Dinner at Mi Casa and Boredom Photoshopping

The menu turned into (shoot I forget which funny filter it is) mosaic? Stained Glass?
I had a chili relleno and a chimichanga. We also, my parents, their friends and I, drank a good number of margaritas.

I Have Turtle Eagle Eyes

On one of my last days in Tennessee I was checking my email. The computer room looks out into woods and has a hummingbird feeder on it. These features make it a lovely spot to just look out at and stare. Some times I've seen birds and twice I've seen grey foxes. On this particular day I stared out and suddenly a certain kind of movement --many, many yards away-- caught my eye. I looked back and, in the far distance of trees and dry, brown leaves, I saw a little box turtle turtling its box towards one thing or another (is it actually toward? or can I use either). I got up and quickly ran in my nearly barely feet out to say hello to the turtle. It stuck its head in its shell very quickly. I took a few photographs of him (or her) on the rock and then put him (it or her) by the tomato plant. Then I went back to computer world but got up every five to ten minutes to check on the turtle. First three times he was by the tomato plant but with his head very much not in view. But on the fourth...which admittedly had a longer interval of time...I went out and that sucker had scooted on. Scooted to some place that I could not see. I tried using my turtle eagle eyes and my not entirely shabby ears and looked. And looked. And looked. And I would like to be able to say I found it again and got to take a photograph of its turtly little head and it was awesome. Unfortunately even turtle eagle eyes have limitations.

He Looks A Wee Bit Maudlin But He's Not

Live In New York?

If you live in New York you should go see my friend Linnea perform. Here's the information:

Up, Down, Strange, Charmed, Beauty, and Truthby Edward Allan BakerDirected by Diana Basmajian

Come see our show!

Two sisters and their uncle must face a difficultdecision when their lives reach a breaking point. Everyone is hidingsomething in this fast-moving, heartbreaking one-act by Edward AllanBaker.

We only have five shows, so make your plans now!Featuring Greg Drozdek, Megan Hart, & Linnea WilsonThe Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, NYC
Sat. 8/11 at 1:15pm
Weds. 8/15 at 5:45pm
Thurs. 8/16 at 8:00pm
Sat. 8/18 at 9:45pm
Sat. 8/25 at 9:45pm

For tickets and information go to www.fringenyc.org or call212-279-4488. Or e-mail me and I will be your personal ticket agent(you can't email her because you don't know her email address ha!).

****VERY IMPORTANT, there is a NO LATENESS policy AND the Cherry LaneTheatre is not so easy to find, so please leave yourself PLENTY oftime to get there. Very helpful in this situation is hopstop.com,gives you subway and walking directions door to door.****

Road Sub

On our drive back we stopped at a gas station/McDonalds/Subway. My mother and I initially went to McDonalds but something was entirely funky about their service (one woman working the register with a line of about ten people waiting) and after more than five minutes but perhaps last than ten we gave up and went to Subway instead...a far healthier choice I would guess. I tried an Italian B.M.T. for the first time and was pleased.

College

After dinner I left my parents and went to Hang Fire bar to meet up with a college buddy and his lady friend. It was a nice bar full of youthful non-assholes and it was trivia night. I guess the buddy/ladyfriend go every week. I got to play too. Not that I was very informed in any category where they didn't already know the answer. Though I was pleased to know what Hugo Chavez looks like and what show Angel was a spinoff of. I drank predominantly Stella beers whilst the other two drank some sort of honey infused whiskey with gingerale. Their team ended up coming in second.
Which led to a free pitcher of beer.
It's been three years since I saw the buddy last and it was good to get a little face time and comforting to know that if I moved in Savannah I'd know someone whose company I still actually enjoyed. And if they let me I'd love go to to trivia night more often because I'm sure one day I would know something no one else knew and it would make me feel very good about myself. One day. It was also nice to socialize with people who weren't my parents or my parents' friends. Don't get me wrong, they're all very nice but, well, they aren't necessarily my true peer group now are they? To that end I have finally bought a plane ticket to facilitate my return to Chicago (where I'm sure it's equally hot and stupid).

