North Carolina

it has been forever since i last wrote in my private journal so hopefully this wont be too long of a post.  it will be about my adventures in north carolina.  ok, here we go.

North Carolina: home of airplanes, cigarettes, confederate flags, deep fried foods, and deep fried confederate flags.  well, not so much the last one but in my honest opinion, deep frying flags is way better (and more delicious) than flying one (or having one on your belt buckle).  

but in all seriousness, north carolina rules.  HARD.  it has the MOST FURIOUS(sexy) state motto:  ESSE QUAM VIDERI which means "to be, rather than to seem".  yeah...pretty bad ass, i know. shut up.

there are good friends, good family, great food.  note that i said great for food ONLY good for family and friends.  my mom's fear of me getting diabetes is probably valid.  i drank so much sweet tea over the holidays that i will definitely be getting some professional kidney stones soon.  regent college will be filled with the screams of a man who has no regrets toward his personal eating habits.

i will miss:

bojangles cajun chicken filet biscuit combo with fries and bo'berry biscuits 

boberry biscuits are blueberry biscuits with icing on them..making them a delicacy.

"why not call them blueberry biscuits?" said the naive costumer....well instead of blueberries, mr. bojangles has decided to use balls of purple "blueberry flavored" sugar balls instead.  its science.  

HEAVEN!!!!1111onewon

little richards bbq is another great establishment that will more than likely go out of business due to my lack of attendance.  i will miss their famous chopped bbq pork sandwich and side of hush puppies.  hushpuppies are pretty much deep fried corn bread thingies that are delicious.

ok, the pictures thus far that ive linked make those food items look unappetizing but I ASSURE YOU!!! they are absolutely wonderful.  i mean, make sure to bring your first date to either of those fine family restaurants if you want to "kiss on the mouth" if you know what i mean wink wink.  

well, just kiss on the mouth, theres really nothing more to that statement.

the best part about the christmas holiday is the delicious home cooking that only presents itself in the month of december.  my mother slaved for hours in the kitchen only to later tell her beloved son, "you cant keep stuffing yourself anymore!"

heartbroken at first but my somber feelings were later subsided by the comfort of more chocolate covered peanut butter balls melting in my mouth.  on one (of many) occasions where i had peanut butter balls in one hand and a slice of grandmother's brown stone cake in the other, my father (with a look of both concern and confusion on his face) said, "graham, you are the eatingest dude ive ever met!"

eatingest.

life goal number 6 complete!  be responsible for the creation of a new word to describe the gluttonous behavior of a single white male.  yes, ladies and gentlemen, i did it.  and i did it with a maximum amount of chocolate running through my veins and a cavity filled smile on my face.  oh, and a fat ass.  i did it with a fat ass....we cant forget that vital part, now can we?

there were two main cities that i visited when i was in north carolina:  winston-salem and raleigh.

WINSTON-SALEM

home of krispy kreme doughnuts, texas pete, camel cigarettes, and the birth place of graham flanagan bennett junior.

my stay in winston was warm, tasty, productive, relaxing, reminiscent, exciting, and most of all tasty1.  visiting with family, friends from high school, and of course the CSC  (carolina slice crew).  this isnt a complete picture but its a pretty close attempt at a full attendance of the boys only club who love music, each other, soccer tennis, and mrs. richardson's sweet pink elixir.  

there were a couple highlights in winston-salem:

1)  SOC (sacred oath crew) FEST.  the SOC is a straight edge crew who holds a music fest each year to raise money and food for the homeless in the community.  it also gave me a chance to see most of my "music scene" friends.  i put quotes around the music scene because i want to make it clear that we do other stuff than just listen to music together.  such activities include:  this.  that.  yep.  come on.  YES!

it was awesome to hang with everyone i hadnt seen in forever.  hard tunes, hard dancing, hard basketball playing (the show was in a gym).  advent played some great covers which was a nice surprise.  torch runner was great.  

