Oh, My Darlin'

Got to work super-early today, after having to stop for gas this morning, so I sat at my desk and read till it was time to punch in. It is nice to not have to rush. I have to post my bills and get stamps today.

The weekend was good, if too short. Friday evening we went up to Jacksonville, basically watched Phoebe and Mikey play a Narnia video game for a couple of hours, it was raining for a while, so I avoided going out with the bonfire and the mud. My migraine started coming back, mainly I think because there was a bare lightbulb directly in front of my line of vision, on top of the television. Eventually, it got so bad, I had to tell Nick that I had to leave. He was fine about it, which I really appreciated. Whilst driving back in the pitch-blackness, crossing over this really cool old railway bridge almost in Hunt Valley, my migraine started to lessen, so when he heard from Rob that he and Angel and Laurie were at Frazier's, that's where we headed. By the time we got there, Laurie was by herself, since they had left, wasted, and then commensed another rant about the drama, which coinsedentally differed drastically in chain of events and tone when we heard Rob and Angel's version on Saturday night. After Laurie left, Nick and I sat there singing along with the few decent songs we heard (Rebel Yell was memorable) before heading towards home, not before stopping off at Valentino's. We'd been talking about going there for a while now. It was very good. It was nice to get to sleep in and have Nick there. The hurricane was here for a good part of the day, in the form of just really heavy rain and wind. We opted to stay in until it passed, which by the time it let up some, let alone stopped completely, it was close to our reservations at Clementine, so we did virtually nothing all day, save watch television (a mix of Kitchen Nightmares, college football, and SpongeBob Squarepants) and wrestle around terrorising eachother. It would be really funny if someone (Carmin) were to walk through the front door and find us completely tangled up and just looking really peculiar. Anyways, around 5:40, we headed down to Hamilton to go to Clementine. What a fabulous experience that was. First of all, it is just so cool that something positive and nice is in Hamilton, secondly, the food was so good and so fresh, and the prices were unbelievable. Up-scale dining, but so reasonaly priced. I got the second most expensive thing on the menu (rockfish with crabmeat and sweet corn on top, mashed potatoes, and aparagus) and it was only $21! Huge potions, too. The most expensive thing was a steak and that was only $22. I also got a cup of Maryland Crab, that was pretty good. Nick got the macaroni and cheese to start. Not as good as Abacrombie's (which is beyond words--- foodgasm), but delicious still. It came out as this massive brick, like a piece of lasagne, with tomatoes baked inside, enough for a meal in itself (I am contemplating getting it as my meal next time, actually.). For his meal, Nick got the duck, which is something he'd been wanting to try in general. It was done with curry vegetables and a melon salad with mint, cilantro, and ginger (and spicy red peppers, too). He really enjoyed it, but I tried it and didn't care for it at all. The cantelope in the melon salad was incredibly sweet, a real flavour explosion with the ginger and all, but in general, it is not soemthing that appealed to me. Duck is very fatty and I didn't care for the texture. But he was happy and now he can say he likes duck. They serve Baltimore's Zeke's brand coffee, and at only $1.50 a piece with UNLIMITED refills, this place was racking up the points. Even the espresso drinks were $2.75 at the most. We got a brownie for dessert, which was good, but small and really flat, I think we would have done better by getting the yellow cake with chocolate icing and a layer of peanut butter in between, but maybe next time. After all that, and a vanilla cream soda, the bill came to $56.00. Pretty fucking cool. Definately want to take Mom there. They also serve breakfast and lunch, and they are so close to the house, as Nick said, we can just stumble down. After dinner, we came back to the house, where Carmin and Allen were watching a thing about an ice-hotel in Scandenavia, before going out to Checkers. While they were gone, Night of the Hunter came on TCM, which was awesome. Hadn't seen that in a while (since Buba and Pop have been gone), and it is one of Nick's favourites, so that was pretty cool. Went to The Wind-up later on, met Rob and Angel, and since I wasn't driving, proceeded to get very intoxicated. Had a good time. We talked about people's graves we want to visit in various places around the world. Nick stayed at his house so his dad could get him up whatever time they were going to the opening Ravens' game and tailgating beforehand.

Yesterday, I basically bummed around on my own for a good part of the day. Went to the mall, spent money I don't have, although I did find this very flapper-style dress with fringes for $30. Went to Hampden where I wandered around looking in the shops, got a delicious iced mocha from Common Ground, stopped in to see Christian, then came home. I took a nap while Carmin was at her mom's, then got up to write out bills and later we watched these documentaries on VH1 Classic about different movements in Rock. The first one I saw earlier in the evening was about Punk, then her and I watched one on American Alternative (mostly about R.E.M. and Nirvana), and then one on British Indie, which of course, sent me into spasms of delight. They had The Smiths, Oasis, Blur, The Libertines. It was awesome!! I was in my glories, although I would have liked it more had they mentioned more about Pulp and less about The Stone Roses.

Today is Nick's first day at Sheppard Pratt. I hope it goes well. I am not going to mention another word about eating or weight or being fat or anything-- not a word about it will cross my lips anymore. I plan on limiting myself to an English muffin for dinner, unless we go to The Owl Bar with that other gift certificate. I will be glad to see him later and go to Club Charles.