Coming back

I haven't written since 2011. Yikes. Having a fulfilling job that leaves no time for blogging is not a terrible thing, but has hurt my ability to write AND read blogs. I especially miss following fashion blogs, and while I'm still loving and living fashion, I'm not sharing in it with anyone, which I do miss. Like all communication it seems, I've been spending time in short form--Twitter and Instagram.

I recently re-found the RVA fashion bloggers. It's nice to see their pool has gotten bigger and includes some folks who have a professional style and those who love thrifting as much as I. While I respect and enjoy Dirty Richmond blog, especially for being one of the first, VCU hipsters are not my thing, and after awhile, it gets tiring seeing kids who dress like triangles and crazy people. So as in all things, diversity is good! It's fun to see folks who also love food and Richmond as well as fashion. Now I just need to figure out how to meet them.

Perimeter

I feel, about my work right now, like an animal that's been kept in a cage for a long time, and learns certain rules and ways of existing, and then suddenly, you let them out into the wild, with all this freedom, and it doesn't know what to do with itself, and therefore stays in the same kind of space as the cage and keeps the same behaviors as before. It's even more frustrating to know this is happening and recognize it, but still feel like there's not much to do.

So many of my work skills were not utilized at all in the last nearly 4 years that I'm rusty. I forget how to do things, to juggle multiple tasks and priorities, to do long term planning. And that's damn embarrassing. I knew it was true, which is part of why it was so so time to leave my old job. But now that I'm in a new place, it's all becoming so apparent. And I"m sure it's not so apparent to everyone else, but it feels really scary to me. I don't know how much of my anxiety I should share yet, because I"m still trying to make a good impression, and learn, and impress, and I know that they think I'm talented and want my skills or else they wouldn't have hired me, and I can tell by the way they talk to me. So I don't want to give them a reason to doubt me, but I also want to be realistic. I think I have to not verbal diahrrea my concerns this early, give it time to learn, but be realistic about the things and tasks I DO need help with, without seeming like an insecure know-nothing.

It's mentally taxing in a completely different way, to be the newbie, to not know the rules, the group dynamics, when to push, when to step back, when to just say yes and when to chime in.

