25 is only a few days away, and I think that I'll be making some long-winded declaration or a reflection of the last 25 years. Give it time...it's coming. In the meantime, today is devoted to catching up on a few items that I have said I'd catch up on....so here we go....
1) Charlotte, NC (or, "My favorite city in the South (so far)"): Went down to help move Papa Bear into his new place of residence at the beginning of May, so this info/re-cap is a month old today. I'm certainly not proud of that, but better late than never, right?
So the ride down was rather enjoyable, as we traveled all day and told stories, had many a laugh, enjoyed a few podcasts, and furthered my enjoyment of Kanye West. Now, a few notable things about Charlotte that you may not know...
A) It's a small city. We drove through downtown Charlotte (known to locals as "uptown") in about 4 minutes. End to end. The heart of the city. Pretty absurd.
B) Because it's a young city, it's gorgeous, clean, and doesn't have stinky pockets (Hey, 59th street, I'm lookin' at you). This made tooling around incredibly enjoyable.
C) Charlotte lacks delis. For a New Yorker, this is unacceptable. A legit deli downtown would make a KILLING!!! I should send Tro there...
D) A pizza place would also prosper if done correctly.
Food was a big goal of ours, since I was only there for about 48 hours before making the 11+ hour drive back north...so we managed to have legit NC BBQ (delicious), some GRILLED chicken wings (phenomenal), and some Sonic (just before one opened up within a 10 hour drive), as well as Bojangles (greasy fried chicken...the ride back to New York was not as enjoyable as the ride down).
E) The social centers are in suburbs and are oddly-designed/configured. They have restaurants, bars, markets, retail stores, and other places of business in these megaconglomerates but the parking is the really bizarre part; it's just oddly set-up. Go visit.
Now, during this trip, we played the license plate game, where you check off which states' plates you've seen. PBear and I saw an incredible 40 states and 2 provinces going to Charlotte and back! I've never come anywhere NEAR that on a trip...so that was pretty cool.
On the way back, I also managed to get PBear on board with some podcasting, if I ever get myself to start...anyone looking for a birthday present, some equipment would be great.
Anyway, it was a good trip, and I would love Charlotte a lot more if the state of North Carolina didn't pay educators dogshit. Perhaps this is a hint to head back to school for my Ph.D....best of luck, Papa Bear.
2) Just finished reading Why We Suck by Denis Leary, and it is already one of my 10 favorite books of all time. It's an account of what is wrong with American society today. I'm an old soul, so I agree with most of what Leary writes. Some of the 'what makes a man' stuff is not something I endorse fully, BUT for the most part, he's right on. Buy it here, or go to your nearest library and take it out. It is very much worth it and contains PLENTY of chuckles...can't recommend it enough.
3) Larry the Cable Guy's a loser. That is all.
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