Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

As Rashan wrote about, Thanksgiving was a very leisurely day. After our plans fell through for dinner, I suggested my old standby for holiday meals after 3 years of eating them largely alone-- Boston Market. As usual, it tasted lovely! I can't even begin to try to tell you what movies we watched but between 5 or 6 HBOs, regular tv, and Netflix, we were more than set.

Okay I can begin to tell you, but don't expect a complete list! Lol. Hard Candy with Ellen Page. Wow... that movie is crazy. I didn't know it was a horror movie. I just knew my classmates were recommending it. It's about the non-typical turn when a 14-year-old meets a 32-year-old she found on the internet. Not at all what you would suspect. Evan Almighty went a bit far with the slapstick humor at some points but was mildly amusing. Definitely a kid movie. Some of the scenes required you to suspend your disbelief, and my film background, a little more than I ordinarily like to do. Rah and I watched some movie about the bombing at Pearl Harbor with Burt Lancaster. I liked. We also watched Super H.igh Me which is the weed head version of Super S.ize Me. It's as amusing as it sounds. Then She Found Me I saw because of Helen Hunt. Love her and the movie was good. I didn't even know the divine Miss M was in it until the movie started but I thought, even better when I found out! I know we saw more, I just can't think of them all right now. We also watched lots of football including Georgia's loss and Florida's win! Wheeee!

Back to chronology. Friday I was supposed to work on my paper. Yeah... about that. I didn't. I did end up writing a page when Rah got too engrossed in a movie when I was bored and annoyed but that was on Saturday. We mostly sat around Friday. Thursday night we devoured the leftovers. I don't even remember what we ate Friday morning/afternoon. No clue. Oh wait. I think we had burgers from Five Guys that day. I had one with mushrooms, jalapenos, cheese, ketchup and mustard. As you'll see even more, I LOVE mushrooms and jalepenos. My HU homie Bran let me know her family was having game night and we should come through. I had picked up a couple of bottles of Sun Garden (my fave riesling) for just that purpose, so we got in the car and drove down there. (We had already drank 2 of the bottles when I didn't hear from her until after we ate on Thanksgiving.)

When we got to Bran's fam's house (never did find out whose house it was... there were about 30 people there. I spoke to Bran, saw the cousin we shared, Courtney, (I was jealous that Bran was from GA and had 2 cousins at HU so Courtney said she would be my cousin, too) and Court's best friend Ashley-- a classic combination), the bottles were already flowing so we just added mine to the mix. Delish. I also had fried fish and shrimp and grits. Verdict: bangin! Mmmm. Loved it. I'd never had shrimp and grits before or fish and grits either. Two good things. This is also where Rah learned more about my shrimp oddity. I don't really like shrimp. I like the way it looks but a lot of times I'm not too hot on the taste. Regular boiled shrimp? I'm gonna have to pass 9/10 times. I like most food so it helps for me to be able to narrow menus down by dishes without shrimp when I'm eating out. That night, though, I decided to go out on a limb and was glad I did! I usually like dishes with shrimp in them, like jambalaya. LOVE jambalaya!

This conversation makes me want an oyster po'boy. Oddly enough I know a place in town that makes a pretty good one. Gainesville is a good food city! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise! I was quite surprised but Rah and I have more than a couple of spots we definitely like. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you guys for his birthday we went to Bistro 1245 which Stace had seen and asked me about. I had the seared tuna club with garlic aioli, bacon, tomato on bread toasted in a panini press with a caesar salad. The sandwich? Bangin. The salad? Not so much. Rah got some sort of shrimp pasta which was delish and spicy! For dinner, we went to The Swamp which had 2 for 1 bellinis. Yum! Love bellinis. I had a chicken sandwich and he got this fab mediterranean seafood pasta with shrimp, mussels, feta, kalamata olives and 2 'ritas. SO good.

Detour over. At Bran's fam's house we played "Apples to Apples" which prompted lots of screaming and laughter. One man asked me, "What are you playing?" I told him then said, "Also known as crazy screaming people." Lol. And the more some people imbibed, the less their answers made sense. Hilarity. Rashan was being stuck-up and didn't eat so afterwards we went where I'd been wanting to go, Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. Alright! I don't love waffles but I'll eat them every once in a while. They have to be made in a waffle iron. I can't get with the eggos. Yuck.