RVA Food and Drink Happy Hour Specials FALL 2010

Richmond Food and Drink Specials. Happy Hour and More!
Anytime

• Acacia: Prix Fix menu-$23 M-Th 5:30-9pm Fri&Sat 5:30-6:30pm. 562-0138
• Amici: Sun-Thur $25 3-course meal. Bottled wine 25% off. 353-4700
• Blackfinn: 7 days a week, 4-7pm $4.95 flatbread pizza. 643-3466
• Bouchon: $20 3-course prix fixe menu 5-6 pm Mon-Sat. 225-2118
• Café Caturra: Social Hour Daily 5-9 pm $5 wines by the glass & $3 beers
• Caliente: Happy Hour at the bar M-Th 5-7. $1 Miller High Life, $3 rail highballs and Jager shots. 340-2920
• The Camel: Happy Hour 5-7pm. $2.50 rail, $3 drafts, $5 cosmos & martinis, $7 Long Islands.
• Current: Happy hour 5pm-8pm with appetizer specials. $1 Drink Power Hour 8pm-9pm. 788-4281
• Davis and Main: 1/2 price well martinis from 4-6pm M-F. 353-6641
• Dot’s Back Inn:”Neighborhood Hour” 3:30-7pm. $2.50 10oz drafts, $2.25 domestic, $3 highballs, $3 house wine. 266-3167
• Europa: M-F 5-6pm. 1/2 off all Small Plates. 643-0911
• Fish Bowl Bistro & Bar: Happy Hour 3-7pm daily. $2 off rails and drafts
• Garnett’s: M-Sun Happy Hour 3-6. $3 beer and wine. 367-7909
• Globehopper: M-F 4-7pm. $2 off wine by the glass. Discount beers. 523.8083
• Grandpa Eddie's Alabama Ribs & BBQ: M-F 4-7pm Sun 12-6, $2 Miller Lite draft, House highballs, House wine, fried onion straws or okra, smoked kielbasa. 270-RIBS
• Kitchen 64: Daily specials 3-7 pm. Rail Drinks:$4, Domestic Bottles:$2. Smoking is allowed on the patio after 10pm. 358-0064
• Lemaire: Happy Hour M-F at the bar and lounge 4-7 pm. $2 House and $4 Craft and Import Beers. $5 Red and $5 White glasses of featured wine. 3 appetizers for $20 from our bar menu 4-7pm and 10-11pm. 3 courses for $30 From 5- 6pm: 649-4644
• Mojo’s: $6 dine-in lunch, incl beverage. M-F 11am-3pm. M-F 4-7pm $1 off All Drafts, $3 House Drinks, $3 Glasses of Wine. Any Nachos $5. Any Pizza $6.
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: Fiesta Hour M-F 3-7pm. 730-7311
• O’Toole’s: Daily M-Sun 3-7pm All Draft and Bottled Beers $.50 off. All House Wines $.50 off. All House Liquors $1.00 off. 233-1781
• Poe’s Pub: Everyday 4-7 pm $2.25 domestic bottles, $1 off drafts. 648-2120
• Sam Miller’s: $2 10oz Miller Lite, $3 House Wine 4-8pm. 644-5465
• Six Burner: $24 prix fix menu M-Th 5:30-9:30pm. 353-4060
• Strawberry Street Café: M-Sun Happy Hour til 9pm. $2.50 highballs, $3 martinis, $2.25 domestic bottles. 353-6860
• Stronghill Dining Company: Happy Hour M-F til 7:30 pm. $6 wine, 25% off appetizers at the bar. 359-0202
• Tarrant’s Cafe: Happy Hour 4-7 M-F.1/2 off drafts, wine glasses, rail drinks.1/2 off select appetizers. 225-0035
• Tobacco Company: Th-Sat, $1 drinks from 8-9 pm, $4 Red Stag Cocktails and $4 Red Bull or White Grape Cocktails all night (always mobbed in there at happy hour though). Free valet parking during dinner hours and all day on Sunday. 782-9555
• Weezie's Kitchen: Happy Hour: 3-7pm M-F $1 off all drinks. 726-1270

Monday

• Avenue 805: Cheap Date Night: a choice of a large house or Caesar salad to split, a large bowl of pasta, a dessert & a bottle of house wine all for $35. 353-2505
• Baja Bean: $4 burgers all day. 257-5445
• Bank: $1 sliders during happy hour
• Bouchon: Entrée portion salads, choice between 4, $20
• Buddy's: $3 quesadillas, cheese fries, grilled cheese 5-9 pm. 355-3701
• Café Caturra Short Pump: Blind wine tasting. Discounts given for correct guesses. 5:30 - 7:30pm
• Caliente: ½ off po’boys 5-10pm
• Capital Ale House: $1 burger nights (with purchase of a beverage). 4pm-1am.780-ALES
• Cha Cha’s Cantina: $2 off quesadillas. 726-6296
• City Limit: ½ price appetizers, 5-7pm. 282-4232
• Cous Cous: Date night: soup or salad, choose of 3 select menu items, dessert to share and a ½ carafe of Sangria or bottle of house wine-$40. After dinner: mystery beer night--different beers each week are $1. 358-0868
• Curbside Cafe: 35c wings, ½ off quesadillas 5-10pm. 355-7008
• Europa: Pasta Night-all pastas $9. 643-0911
• Kitchen 64: Mojito Monday: $6
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 dozen oysters, get a half dozen free. 4-7 pm. 232-3446
• Lemaire: $5 high balls 4-7pm in the bar and lounge
• Little Mexico: $1 tacos.
• Mojo’s: 7-11 pm or til end of MNF: 35-cent wings. $1 off any Philly Cheesesteak. $6 Miller Lite & Yuengling Pitchers. 644-6676
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: All You Can Eat Tacos with Rice & Beans $9.99
• Six Burner: Any bottle of wine $50 or under is 1/2 price. 353-4060
• Star-lite: taco specials starting at 5 pm. 788-7077
• Sticky Rice: half-price sushi 10:30pm-12:30am. 358-7870
• Xtras: $5 appetizers for those in the 23221 zip code. 355-0446

