An Odd Night; An Early Morning

There is no good excuse to wake up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. In my case, it was a dream about someone I haven't seen in 15 years that woke me up in a cold sweat. Whatever. So I got up and took the dog out for a walk, where I was surprised to see a neighbor already sitting on his front porch. I teased him about being up so early and he said he wasn't happy about it, either. Once we got to talking, we realized we've got no idea what to do with a day that starts unnecessarily this ungodly early. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with for the first 15 minutes of my day, I have to admit. I didn't ask him what had awakened him so early, but not because I wasn't curious.

Wine Geek friend came over last night so we could attend the Tricycle Gardens Harvest Dinner together. Poor thing, she came straight from work, so we began here with a Tenuta di Pietra Porzia 2008 Frascati Superiore to ease her transition to Saturday night. It was light and delicious, kind of a pears and almond thing going on. We caught up on the blogging world and what's been going on in our lives since we last got together, then it was time to head to the Robinson Theater in Church Hill.

We had no idea what to expect from the Harvest Dinner, since it was the first one, and that was probably a good thing. The place was packed (the event sold out) with a lot of recognizable local faces as well as plenty of unknowns just looking for a giant feast made by local restaurants (The Fat Goat, Balliceaux, Rowland's, Helen's and more) and supporting a good cause (community gardens). It was impossible not to run into people we knew, but the din was so loud, conversation was challenging. Which worked for me, given a few of the people from my past I ran into it (Fly Guy, for instance).

When we left there, WGF suggested we check out the Boathouse, since neither of us had been. How can I politely put this...the place was like one of those generic seafood places you find in Norfolk or Baltimore full of tourists and frat boys. It didn't help that we had to walk past a bachelorette party (giant penises, an identifying white lace bow, bridesmaids french kissing each other) just to get in and see the madness. One quick sweep through and we'd both determined it was not the place for us. I know people who have been (although not on a Saturday night and perhaps that was the problem) and didn't hate it, but we were hugely underwhelmed.

So we ended up at Julep's for after-dinner drinks and to further the conversation that had been impossible at our last two stops. Unfortunately for me (WGF was way more tolerant), we became the recipients of a rather drunk redneck truck driver's attention as he smoked and drank and clumsily tried to engage us in conversation...until WGF told him flat out that we hadn't seen each other in a month and wanted to talk. Alone. He huffed a bit then turned his back on us. Sorry, sir, but you're just not proving yourself conversationally.

All in all, it was sort of a strange night. And now there's this ridiculously early morning thing going on. Maybe it's the full moon working against me?