Yule Ball ruled pretty hard.
Watching everyone get white-girl wasted on the dancefloor w/ MollyAndTheGirls was quite the sight. Didn’t know 90% of the songs they decided to play, but that’s the kids for you these days. Stuck it to the provided strawberry Crush like it was my job, and had a great time.
I’m going to have a hard time trusting anyone dressed in zebra-themed attire from now on.
Darren was pretty funny too. He ended up buying us all Cookout afterwards, which was perfection.
Oh, and Haley still has my bow-tie.
I’m officially in love with all the VQL.
MollyandtheGirls forgot his/her broom at today’s pickup match, so he/she decided to use my lightsaber instead, which he/she promptly broke less than 5 minutes into warmups.
Day 5: Ox Tail
Graced by the presence of Shane (of MollyandtheGirls fame), I endeavored to Jamaica House on Broad St. to indulge in one of jamaican cuisine’s mainstaples. Not to be thwarted by a stomach virus earlier in the week, Shane bounced back to make the trip after all.
I’ve consumed a wide variety of animal meat in my time. Beef, chicken, pork, lamb, deer, pheasant, squirrel, and probably a few others in between. Whereas I was expecting a unique flavor to match the high praises of this curious dish, I found myself a bit surprised to discover that ox tail had a pretty common flavor to it. I could have easily mistaken it for any salisbury steak or beef dish in Shafer. It lacked the diversity or ‘out-there’ factor I’d been preparing for. That’s definitely not to say that it was terrible in the slightest. Not at all. It complimented the cabbage/beans/rice that it came with quite nicely, and made for a decent lunch. In the end, I was just stoked to finally be eating with pleasant conversation and ’80s funk in the background.
The moral here is this: some (like myself) may go into trying new foods from different cultures with the express intention of making a profound discovery. But if we preach that originality is dead in just about every other area of our lives, than we shouldn’t be let down when it comes to the exotic dishes we passively daydream about not blowing us out of the ballpark. Being in the city, Richmonders certainly have a better shot of experiencing these new things, but the McDonald’s factor still rings true: no matter where you vacation, voyage for business or randomly stumble upon in your travels, there will always be something vaguely familiar around the corner.
(and trust me, I’m sick of going to FL/WI/everywhere only to find the same restaurants/shops/excuses to leave the house as home. Go on an adventure instead.)
Day 15: The Barnyard Brawl
America’s fascination with eating contests and feats of colossal caloric intake is no secret to anyone. We love as much food as we can possibly consume in a sitting and then some. Biggie fries? Super sized? Make your drink a shake for an extra buck? Without question. Of Richmond’s more notorious monster-sized dishes is Carytown Burgers and Fries’ very own Barnyard Brawl. A huge patty stacked with eggs, bacon, chicken tenders, white American cheese and all the fixings on a gargantuan bun, all for a surprising $7.49, this thing called for the utmost attention and concentration as Shane and I both took on the challenge.
I am a man who will live and die by the cheeseburger. I’m pretty sure I haven’t gone two weeks without one since I was able to first start consuming them. Without a shadow of a doubt, CB&F delivers. If their cheeseburgers were a musical genre, they’d go harder than Madball while simultaneously managing to outbelt Idina and still have the left over chops for an album’s worth of unreleased Beatles tunes. I swear, this was the absolute jam. As offbeat as the breakfast additives were, I couldn’t get enough. I’m pretty sure I literally felt my blood coagulate with grease after every bite. At this point, it’s pretty safe to say that it now has the consistency of meat-induced tar. If you live in Richmond and haven’t ventured here, you’ve spent too much time in all the wrong places. This Treat Yo’self Thursday, get it together and get down to Carytown pronto.
Writing formal petitions with Shane to get our friends out of financial abyss.
It’s gonna be a good day.
Tomorrow, I will finish setting up my new apartment.
I will scrub the bejeezus out of my poor, decrepit coffee pot, and allow it to breathe life anew.
I will find a way for design to meet functionality, despite a few setbacks.
And most of all, I will have a nice night in alone for a change.
Don’t blame VCU for crimes, blame criminals.
Shane’s editorial about VCU’s recent string of criminal activity is easily one of the most level-headed, concise opinions out there right now. Though I’m already a fan of his bi-weekly column, today’s edition absolutely blew me out of the water.
“Nothing I say will comfort students, current or prospective. Nothing the police can do, short of forming a police state around the campus, will absolutely prevent us from being vulnerable to crime. No amount of money VCU pours into security will keep us safe from the blunt nature of life.”
Op-Ed of the Year. Straight up.
Check it out here.
I’m not one for selfies (or even the term selfies, for that matter), but I think I did pretty good on the whole looking-debonair front this morning.
Shout-out to Plop-Plop and Molly for this righteous cardigan.
This pretty much sums up our friendship.
I got to hang out with @MollyandtheGirls today. It was nice.