Tuesday

• Acacia: ½ price wine
• Avenue 805: Cheap Date Night: a choice of a large house or Caesar salad to split, a large bowl of pasta, a dessert & a bottle of house wine all for $35
• Baja Bean: Buy 1 Get 1 Free tacos all day
• Banditos: $2 Aristocrat highballs all day. 354-9999
• Bank & Vault: 50 cent wings, $3.50 rails, $2.00 domestic beers, $3.00 premium beers, $5.00 house wine 4-8pm 648-3070
• Bouchon: Date Night—3 courses $50/couple
• Buddy's: Wear Buddy’s shirt, get a discount 5-9pm
• Cafe Caturra Short Pump Crossing: 3-6pm. $5 Glasses of Wine.$4 Wine Fare.$3 Bottled Beer. 360-3377
• Caliente: ½ off burgers 5-10
• Capital Ale House: Steal the Glass Night. Order one of the featured brewery beers, keep the named glass it comes in. 4pm til glasses run out.
• Cha Cha’s Cantina: $1 tacos from 8-9 pm
• Cous Cous: Facebook specials. After dinner, it’s Musi-ko (music trivia).
• Curbside Cafe: 75c tacos 5-10pm
• Europa: Date night: three-course meal for just $16 per person. Weekly Wine Specials at $16 a bottle
• FW Sullivans: $10 buckets of Alaskan Snow Crab Legs 6-11pm
• Infuzion: $5 off all pasta entrees. 447-6852
• Kitchen 64: Tequila Tuesday: $4 Margaritas
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 pound shrimp, get a half pound free 4-7 pm
• Lemaire: $5 Sparkling Wine Cocktails. 4-7pm in the bar and lounge  
• Mojo’s: Taco Tuesday $1/each--build your own at the fixins bar-7pm. Tecate tall boys $2.50. Date Night 7-11pm: Order any 2 entrees or vegetarian item and get a select starter or nachos for only $17
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: $1 Tacos all day
• New York Deli: 35 cent wings. 7-10pm. 358-DELI
• O’Toole’s: Martinis & Cosmopolitans: $4
• Pescados: two tacos with coconut black beans & achiote rice for $10. 379-7121
• Sette: 1/2 price bottle of wine from 5-9pm. 788-7077
• Six Burner: Wine by the glass is 1/2 price
• Star-lite: $2 Aristocrat highballs all day. 254-2667 
• Strange Matter: ½ price hamburgers 5pm+  
• Tastebuds: Prix Fixe. Salad, Entrée, and Dessert for $16. 261-6544 
• Tiki Bob’s: 10c tacos, 25c beers 6-9 pm. 644-9091 
• Xtras: Date Night: ½ price bottles of wine
• 821 Café: Moto Tuesday: come in on a motorcycle or moped and get 10% off any one item. 649-1042

Wednesday

• Baja Bean: ½ off quesadillas all day.
• Bank and Vault: Wine Down Wednesday: ½ price bottles of wine during happy hour 4-8pm.
• Blackfinn: $1.50 burgers 5-10 pm. Wii Wednesday at 8pm
• Boathouse at Rocketts Landing: Wine Tastings 6-8pm
• Bouchon: Steak Night: Marinated Top Sirloin with sauce, Frites and Salad: $20
• Buddy's: 5-9 pm Fajitas $6.95 & Half Price Nachos
• Cafe Gutenberg: half-price select glasses of wine
• Caliente: Local Night-ID w/23221 or 23220 zip gets 10%off food bill 5-10
• Capital Ale House: Pints of most Virginia beers are $2.50 from 11am-9pm at all locations.
• Cha Cha’s Cantina: 50c drafts and $1 tacos 8-9pm
• Curbside Cafe: half-price burgers 5-10pm
• Europa: half-off bottles (up to $40) with the purchase of two entrees
• Havana '59: ½ off mojitos 780-CUBA
• Kitchen 64: Wine Wednesday: Merlot and Chardonnay: $4
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 dozen clams, get a half dozen free 4-7 pm.
• Mojo’s: 12 oz. Can o’ Beer of the Week - $1. 7-11 pm: Any 7” Philly Style Cheesesteak - $4
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: Kids Night 1/2 off
• Pescados: Margarita specials 379-7121
• Sam Miller’s: 35 cent Wings 4-8pm
• Star-lite: 1/2 Off All Pasta Dishes and Pasta Date Night: 2 salads, two pasta entrees& a bottle of house wine for $30
• Tastebuds: Prix Fixe. Salad, Entrée and Dessert for $16.
• Zeus Gallery Café: Wino Wed-all bottles of wine under $50 are half off
• Xtras: $10 bottles of champagne
• 821 Café: Taco Night. Drink specials. $1 mystery beers