A Bit Better

For dinner we went to Huey's On The River (it's strange how few of these restaurants have websites), a New Orleans styled restaurant on, well, the river and recommended by the college buddy you will see shortly (though I was a bit skeptical since he said that Saigon was one of his favorite restaurants). I had a cup of the gumbo and the fried green tomato appetizer. My parents each had a bowl of the gumbo. My mother then had a baked potato while my father had their shrimp and grits. I liked the gumbo and only added a little hot sauce to it. The cup was a good amount though my serving managed not to include any of the andouille sausage...my father let me have a bit of his and I liked it very much. The fried green tomatoes were good and crispy hot. The remoulade didn't have as much texture as some I've had in the past but it wasn't bad.

Heat Illustration

After the interview we returned to the hotel room and did not venture out again for many hours. When we finally did it was to go to dinner close by. These photographs do a good job of showing what the air felt like...thanks to the fact that the camera's lens-after being comfortably cool in the hotel room for all of the day-repeatedly fogged up when it came into contact with the outside air. I mean repeatedly, like I'd wipe it clean and then seconds later it'd be all cloudy again. But, truly, if air had pigment or shape depending on the weather then this is a true illustration of what it felt like to walk around Savannah.

Suit'er Up

This was my outfit for the interview...except that I changed into a little white underneath shirt that you couldn't really see though it was there. Before my interview I took a tour of the school I was hoping to work with. It was hot, hot, hot and my new shoes decided it would be fun to grind away a bit of skin on the tops of both of my feet.

After my first interview my parents and I went to Clary's for lunch. I did not have my camera so I can't show you the meal but it was okay. The much touted black bean soup could have had a bit more going on (it seemed mainly to be canned black beans and chopped red onion with a side of sour cream). I ordered the barbeque chicken basket and was relatively pleased though I should have ordered the sandwich as the sides (small cob of corn, coleslaw and fries) weren't very memorable. The chicken and its sauce was good though. I ate all of it. Oh, and it was still very, very hot. I'm just impressed with myself because I didn't end up with any bbq sauce on my suit.

Our next foray into food while in Savannah was dinner at Saigon, a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant on Broughton Street. Alas it did not meet my expectations. I ordered the cucumber salad, tom yum soup and soft shell crab appetizer. The tom yum was strangely sweet with hardly any wisp of lemongrass or flavor heat. The mushrooms were not straw and the tomatoes were big and unnecessary. It was decidedly not very good.
What I like about cucumber salads at Thai restaurants is the sweet vinegary dressing that usually comes with it. Unfortunately this salad came with a different dressing...I forget what its name is but it's another kind of Thai sauce and not half as subtle or light as the sweet vinegary one I have mentioned. It was also disappointing.
Then there was the soft shell crab appetizer. It was large and not very good at all. I hate being so negative but it's simply the truth. Though I'm sure that there was soft shell crab somewhere in the depths of the funnel-cake-like batter it was a) skimpy and b) overwhelmed by the sweet and thick dough surrounding it. I tore apart many of the pieces just to make sure there was some kind of meat inside it and there was in many...though some were purely dough. It was gross. It's hard to make fried food suck...but they did.
I should mention that my parents both had pho and said it was decent.

Moe Later

Well, I have more posts to do involving disappointing food in Savannah as well as pleasing college buddy visiting/trivia night event but I'm done for now.

I'll know if I have the job or if I don't in about three weeks...the interviews went well, I think. But it will depend on so many other things that I don't understand so all I can do is hope and continue searching.

Fried Seafood c/o Warehouse Bar and Grill

I will say this about Uncle Bubba's...it probably would have been okay if we'd ordered solely fried things...like what we did at Warehouse Bar and Grill (18 E River Street...or maybe W River Street?). We got the fried food triple combo thingy...shrimp, grouper finger and crabcakes. They were out of oysters and onion rings when we were there. They also claimed to have the cheapest beer in town. I had a Savannah Fest and enjoyed it thoroughly. The friend seafood was good, especially the shrimp and grouper...the crab cakes sucked...I know, I know.

At Least Four

The next day my mother and I took the 14 bus out to the mall. I needed shoes for my interview the next day and we couldn't find a place in the more downtown area. It was interesting taking the bus in a new city. I think my mother and I were almost the only white people on our way out and way back in. That's just different from my experiences in Chicago where there's usually a mix of at least three if not many more races on the buses and trains...or at least on the routes I go on. Savannah, I think without really knowing, seems to be a more straightforwardly racially divided city than Chicago (not to say that Chicago is without its racial issues...listen to all my qualifications and explanations, my goodness). I could be wrong, I was only there for three days.

