WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING.

Thursday: Surprise Cookout
For weeks I'd been planning on attending a pre-wedding cookout for our friends Jason and Amanda at our mutual friend and catering co-worker Ian's house. Earlier in the day Ashton "went to go eat lunch with his mom", which I didn't think anything of, so I called Andy to get lunch with me. He gave some stupid random reasons to not do so, so I called him over and over again with mounting frustration and confusion as to his lack of interest in lunch. Who doesn't like lunch? I eventually got Mike to come have lunch with me, where I bitched the whole time about Andy's lack of lunch participation. Blah blah blah, the day goes on, and when I finally get to Ian's I am pleased to see many of my friends are already there. Andy looks at me for a minute like I'm an idiot, and then has to tell me, "Hey, surprise. This isn't for Jason and Amanda, it's for you." OH! It was pretty much the most wonderful feeling ever. Half stupid, half surprised, half speechless, half embarrassed, and half pleased. Many halves, it was a complicated emotion. It was such a great night. I loved every second of it.

Friday: Amanda's bachelorette party.
We kicked it off by going to the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at the Sycamore Rouge in Petersburg. Jeri and Poops and I got there first and of course being the uber classy broads we are, headed straight for the bar, where the extremely pleasant bartender created a "circus" special drink for us that was supposed to be blue and taste like cotton candy, but really just looked brownish gray but magically tasted good anyway. Once everyone got there we got in we got a couch and table and watched the show, which was not what I expected but good times were had by all. I don't recommend the food. It was overpriced and mediocre at best, except for Amanda's dessert sampler was a tastebud explosion.

We went back to the city and met at Empire where we had many drinks and shooters, despite the broken AC. By this time I was about to commit hari kari in my dress and heels so I was pleased to go to Helen's for last call, where at least there was moving room and a working AC. Keep in mind, it's very rare for me to stay out all the way to last call, so that in itself is a monument to my dedication to Amanda and her good time. We spent the night at the Berkeley hotel downtown in Shockoe Slip, which was way too ritzy for any of us in real life, but hey, it's a special night so we did whatever the hell we wanted to. Many mimosas were had, until I passed out in perhaps the most comfortable bed of all time. I woke up to hear Bryon... and how he got there or when he left I have no idea. I was in a junk food/mimosa coma.

Saturday: I woke up and went back to the fan for hangover remedy Starlite brunch. Saturday brunch is kind of an abomination to me, but Andy never gets to have brunch and was leaving for the Outer Banks the next day, so I made an exception. I got two eggs with American cheese, which really seemed to be more like five eggs with a block of cheese on top of it. Good... but a bit of an overload. I slept for 3 hours after that and then I realized I had to book it to Jason and Amanda's wedding (different Amanda) since I already missed my ride due to being in the shower. Theirs was an outdoor wedding at Tredegar Iron Works by Brown's Island, and besides being hot as dick was a beautiful wedding with amazing food and a fantastic bar selection. I was about done in by my 2 day dress binge, so before things got TOO wild I went home. Joe, Jen, and I watched Eastern Promises at her house until the DVD decided to barf itself up and refuse to play, so we watched Aladdin instead. Practically the same thing.

Sunday: Today
I went to REAL brunch at the Black Sheep with Stephanie and Lauren, where half of my co-workers were also dining. Their fruit/yogurt/granola bowl looked too good to pass up, so we split one and I got sausage gravy and biscuits which were DIVINE.

I also got a side of cheese grits, and here's why. I have only had grits one time that I liked, and those were made by Ashton's sister Virginia when we were in Boston earlier this summer. I have on several other occasions tried to enjoy this southern delicacy, to no avail. I was very very pleasantly surprised today with some absolutely delectable grits. Highly recommended. I figured I needed to give them one more try before I leave the South for California, where there will be many more highly wonderful types of food, but I can say with all confidence that nowhere in San Diego will there be grits as good as any grits I could get in Richmond.

Tonight is my second to last shift at Joe's Inn, and tomorrow will be my last. I kind of wish I could work there forever, but I don't want to be a waitress forever.. so I suppose all good things must come to an end. I hope I'll be lucky enough to find a job like that in California, but it will be a pretty hard one to top.

I'm realizing now this sounds very much like a diary entry that no one but me cares about. Ew. I need to start publishing my brunch exploits separately, seeing as it IS the greatest meal of the week. More to come.