Thursday

• Baja Bean: Until 7pm, appetizers half off
• Bouchon: Ladies Night: ½ price wines by the glass and desserts
• Buddy’s: $3 quesadillas, cheese fries, grilled cheese 5-9pm
• Café Gutenberg: 5-7 pm seasonal microbrew and PBR specials
• Fish Bowl Bistro & Bar: Steal the pint glass night 4-6pm
• Havana '59: 1/2 off appetizers
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 pound mussels, get a half pound free 4-7 pm
• Lemaire: $5 Classic Cocktails 4-7pm in the bar and lounge
• Mojo’s: PBR - $2 / Bourbon - $3. Prime Rib Night 7-11 pm. 8 oz. cut - $7, 12 oz. cut - $10, 16 oz. cut - $14 served with side salad and choice of 2 sides
• O’Toole’s: Margaritas on the rocks: $3.50
• Sam Miller’s: $0.75 oysters 4-8pm
• Sette: 1/2 price beer 5-9pm
• Star-lite: 2 for 1 burger night & cheapie cans of Coors & Coors Lite.
• Tastebuds: Prix Fixe. Salad, Entrée, and Dessert for $16
• Xtras: Ladies Night: $5 cosmos and $2 Woodchucks
• 821 Cafe: happy hour all day

Friday

• Bank&Vault: Extended happy hour til 9 pm. (5/18)
• Blackfinn: $20 surf n turf and $20 select bottles of wine.
• Café Caturra Grove: $5/glass wine until 6 pm. (5/3)
• Café Gutenberg: 5-7 pm seasonal microbrew and PBR specials
• Ellwood Thompson: $1 off wine and beer until 6:30ish (5/3)
• Infuzion: 10% off dinner for 2 (excludes beverages)
• Joe’s Inn: $1 PBR and $2 Legend beer until 7 pm (5/3)
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 dozen oysters, get a half dozen free 4-7 pm
• Lemaire: $5 Cosmos and $5 Manhattans. 4-7pm in the bar and lounge(10/20)
• Mojo’s: 24 oz. Coors Light Cans- $2.50. Shooter Special - $3 (10/14)
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: $6 Anything with Redbull (5/10)
• Rare Old Times: Prix Fixe: Soup or Salad, Choice from a Selection of Entrées, Dessert or Irish Coffee:$14.99 5-8pm. 750-1346
• Sam Miller’s: $0.75 oysters 4-8pm
• Sticky Rice: ½ price sushi, 5-6 pm. 358-7870

Saturday

•  Capital Ale House: American Micro Brew Day-most American Micro pints for $2.00, 11am-7pm
• Curbside Café: ½ off appetizers 5-10 pm
• Infuzion: 10% off dinner for 2 (excludes beverages)
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 pound crab legs, get a half pound free 12-4 pm
• Mojo’s: RVA Special: PBR & Shot of Bourbon - $5. $5 Redbull Drinks. 10am – 4pm buy any Philly Cheesesteak & get ½ off another. Pizza Night 7-11pm Any Pizza, Any Toppings - $6
• Rare Old Times: Prix Fixe: Soup or Salad, Choice from a Selection of Entrées, Dessert or Irish Coffee: $14.99, 5-8pm. 750-1346
• Sette: 1/2 price Bloody Marys & Mimosas. 12-5pm
• Xtras: $2 dessert slivers

