occasion. We both love sushi and we've been dying to try Austin's best. We're definitely not packing enough heat in our wallets to go to Uchi for a casual dinner, so this was quite the treat for us. We settled in at the bar with a nice glass of Viognier and were pleasantly surprised when the hostess called our name after waiting only five minutes. The restaurant was classy but comfortable. Some ladies were decked out in a dress and heels while others were in a t-shirt and blue jeans. Another perk to living in Austin... anyone can fit in anywhere. The selection on the menu paired with my not-so-subtle glances at the food on the neighboring tables enough to make my mouth water. The waiter explained that it was best to order a few things at a time and he would course the meal out for us. One thing he told us that took me by surprise was that Uchi was not famous for their selection of sushi and sashimi, but instead their hot and cool "tastings". We were all over the menu. He was very helpful as we chose which items we wanted, and they did an excellent job of spreading them out throughout our dinner so that we always had food on our table, but were never overwhelmed by the amount.

Let me just give you an idea of how incredible our dinner at Uchi really was. For starters, we seared our own scallops on a hot rock... a Japanese river rock to be specific. That's right, we picked up raw scallops with our chopsticks and placed them on a hot rock, flipped them, popped them in our mouthes... and savored every freaking second of it. It was a very unique experience. And so, so good. We enjoyed... salmon roe, oysters, sushi rolls (including the mustang: fresh­water eel, avocado, yellow­tail, and golden flying fish roe -- YUM), and I can't remember what else because I was too entranced by the taste to recall the names. I do remember the salmon roe quite vividly. I'm usually down for fish eggs to be on the top of my sushi, when there are other tastes and textures masking them. But I was quite daring this time around by eating the fish eggs on their own.... for a texture-oriented person, it was a little unnerving. Once I could focus on the taste and not so much the texture, I was good to go. They were delicious. But as for the texture, remember those Orbitz drinks? It was like eating a cup full of those little slimy balls from one of those. Mmmm.... no thanks.

There's not a single negative thing I could say about Uchi, with the exception of wishing that it was a tad less expensive. But talk about bang for your buck. It was such a fun dining experience, and unlike any sushi dinner I've ever enjoyed.
Now I'm not gonna lie... we were satisfied, but I can't say we were full. We definitely made a trip to Central Market and filled our basket with wine, brie, crackers, fruit, and maybe even a little ice cream. We made ourselves feel better after reading another Yelp review where the girl wrote, "The only, slightly minor, downside to eating at Uchi is that you're bound to get hungry again very soon after. Upon leaving the restaurant, our party immediately descended down the scale of good dining experiences... to Gourdough's and then onto Taco Cabana."

See.... we weren't the only ones.

It was an excellent night to celebrate my best year yet.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered...

If this wasn't reason enough, here's another thing to love about the guy....

(We were discussing the bands that are going to be at Austin City Limits this year over g-chat, and word on the street is that Stevie Wonder might be one of the headliners...)

me: stevie wonder would be funnn
signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours!

Firas: ?
is that one of his songs

me: yeah!
and i just called to say i love youuuu

Firas: oh my phone was off
sorry about that

me: about what?
hahahahaha NO that's a song
"i just called to say i love you"

Firas: oh
lol

Oh Fiona Apple, I've Also Been Bad.

Somebody should slap my wrist and call me a bad blogger. I have about six entry topics floating around in my head, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and compose them. I've worked the past three weekends... and in my free time I have been enjoying this unbelievable weather. I've lived here long enough to know that this will only last a week... I must make the most of it before the six months of 110 degree weather bares its fangs.

I promise to write an entry tonight... I have much to share about the things I've gotten into over the last few weeks. But in the meantime, if you enjoyed this blog post.... I hope this picture message that I received from my Mom will hold you over.

Sent with the caption, "Who, who, who let the dogs in?!?!"

Eeyore and Birthday Suits

I had read about "Eeyore's Birthday" festival in many of the resources I utilized to learn about Austin gems and traditions. And what my innocent, naive, new-to-Austin self pictured was a bunch of kids running around in a field taking pictures with (somewhat shady) people in Winnie the Pooh costumes. I thought to myself, "What a great idea to throw a city-wide festival for the character that always felt forgotten... to throw a birthday party for the old grey donkey who thought nobody liked him."

After attending the festival last Saturday, I learned that I was right about a few things. There were kids running around. There were lots of pictures being taken. There were many costumes. And there were several shady people. On top of that, there was a good bit of nudity. Lots of painted ta-tas. One (er, 50) too many elderly individuals not wearing nearly enough clothing. And to my knowledge, there were only two people dressed as Winnie the Pooh characters.

Let's just say that Eeyore had the best birthday of his life. This year, everybody liked him. They liked him enough to wear their own birthday suit to his birthday party.

I really wasn't understanding the theme of this over the top festival. There were a lot of people dressed as fairies. And it appeared that the others, who weren't half nude with paint on their unspoken parts, had grabbed every eccentric piece of clothing or accessory out of their closet and found a home for it on their body. On top of the wild costumes or lack thereof, the festival had potato sack races, unicycle football, live bands, and clans of people in the woods just embracing their free spirit, I suppose. It was.... insane. I typed "weird" and erased it, and then "interesting" and erased it. Those words just aren't strong enough. It was insane.

And yes, I creepily took a picture of the man in the blue G-string. And yes, I had to take a dangerously close look at his pimpled, scratched up rear end on Paint while trying to censor this blog post and keep it from teetering on the edge of PG-13. That's how much I love all of you.