Finding shoes was quite the challenge and it took us longer than either of us really wanted but we were relatively triumphant in the end. Then as we made our way to the bus stop we saw the bus we wanted pull in and pull out before we could even think about running for it...not that either of us really run. It was, as I may have mentioned, hot as Satan's bum and the stop had very little shade...just a tiny patch in the midst of a rather squalid palm tree. As we waited the fifteen minutes or so for a new bus we got to see at least four (if not six) of these airforce airplanes come in for landing...well we didn't see them land. I liked to think that they were bringing soldiers home from Iraq...but then I couldn't help but add a thought like this: just so they can go back again for another 15 months. For all I know they were full of oatmeal rations and bug spray.

Ocean

After the bad dinner we drove farther away from Savannah and on out to Tybee Island to see the ocean.

It was pretty but the heat was a bit too much. Basically the heat, throughout the trip made it so that I couldn't enjoy anything that happened standing in the outside. I'm sure at another point of the summer season it would be awesome to lie around on the sand...there weren't many shells though.
Sunny mama.

Coming In To Town and THE WORST MEAL EVER

We got into Savannah around 5:30. When we got out of the car I remembered what hot really is. It is miserable, unbearable, impregnable, terrible, awful, soul crushing and generally unbelievable. Thank goodness our hotel lobby and room had the most powerful air conditioning ever. I have taken back all my snobbish opinions about air conditioning...well, no, actually I haven't. I believe that if it's 85 or below you shouldn't use air conditioning...but if it's hotter than that have at it. Savannah, when you're in an air conditioned car, is quite lovely. Trees with Spanish Moss, beautiful squares, a river, awesome historical architecture and beach only a little drive away.
After we checked in we went to a restaurant my father had found on the internets. It was called Uncle Bubba's and it was the worst meal I've had in quite a long time. Now, before any of you think to point it out, we all realized that this was not an especially good or true month for oysters and yet they had them on their menu and said yes, they were serving them. So, yes, in retrospect you should go with your internal oyster calendar regardless of what the menu says...but...My father and I both ordered one dozen raw oysters. They came. They came not on ice and not in any way cold. Or, rather, they had a slight lukewarm kind of chill that comes from sitting in the refrigerator. I ate two. They didn't taste off, exactly, but they tasted like nothing good would come of eating any more. My father had similar feelings and we simply pushed our plates aside. My mother ordered the chargrilled oysters and seemed relatively satisfied with them. The parents also ordered a bucket of steamed oysters. I don't know what it is but I like oysters in two forms: raw or fried and since steamed is not one of those forms I was planning on passing on the bucket. When the bucket came my mother found that the first few oysters she pulled out were entirely closed...not little tell tale opening to ensure that they were a) cooked and b) alive when it happened. My father tried just a bit of one and declared them bad. Our server and his manager did the right thing and took both the raw and steamed oysters off of the bill but that doesn't change the fact that they sucked.
You know what else was pretty forgettable? Their steamed shrimp especially compared to the shrimp I had here. The shrimp were puny. My mother questioned whether the butter served with them was real butter or fake butter. The top of the shrimp was sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning but the spice wasn't really distributed throughout the shrimp...it was like an after thought and an attempt for authenticity. They were entirely forgettable though, at least, they weren't bad.
I ordered the crab bites appetizer. What I imagined from the description and what I ended up getting were (I'm sure you're not surprised) drastically different. These bites resembled hush puppies far more than they resembled crab. And the little resemblance to crab they had was the bad kind. The shredded and breaded and flavor masked of frozen crab cakes from some terrible restaurant. Point: don't go to Uncle Bubba's it was a royal disappointment.

Drive Food

I drove the first three and some hours to Savannah. We stopped at an exit that had both a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts (Dunkin Donuts in the south...or the south I've been to...is quite a rarity) and we ended up Starbucking it up. I had an iced coffee with hazelnut flava. Also, in terms of food, I got some Taco Bell. I partook in a spicy chicken crunch wrap supreme...and a cheese and bean burrito (not pictured).