Sunday

• Baja Bean: $1 cheese quesadillas, $1 an hour pool, $1 12-ounce cans
• Bottoms Up: $3 Mimosas and Bloody Marys all day
• Café Caturra Short Pump: Extended social hour 5-9pm. $5 wines/glass and $3 beers
• Cafe Rustica: Sunday Suppah: $15 per person: three courses with a monthly rotating menu. 225-8811
• Capital Ale House: Prime Rib Special- 8 ounce prime rib dinner w/ potatoes & vegetable-$9.99 or a 16 ounce prime rib dinner w/ potatoes & vegetable-$16.99. Noon-9 pm.
• Cha Cha’s Cantina: $1 Tacos, 25 cent Wings. 9pm+
• Can Can: Beer specials til 9 pm.
• Curbside Cafe: half-price appetizers 5-10pm
• Europa: half-price tapas
• The Hard Shell: crab leg, including all-you can eat specials. 643-2333
• Kitchen 64: Drafts $2.50. Pitchers: $9
• Legend Brewing Company: Buy 1 pound crab legs, get a half pound free 12-4 pm
• Mojo’s: PBR Tall Boys - $2.50. 10am – 4pm buy any Philly Cheesesteak & get ½ off another. Burger Build 7-11pm $6 – add as many toppings to your burger as you'd like
• Nacho Mama’s Mechanicsville: $5 Angus Burgers w/ Fries all day. 10% off check with church pamphlet
• Pie: $3 Jumbo slice margherita pizza and pint of PBR. 257-7940
• Sette: 1/2 price Bloody Marys & Mimosas. 12-5pm. Date Night 5-9pm, share appetizer, salad, pizza & a dessert for $25.95.
• Six Burner: Sunday Supper-$20. Kids 10&under eat free w/ an adult.
• Star-lite: 1/2 off appetizers 5-10pm. $2 PBRs, other drink specials.
• Weezie's Kitchen: Food & Drink Specials 3-9pm
• Xtras: Industry Night

Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere"

I just found a link to the trailer below of Sofia Coppola's movie "Somewhere" Filmed in Los Angeles in the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel. Not sure when it's available here.

I wasn't expecting it to be about his relationship with a kid, but I like the trailer. It's got a similar lonely, world-changing, life and love lost feeling that "Lost in Translation" had.

Source: El Beso

too much writing

Now that someone's actually paying me to write(part time), I find it a lot harder to come up with creative energy to blog. This is not a bad problem to have, but I feel bad about not having this outlet anymore. I'm excited about all the articles I have coming up that I have to do, and trying to teach myself NOT to get overwhelmed by it, and to just GET STARTED, bc that's the hardest part for me, and then I get all anxious for nothing.

My best friend is eloping tomorrow with a guy I've never met that she's known less than half a year. I'm very conflicted about this. I want her to be happy, I love her, and she's a big girl, but I can't help but be worried and feel like she's moving WAAY too fast. Also, I knew she was never going to be a poofy-dress-fancy-wedding person, but getting married in City Hall? I'm sad I don't even get to stand next to my best friend on her wedding day. I never thought she'd be the first of us to get married, mostly bc she'd never been in a serious relationship. I feel like I've lost my last "single in the city" friend, and now it's just me. She and I could always make chat about our hs friends who have married and have babies and live in the suburbs and how we just aren't interested in that life. I'm sad that now I can't just up and go stay with her whenever I want. We're only children, I"m not used to sharing her. I don't want to have to think about what he'll think , or that it's now THEIR space. What about holidays? She and her mom have always been my family, especially when I didn't have any. Now she'll have a new family. I don't even know how to relate to this concept as it comes to her. She's my longest friend. We've been friends for 20 years(!!). I don't have a current relationship anywhere NEAR that close with anyone else.

Pep talk

Daily Pep Talk From A Best Friend:

You will have more than one opportunity to design your life


Pep Talk: I know it seems like you have to make the right decision for the rest of your life right now or else, but that’s not totally true. Make the best, most informed choice you can now and, when that choice stops working for you, make another choice. As long as you stay in the moment, when you’re 65 you’re not going to look back and say, “Curse this fine arts degree! I should have been a business major.”

aw

More from One Sentence
#3775
I had always fantasized about hearing that four-worded question, but I never imagined how perfect it would look as it did when he signed it to me.

