Hello Kitty Thief

On Friday, Jean, Jordan, Elisabeth and I went to Carrboro to eat dinner.  We went to Elmo's Diner and had everything from salmon cakes to pecan pancakes.  It was very delicious, but something happened that will bother me forever...

Before we went to dinner, we browsed a comic shop.  I did more than just browse, however.  I bought a hello kitty cellphone charm.  It was one that Elisabeth had lost long ago, and since she didn't want it, I got it to remind me of her whenever I saw it.  I also bought some kiwi gummies.  Our friend, Andy, had tried to buy this variety of gummy candy in the kiwi flavor the night prior, and since he wasn't with us, we decided it was a good idea to surprise him with the kiwi gummies.  So, comic book shop purchase: hello kitty phone charm and kiwi gummies.  Remember that.

I distinctly remember going into the booth at Elmo's Diner with the comic book shop bag containing my purchases.  I also remember putting it on the right side of my body, resting it on the booth.  When I had finished my meal, I told everyone that I was going to the bathroom to wash up (then I used both of my hands to mimic the act of washing one's hands).  Telling them that I would meet up with them outside, I left (without my bag of stuff).

Then, as we were singing songs from camp on the streets of Carrboro (I was using both of my hands wildly to carry out the motions in "boddidly man" and "the moose from canada" song), I suddenly remembered that I left something at Elmo's!  We ran back (it was annoyingly close but far away) and I talked to the host.  I told him "Hi, I ate there and left a paper bag filled with a hello kitty phone charm and some japanese kiwi gummies that are just deee-vine.  Could you check your lost and found?"  The guy looked peeved, but I saw him go over to the booth and look under it and then talk to a few people.  While he was gone, a hostess came by and asked me if I needed help.  Since I figured it could only help things, I told her the entire story too.  She was sad for me and looked more thoroughly than the host had and at the end when she couldn't find it, offered to have me write down my name and phone number incase she found it later that night.  I gave her my email address too.

After all that, I felt good.  I had asked them to look for it, but I also ended up looking for it too (I went over to the booth myself and also checked the bathroom).  The case had gone seemingly cold until I remembered that I didn't have my cell phone with me.  We went back a third time to give Elmo's Diner Elisabeth's number.  However, we didn't get to talk to the nice hostess, we had to talk to the evil host man.  I knew something was fishy the moment he took down Elisabeth's number; he illegibly scribbled it down at the bottom of the reservations list (he might as well have drawn a hand puppet on himself).  When we got outside I theorized that due to his quiet demeanor and blatant unwillingness to be friendly and helpful like his hostess counterpart, that he was the hello kitty thief.  What was even more suspicious was that Elisabeth never got a call from them on her phone and that when I got back to the cabin, I had a message from the hostess on my phone.  It's elementary my dear Watson:  the host did not give the number to the hostess like we asked him to and for this he is the number one suspect in the Hello Kitty murder!

Now to end this entry with a happier, funnier story.  Saturday night, Andy, Elisabeth and I went to the movies (I will not tell you which movie we saw for fear of embarrassment).  The movie was at 9:45 pm and we decided to enter Subway at 9:43 pm.  Andy assured us that we would be able to bring the subs into the movies because he had done it all the time.  So, when we got into the movie theatre, approaching the ticket booth with our tickets and our subs, slightly hidden behind our thighs, a man shouted across the room "SORRY YOU CANNOT BRING FOREIGN FOODS INTO THE MOVIE!"  This teenage boy, rather, was acting very odd and Andy pointed out that it was because his manager was standing right there.  

Okay.  So that was fine.  I didn't really expect to get in with a footlong by my side.  I did, however, ask the manager if he could hold them for us, instead of confiscating them with no promise of return.  For a split second I felt like I was in middle school again.  But the manager was nice enough to save them for us and he even put my soda in the fridge.  

Now I have to go learn some more sign language.  My second camper comes today.  He is nonverbal and I need to brush up on my nonverbal skills.