2) i finished my triumph bonneville cafe racer!  this was so awesome.  i had been building this motorcycle for about 2 years or more.  it arrived at my door in boxed and with the help of blood, sweat, tears, and john french...it was complete.  and by complete, i mean it was running...old british bikes will never be "complete".  to hear the brit twin roar with no mufflers was so amazing.  the cold winter wind hitting my eyes as i pull the throttle back was the best christmas gift anyone could ever get.  i worked on this bike for so long and touched ever single nut and bolt but could have never imagined the day to riding it.  and then a couple days later I LEFT FOR CANADA leaving my beauty behind.  dammit.

before:

after:

3) visiting my old high school because my sister now works there.  she is the middle school counselor and teaches music appreciation to high school kids that think brittany spears and soulja boy are "musically talented"...they have a lot to learn...from my sister...who is teaching them.  i dont go to this school anymore so this allows me to do two things:

a) visit with old teachers as friends (which is good because they are good people and i like good things with good people that are good and do good things with other good people.  good.)

b) mess with the students.  i focused on two areas:  "boy advice" to middle school girls.  and yelling at boys that said hey to my sister.

lil timmy:  "hey mrs. metzler"

me: "DONT YOU TALK TO MY SISTER, ILL KIL YOU!!!!!11111onewon"

and yes. i yelled out the "11111onewon" part.  lil timmy was scared and confused.  mission accomplished.  mission? more like life goal number 13.  successfully scaring and confusing a 12 year old single white male.

i decided that i probably would be the best teacher in the world because i would more than likely cuss at the kids.  i dont know, call me "dark", "ugly", or any other word that my mother would use to describe anything unpleasing, but cussing at kids is hilarious to me.  

it was funny how much i said, "geez....kids these days..." while visiting the school that i spent more than half my time in the principles office.  i remember in middle school having my name tag on one of the chairs in the principles office.  good (unsafe) times.  but seriously, kids these days...

4) miguel angel saavedra.  enough said.

5) giving the best christmas gift EVER!  oh, just a little pencil portrait of my sister and brother in law.  its 12"x18" of pure golden glory that will safe the world.  

behold!

my dad looked at it silently for a while and then after 10 minutes of studying the picture (or wondering why his son is "not right") he utters, "but why is martha an astronaut?" as if sam being a centaur totally makes sense.

yeah, whatever, im over it.

the standard procedure in winston-salem is to watch movies.  i saw some great ones and some ok ones.  the curious case of benjamin button and seven pounds were AMAZING (shut up garrett, you dont know what you are talking about)

yes man and valkyrie were good too.  i saw yes man with my dad on afternoon (matinee prices!)  and in the large theater...it was just me, my dad, and a single old man.  in retrospect, we should have sat beside the old man and acted as if the theater was completely full...complaining about the cell phone going of 3 rows behind us.  

i wanted to see marly and me because apparently everyone i know that has seen it....cries....like a little baby.  SO, i wanted to see what the big deal was.  i WAS going to go see it but SOMEONE totally blew it and didnt want to go because it was too late and SOMEONE had to wake up early.  ill let it slide.....just this once!

RALEIGH

Bro-Zone Lair....raleigh's only accomplishment.  who to thank for this?  oh, me, karibbean, and cobra.  the "daddies" of the infamous and irresistible BZL.  ladies.....karibbean has mono so try to contain yourselves.  he denies that he received the kissing disease via mouth contact but im just going to assume that he got it while "practicing" on a blind guy in fuquay-varina in exchange for personalized stationary.  

raleigh was great because i got to spend about 4 days there. and let me tell you....those 4 days were FUN FILLED PACKED FUN WITH AWESOME JUICE 2K9.

highlights that make the "normal" person jealous:

1) new years eve party - dancing, prancing, lancing

2) gluttonfest - burgers and ice cream, feel like death, look like hell

3) video game friday - nazi zombies

4) first friday - dave eichenberger is an amazing artist

5) saturday morning bojangles - the usual

6) vintage21

7) post vintage21 brunch. - breakfast burrito at humble pie is the dank bank.

BOOM! 

it was incredible and seeing everyone in raleigh was quite delicious.  i love raleigh and i love the people that live there.  they fill my body with magical feelings and caress my soul with fingers like an angel.  a particularly heavyset angel who has "done bad" and got into the cookie dough....and now is licking all the cookie dough off his fingers with superb grace and surprising dexterity.  a classy sight for anyone wanting to learn how to stick both hands in one's mouth and chew viciously yet leaving the fingers unharmed.  im the cookie dough to the people of raleigh.  or better yet, ill be the angel and raleigh be the cookie dough....thats probably a more logical metaphor.  WELCOME TO LOGIC!

p.s. "special" thanks to jeffron the immortal for allowing me to sleep over and "party" late night.

some good pictures came out of raleigh that weekend:

there were no pictures of all the other amazing people such as jeffron the immortal, thien, spago, don don, dakota, ashleigh, etc so BLAME DARIUS!

this will do:

I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA AND MISS IT DEARLY!

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1 yes, i put tasty in there twice because: a) it deserves it and b) i may have tasted everything twice. shut up, IT WAS THE HOLIDAYS! i can let myself "get loose" with various food items