(wow, heartstrings!)

Down time

I have existential crises in the car on the way to work in the morning. Do you do that? I think because it's often the only part of my day that's not scheduled, or interacting with someone, so that I have time to think the BIG THOUGHTS alone in my head and freak out about them.

Yesterday morning I was thinking about how desperately sad it makes me that we only get one life and it's really short and shit! have I done all the things I wanted to do? and what about love, and my purpose in life, and career, and what about these people in my life I care about that I don't see, and what about this?...etc.

I've been doing a fantastic job of ignoring important things this last year. It started with being overwhelmed by the legal issues related to my grandmother, then the deaths of my dad and her, the mortgage, the stuff, the life insurance, the debt, the taxes, etc, and has trickled down to me not being able to step up and get my oil changed, write the articles I'm contracted to write, fix my 401K, go to the gym, or call maintenance about that crack in the wall, and even to my relationships. I've been hiding. I've been throwing all my attention in very specific directions, and while that makes me happy in the short term, I'm not sure it's ultimately good. I've been neglecting friends. I've not wanted to put the effort into seeking people out, making plans. And I've been trying to fill the giant hole where my best friend was with other things. It works fine until something triggers it, like "Hey There Deliah" on the radio, or an opportunity for ninja, a glimpse of that UVA shirt, or having to catch myself making a joke no one else will get. And as much as I'm a fixer, I don't know how to fix this. But my heart hurts. It aches so much. Apparently only time is the answer, but that's not a fast enough answer. And since time just takes people and things away from you, that doesn't seem right.

skeptical

I know I've been neglecting my blog. I've been swamped at work and not wanting to do much else besides come home and do nothing, and I've also been busy worrying about everything and getting overwhelmed, like I do, and doing little about it.

Anyway, I feel like the older I get, the less I believe in true love. Now I've been in love before. But it's been awhile. I've never had anyone I thought was the "love of my life." I've certainly had amazing, wonderful,crazy, all-consuming, fine, good, friendship, etc relationships, that served their purposes at the time, but never anyone who I was like, Yes, I want to spend the rest of my life with that person.

And more and more, I see relationships and marriages fail, fall apart, fizzle out, and I don't know that I believe in forever anymore. I don't think I believe it's possible that one person can make you happy and serve all of those needs for your whole life. I think you have to choose what you give up. I go back and forth from thinking it's best to not settle, that I should keep looking for "the one" because when you know, you know(so they say) and then thinking that's naive and foolish and that I'll end up alone....to thinking that I'm being unrealistic to assume I'll find the one person who will be everything to me, who will make all cylinders fire, forever, and that I should just be with the one I know who makes me laugh, who is my best friend, who gets me and my jokes, who I trust, who cares for me.

I think any relationship that's good can be good for awhile until you really get to know someone and spend a lot of time with them, and start to hate their idiosyncracies, tire of them, hate the way your self has become. Then you have to decide whether to keep going, to see if it gets better, if it turns into something else, or if you're just being unrealistic. The longer you spend, the messier and ickier when you decide to leave. And then all of it was for what? Now you've hurt someone you care about, burned that beautiful and unique connection, and you're back to square one.

anniversary

A year ago today, my father died unexpectedly. It's a long story. It was jarring and sad that he died, and it triggered a chain of complicated legal issues, but I didn't lose a father that day. I lost my father 15 years ago when my mother and I left. He was troubled in many ways. Only last year, we had just started reconnecting, to the best he was able, over the care of my beloved grandmother (his mother, whose death later that year still haunts me), and then he died. He lived a sad life, so his death was sad, made even more so by the fact that he had probably died several days before he was found, alone in the house.

Obit I wrote.

My mother and I scattered his ashes over the Atlantic Ocean in Rehoboth. His late-in-life wish was to travel to Turks and Caicos, or Mexico and spend the rest of his life on the beach. While his passport was unused, I know that he'll get there someday, perhaps he's even there by now.

Okay, I have to stop writing now, as getting teary at work is really not appropriate.