It was okay. I really like it for its nacho cheese mixing with chicken taste...and often there isn't enough of that entirely ersatz cheeese product for my liking.

Toad!

The night before we left for Savannah we sat outside on the rock. All of a sudden I saw some hoppity hippity movement near my feet and lo' what did I find? A toad of course! It took me a few human sized hops and maneuvers and guts to finally pick this guy up and bring him to where my mother was sitting. He was roughly the size of my hand. Which you could interpret one of two ways: that I have very small hands or that I have very toad sized hands. I'd go with small hands.
I like hippity hoppities! And this one didn't even pee on me.

Meals Before Our Savannah Departure

Beef chili.
Tomato and oregano pizza type thing with phyllo dough as its crust.
Fresh corn dinner. This round of corn was microwaved then shucked...with the occasional burning yelp.

Send

Send and think all kinds of cc-get-that-job thoughts around 11:30 today...eastern time...that would be 10:30 for you central timers.

It is really, really, really hot in Savannah. Today's high is supposed to be 99 but it will feel like 9,256,900 degrees I'm sure of it.

We have yet to have any meal worth a damn here. What's that about?

Ipod Shuffle

1. Clementine- Elliot Smith
2. Easy To Love- Billie Holiday
3. Lilies Of The Valley- David Byrne
4. Which Will-Nick Drake
5. Our Way To Fall- Yo La Tengo
6. Motor Away- Guided By Voices
7. It's Not Unusual- Tom Jones
8. Beesting- Ugly Cassanova
9. !@*$%#- Fischerspooner
10. Writer's Block- Peter Bjorn and John
11. Cold And On My Mind-Edith Frost
12. Getting Better- The Beatles
13. Crazy-Patsy Cline
14. 1.9.9.9.- Orishas
15. Just My Size- Tuscadero
16. Mary Jane's Last Dance- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
17. the opening taste- Reindeer Section
18. Girl Inform Me- The Shins
19. Be Kind- Devendra Banhart
20. Wives of Farmers- Granddaddy

Slightly Less Classy Dinner

For dinner I made myself ramen. It was what it was. I ate it while watching Big Brother...I don't exactly understand how it happened but I am watching the show. Before three weeks ago I hadn't watched a single episode of the show...ever. All the people are idiots and the whole thing is stupid...and yet I tune in Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays to see which stupid person will be evicted. It's sick.

In other news I've read the first two books in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. They are not anywhere close to making me forget about Harry Potter. The two series compared, by me, end with Harry Potter beating the living daylights out of Lyra Silvertongue on characterization, plotting and pacing. Eh.

Lunch In Tullahoma

Once we realized we weren't shoving off towards Memphis yesterday, the parents and I drove to Tullahoma. The original reason for this was to go look for shoes to match the suit that I will wear for my upcoming interview. But, we reasoned, we might as well have lunch before looking for shoes. We went to Emil's. The parents called it French but when I first looked at the lunch menu I was a bit confused. It wasn't really French. There were burgers and chicken salad on the menu...suspcious? Upscale-esque, perhaps but I don't think there was a single truly-recognizable-as-French dish on the menu. I just checked their dinner menu and see that it's a bit more geared in that direction. But as my, I forget which, parent said: well, the restaurant wouldn't really succeed if it stuck to French cuisine. We were seated in one of the converted house's rooms. There were two other tables of four people or more. And they were very loud. Or perhaps they weren't that loud and the space just made it so we could hardly hear each other...even our server commented on it. I started with the tomato cream soup with basil pesto. It was served hot (good) and was quite good-this wasn't Campbell's tomato soup, there was a complexity and real texture to the dish. The pesto was a big part of the goodness and I sort of wished they had given me just a little more of a dollop.
I had their blackened tuna over Caesar salad. It was one of the lunch specials of the day. I was pleased. The tuna was cooked all the way through which, of course, isn't entirely necessary...I do like my tuna a little pink in the center. But it wasn't dried out so I won't complain. The fish was topped with a jalapeno mayonnaise that really had a kick to it. The salad dressing was good. They were a little stingy with the croutons however...I had three.
Oh! And I had Arnold Palmers (free refills!) for my lunch beverage...sweet tea and lemonade! Sweet tea! Sweet tea! Lemonade!
And, for my father's satisfaction, below is my father's crabcake with fries. Both my parents went with crab cakes. I was tempted...but seeing as how every single time I ever get a crab cake in a restaurant I always end up huffy, disappointed and snobbish, I decided against it. I did try a bit of my father's cake and it wasn't bad....but, shoot, they're still not as good as mine.
I didn't end up finding any shoes. I flirted with getting the postal exam prep book and this guy's latest (waterproof) book in a bookstore. We went to a department store and got me a summeryish suit and a jean outfit kind of thing.

