~Saturday~ I was up and at ’em this morning at 6:30, and after a shower, I headed down to the historic Mordecai neighborhood, where my friend was having a yard sale as part of a group sale, along with a ton of other yard sales going on in that neighborhood.
This may be the only image in existence of me up before 7AM on a Saturday morning, when it wasn’t to catch a flight or something like that:
Nobody was able to identify that item in my hand. It looked like a squid, with tentacles, and it had a 3- or 4-clump of batteries in the middle of it.
I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever bought anything at a yard sale and I walked away with three items for a total of $1.75: a coffee cup ($.50, to replace the one I shattered on my work floor a week or two ago), a night light ($.25, for my guest bedroom), and a book ($1.00, called Confessions of a Male Nurse that I’m going to give to Joe.)
It was absolutely a-maze-ing getting out of that neighborhood due to the lines of cars parked on both sides of the narrow streets with people trying to get to the many different yard sales going on, and making cars going in each direction have to take turns letting each other pass.
From there, I went to Helios, where I arrived at about 8AM and stayed until about 11:00. Very shortly after I arrived, Brother arrived, whom Joe and I haven’t seen in forever. So good to know he’s still in town and alive and kicking.
At just before 9:00, Helios posted their brunch specials for today, which sounded pretty darn good. They offered crêpes made two ways: one with Nutella, banana and pecan and the other with strawberry, blueberry, mascarpone and walnut with honey-citrus syrup. The other special was Omelette Loraine, consisting of bacon, green onion and Gruyère.
I didn’t order anything, but if I would have I definitely would have tried the Nutella, banana, and pecan crêpe, as I think I’ve mentioned here sometime within the last couple of months, I’ve never had Nutella. Still haven’t.
The weather was so absolutely perfect today that I had to get my exercise in by being outside, so I did the three-mile loop around Lake Johnson. On my iTouch, I listened to Michael Bolton’s Soul Provider CD and the Glee Christmas CD. Yes, I know it’s May.
I passed by a woman walking her Corgi, and I had the strangest urge to stop and say to it, “Did you see anyone you knew at the Royal Wedding, girl?” I could just picture its head going:
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People were starting to arrive for a wedding at the boathouse when I passed that area. A few people were writing, “Just Married,” presumably on the window of the about-to-be betrothed’s car.
I couldn’t help thinking when looking at the strong legs of three young male runners who passed me at different times over the course of the hour, “I hope you value how well your knees are serving you right now.”
The lake area is still getting a facelift, particularly around the greenway, but it’s coming along, and included some new signs up along the trails, since I was there last:
I liked this one because it labels a little side trail that I’ve taken only one time and had already forgotten where it went:
They’ve always had mile markers there, but they’ve been gussied up:
And this sign was at the end of the loop I did. Hopefully, it’ll go away before the summer is over.
I met Robert in Durham at 7:00, where we were going to use his last Groupon to Taverna Nikos, but he’d been over there before I arrived and it was closed, which was very strange, particularly with it being Mother’s Day weekend. Its Saturday dinner hours are listed as 5PM – 10PM, and there was no reason for it being closed on the door or anything.
We opted to eat instead—pretty much right across the street—at Fishmonger’s, where we both had a delicious meal followed by a fantastic banana pudding dessert.
While there, I received a call from Joe telling me that our very good friend, Steve Moore, had had a heart attack. He’s requested no visitors right now, but I hope to see him as soon as he’s up for it.
I made it to The Borough at about 8:45, beating the bar crawl for Jen Wig‘s birthday that started at the Ugly Monkey and was coming to The Borough next. When the group arrived, I asked the group’s server to put Jen’s How Do You Q? drink on my tab.
I sat with the group while they were there, and spent most of the time catching up with Jason, who I haven’t seen in forever. I stayed there as the group headed over to Foundation and then to Neptune’s, telling them I’d catch up with them later over at Landmark.
I stopped by Flex for only about an hour, where I saw another guy Joe and I haven’t seen for ages. It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten his name. The last I remember, he’d moved to Selma.
It was underwear night at Flex, and as usual, for the most part the people who were walking around only in their underwear were the ones who shouldn’t have been. Bless their hearts.
After about an hour, I stopped in my car to grab my Landmark membership card, and I crossed the street to pick up the R Line over to Landmark. On the way, I posted a Facebook update that I was on my way over there, and in a nice surprise, my friend Jake responded back that he was there! Bonus.
The interior lights were bright on the bus, which made it hard to see outside, and I really didn’t feel like figuring out the right stop for Landmark, so I said to the bus driver, “Do you know where the Landmark Tavern is?” and after she replied yes, I added, “Would you be kind enough to let me know when we’re at that stop?”
She called to me at the stop, and exiting, I said to her, “Thank you, my friend. I appreciate you.”
It was great seeing Jake and meeting his fiancée, Becky. Jake and I had lots of laughs catching up. Good people.
At one point, I took a seat by these two guys, and one of them started talking to me. At first, I thought he might be gay; that is, until he told me about fucking a girl out behind Isaac Hunter’s Tavern recently. Then, I thought he might be bisexual.
The guy he was with told me his name was “Pawnshop Bob” and that he was the lead singer for Pawnshop Bob & The Impostors.
He wasn’t all slanted like that when I met him. He told me that they were playing at a bar named Buku, and he seemed a little disappointed that I’d never heard of the place. Well, he’s probably never heard of Flex, either.
After just a little while, the rest of the Jen Wig‘s bar crawl crowd arrived for their final stop of the night. I had a nice chat with Ginny Skalski, whom I just adore, and I met a beautiful, young Asian girl named Diana, who was just a delight to both look at and talk to. She’s a model; as she should be.
We hit it off when I asked her, “Are you a bourbon drinker?” and she replied, “Since I was 12.”
Landmark Tavern is one of the few places on the planet where men have to stand in line to use the men’s room. And that’s because there’s only one toilet in it, and it’s a seat, of course, not a urinal.
My SOP when I’m there in line is to ask every woman who comes out of the Ladies room, “Is there anyone else in there?” And as soon as one of them says, “No,” I go in there. There are two seats in that one. It never came empty while I was waiting tonight, though.
There’s a picture hanging on the wall in the area where you line up for the bathroom, and it was the topic of conversation both times I used the men’s room over the course of the evening. The picture consists of a whole line of people facing forward and the shtick is, “Can you find the gun in this picture?”
Well, the second time I was in line and it happened, two guys were arguing about whether the thing that everyone says is the gun really was, and a guy walked by, pointed, and said, “That’s my picture. I took it.” What are the chances? I’m still not sure I believed him.
Jason DiMambro and I left there, I think it was some time between 1:00 and 1:30, with the intention of catching the R Line back to where our cars were—his over by Flying Saucer and mine just around the corner at Flex, but once we got outside, it was so nice out that we opted for exercise and walked back over that way.
He was hungry and loves to get a chicken kabob from the guy who has a food truck out across the street from Legends, so we walked up Hargett. He got his chicken kabob, and I got one of the spicy sausage dogs he sells.
The night ended with a buzz kill when we got to Jason’s car and he had a parking ticket on it for what appeared to be parking too close to a driveway. Bastards.
I was happy to get home safely, and was asleep two seconds after hitting the sack, after being up for almost 20 hours without a nap.