We order our chicken and waffles and who sits down at the table near us but this girl from work who's always hitting on Rah. I was delighted! I couldn't stop giggling. Lololol. I was also creating her dialogue to him after seeing me, the infamous girlfriend he uses as an excuse to never hang with them. "So I see you like them hungry." (She's well-fed.) "I'm glad you took her to get some food, though. She looks like she needs it. Maybe a burger too. Extra syrup for that one!" "I can show you a real woman when you get tired of that one, boo." Lolol. I can't remember everything I said but Rah kept saying, "Are you done?" Lol. Too funny. Also. Atlanta has a lot of crackheads. They were guarding the area around the restaurant. Um excuse me king of the parking lot but can you do me a favor and be out? Thanks. The food was pretty good AND I got a pumpkin cheesecake to go. YUM-O!!!!!

Saturday we were supposed to go to the aquarium but instead vegged out on the couch again. At halftime of the UF game we went to Mesa Caliente for some Mexican. Mmmm! The waiter never brought us our guacamole but everything we managed to get was delish! We came back to his place and chilled. Sunday I really, really wanted to go to the Sundial but we didn't get up early enough. I was fully dressed and threw a tantrum as we were walking out the door because we weren't going to make it. It was the only thing I really wanted to do so I was upset. Rah was baffled because I'd been so go with the flow the rest of the time. I knew I was acting like a child but I couldn't help it. I want what I want. I looked at Citysearch for the best brunch and found a place not far away called Pacific Kitchen. They had create your own omelette. Rah said it was too much pressure because of the amount of ingredients (lol) so I created both of ours. I had mushrooms, jalapenos, jack cheese and avocado. AMAZING & smoky. I also had a mimosa and a chai-tini. The latter didn't blend well with my breakfast but was still decent. Rah had plum red wine sangria (he'd actually ordered the mimosa but traded w/me when I didn't like the sangria (not enough fruit or sugar in it)) and a mushroom, spinach, rock shrimp and mozzarella omelette with a side of bacon (which he shared with me). Yum all around! And it's a good thing we didn't go to the Sundial because the city was shrouded in fog and clouds. Would've been pointless to go to the top of a building for a view and there is none.

After brunch we walked around nearby Little 5 Points. Such a cool area. It has Joy written all over it. I was like she should so live here. Lol. I wanted to live there, too. A nice amount of eclectic boutiques spanning several price points, and some interesting restaurants. Some very nice houses there and midtown. I can dig it. I tried on a Tracy Reese dress which was on sale but I thought it looked too matronly. Rah liked it but I need to love clothes before I buy them. I didn't end up buying anything. Bah. But I enjoyed walking around looking until my feet begged for relief from the 4 inch heels. The sales girl who tried to convince me into the Tracy dress said when she wears her Tracy dresses she makes sure to always wear 5 inch heels. Maybe she said 6 inch. It was something outrageous and unbelievable. I looked at her like yeah ok whatever. Go sit down. Thanks. I would like to own some Tracy but I would also like for it not to reach my ankles. Tough compromise. Lol. Ooh! We also went to the mall when we were in Gainesville (before the Atlanta trip-- we spent 9 days together total and I had to drag myself away to drive home at 4 in the morning before class.) and I found this AWESOME Jameil coat in Express. Rah saw me in it and said, "That is so you." I KNOW!! My Christmas list is still to come. You'll love it, I know.

I also incessantly ask him where he's going when we're in Atlanta. My place is a studio so he's always half an inch away from me when he's here. But in Atlanta there are 2 bedrooms and bathrooms, a laundry room, living room, den and kitchen. Still not like he can get far but when he moves me from my perch leaning on him to go somewhere or I'm sitting on the love seat and he's on the couch or vice versa, and he gets up, that's an automatic, "Where are you going?" It drives him nuts! Lol. And cracks me up! I really do want to know. It's just an added bonus that it annoys him. Lol. Neither of us saw any family for Thanksgiving but had a great time!