Walk Bowl

On Wednesday I walked a little ways in order to take photographs of an art object for a nice lady. On the way I saw a deer...big surprise, I know. Then I took photographs of the bowl. It was hot.

Pork Shoulder Dinner

On Monday I made pork butt. I'm getting quite good at it. I followed my basic recipe but added two small hot peppers and ginger. It was also the largest shoulder I've worked with. In the past the shoulders have been about five pounds before cooking. This one was at least ten pounds. It just made it much harder to turn. In fact it was downright impossible to turn once the meat had gotten good and cooked and tender...to turn it would mean instant falling meat. It would be the Falling Meat Crisis of July, 2007. We invited five people over and they all came. Mom made deviled eggs and one of the guests brought homemade ratatouille.
The shoulder didn't quite keep its form when transferred from the roasting pan to the serving plate...but no matter, it was quite good. I think it may have been my best yet.
Mom made a wonderful salad, baked beans and okra. I made roasted potatoes, peppers and onions.

Mmmmm. The next day I made a lot of the leftover meat into pulled pork.

I've Been Meaning

I've been meaning to make a Simpsons-like me for a while. I did one when I saw M.Lady's weeks back. But then I didn't go to the trouble of saving it...or registering...or whatever. But tonight, it seems, was my night for such things. So. Yeah.

Yesterday the parents and I went to friends' for dinner then came home. At that point I called my cell phone voicemail to check to see if I have messages...must use landline to do this as the actual cell phone is a bit wonky on our bit of the mountain. And, surprisingly, there was a message. And, surprisingly, it was from one of the jobs I had applied to. This was a shock. Shouldn't have been because I am qualified for the job and even think I might like it and be good at it. But a shock nonetheless. It was more shocking because we had a plan for today and the days following. It went a bit like this:

Drive to Memphis. Eat barbeque. See Graceland. Eat oysters. See ducks. See river. Me get on train on Saturday night and arrive in Chicago Sunday morning.

This plan became slightly problematic as the job that called (and I assumed that if they called they might want to interview me) is in the south...ie the opposite direction of Chicago...and Memphis for that matter. So I awoke planning on finishing packing (it's hard to pack all the stuff that was once sprawled in many little bags all in and over a car into fewer bags that I can carry on a train) and then what? Well I awoke. Did some packing. Called the jobby people back and left a message. Packed some more. Watched my parents pack and fret. Fiddled with the computer. Then I called them back and spoke to a person. They told me a bit more about the position. I was interested. We said goodbye. My parents and I conferred about whether it made any sense to go to Chicago when the interview would be, well, in Georgia. We came to the concensus that it did not. We then spoke of modes of transportation for getting me to said interview. Trains would be stupid (some trips would end up taking 24 hours). Planes were ridiculously expensive (cheapest flight was nearly $400 one way...and I looked at three or four different airports). So instead my parents and I will drive to the thing....it's near ocean...ooooh! So now I am doing what I do every time I get an interview: I am assuming I will get the job...but not without realizing that I may not. I'm picturing my life in this place, the shape of my days and weeks and months and years. I'm imagining the apartment I might live in. Not so much people I will meet. The job has a certain travelling component that somehow makes it so I won't meet people (in my mind). I'm imagining all sorts of things. This is my downfall: I imagine a lot more about my own life than I do for any writing I do/characters I create. If I could just write a whole series of essays about what my life would be like if I was someone else. Well, I guess I've started that. If I was a Simpsons character I...wait! I am!

Roasted Chicken Link

To learn how to make chicken the way I make chicken (ie delicious) go here.