Love,

Monica

Good food, Hemlock Bluffs and Zen navigation

I spent this weekend going back and forth between Elon and Cary.  On Friday I glazed some platters and made my way over to Cary for delicious Lebanese food at Neomonde.  Dinner with David included a falafel sandwich, beef kabob with tabouleh and fattoush, and two namoura for dessert.  The evening was spent watching Curb Your Enthusiasm while playing scrabble a little too competitively.  

You should know that my days are scheduled around good food.  Waking up around noon on Saturday, we finished our scrabble game and headed over to Bosphorus for Turkish food.  A late lunch with David included an Adana Kabob, Yogurt Kebab, two Turkish teas (refilled many, many times) and baklava and Krem Karamel Custard for dessert.  Leaving around three o'clock, we were able to make it to Elon by four to see Topher's play*.  In a change of pace, late night cravings for steak led us to Outback Steakhouse.  Almost-midnight gluttony with David included 14oz ribeye and 14oz prime rib courtesy of server Bo (who failed to bring us the pumpernickel bread we wanted).

On Sunday**, I woke up and went to work where it was babies, babies and more babies.  Snack time with babies included butter cookies, animal crackers, honey-nut cheerios and apple juice (for the lucky ones).  Then, David and I headed back to Cary around mid-afternoon and discovered that an Indian restaurant, in celebration of mother's day, was putting on their buffet special all day long.  Another late lunch with David included Alu Gobi, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Palak Paneer, something goat, various curries, samosas, lemon rice and rice pudding w/ mango puree, Gulab Jamuns and Rasmalai for dessert.  

Afterward, we went to a nature park, Hemlock Bluffs, to ease digestion.  It was nice and shady and bug-bite free.  If I had had my camera, I would have a picture of a really intense spider web to show off.  But instead, I have a story to tell...

In front of David and me, on the creek side trail, was a couple.  They were moving very quickly and we soon lost sight of them.  For the remainder of the trail we referenced them in jokes about walking too fast.  Then, once we had reached the car, we saw them pulling out of the parking lot.  Since we had no good ideas about how to spend the rest of the day, I suggested that we follow them in the fashion of the Zen Method of Navigation, as detailed by Dirk Gently in DNA's book The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.  Before you begin to judge me, you should understand what exactly this method of navigation is:

... he had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his "Zen" method of navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.

"... my methods of navigation have their advantages. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

-- Douglas Adams. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soulpp.35, 156  

And, so, we followed them with an allowance of 3-4 cars in between( a precautionary measure modeled after the type of espionage I've seen on the once-popular spy drama, Alias).  In the beginning, I threw out ideas about where they might be going.  I reasoned that because it was 5:30 pm on a Sunday that they were probably going home to spend the rest of their night in.  Because: who would get all sweaty in a park for an hour and then grab dinner someplace?  Also, a lot of places are closed on Sunday or close early.  

If you're still disturbed (but not disturbed enough to have stopped reading by now) you should take comfort in the fact that we were only following them because they seemed to know where they were going.  We, however, never knew where we were going/have gone/are going, etc.  So, by the Zen, we thought that this couple might lead us past someplace exciting or cause us to think of a better place to be.  

They took a very scenic route and they drove for a long time.  This puzzled us because we figured they would have lived close by to the park.  They also drove very quickly and we lost them many times.  David was not too keen on the idea in the first place, but by the middle of our journey he started saying things like "This is exciting!", "Man, we lost them!", "I feel like Sydney Bristow!" and "There they are!  Up ahead.  You're not getting away that easily!"

Basically, we drove for 40 minutes (in a square-ish route, which seemed illogical) until I said "This is going to end at the next red light or if we lose them...whichever comes second".  So, we lost them accidentally (they were just too fast) and then we were stopped at a red light.  Nothing really happened after that.  We drove by the mall and thought about going in, but then we realized that we were just really, really tired.  So, we got on the highway and went back home.  In the end, then, I guess that's where we needed to be.

Love,

Monica

*Topher is writing an original play for his honors thesis.  At this event, we got a preview of three of the songs he had written and composed with his partner.  They were absolutely amazing.  I knew Topher was talented, but I had no idea that he was at such a superb level.  Now I know why we haven't seen him at all this semester.  He's been working so hard!

**As for Mother's Day, my Mother had lunch at Roy Rogers (I just wanted to add this in to go along with all my food mentioning).