In the dark

It's 5:30 AM and my roommate is out of town so everything in the house is peacefully silent. I normally sleep until around 6 but for some reason I just snapped out of sleep about fifteen minutes ago and I haven't been able to go back.

I had dinner with Theresa last night at Screen Door, a southern-themed restaurant. We ended up going there because yesterday morning I had texted her saying I had a huge craving for Folks, a restaurant chain that's only located in the south. I hate to say it, but Screen Door was so superior to Folks in (almost) every way (they don't have peach muffins ;) that I don't so much miss Folks anymore. We both had the Screen Door Plate, in which you get three sides and a slice of cornbread. They have their standard menu of sides but then they have this fantastic menu of in-season sides that you can choose from. There were so many things we both wanted to try that we ended up picking six sides together and splitting almost everything. We got macaroni and cheese (naturally), sweet corn pudding, sweet potato fries, catfish, black eyed peas and rice (that one was all Theresa), and this incredible eggplant and goat cheese terrine on fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes. I can't even tell you how good that one was...fantastic! It was a huge amount of food and we ended up both completely satisfied and T had a big box of leftovers to bring to her mom.

Neither one of us had any place to rush off to, which is not usually the case, so we lingered for a while and enjoyed the free refills of sweet tea while we caught up a little bit with what was going on in each other's lives. We'd been having some trouble lately finding the connection that made us so close in the first place, so it was so incredibly nice to get a chance to just sit and talk with her. Eventually the waitress came around with dessert menus and we both ordered something. I had ban-offee pie, which is bananas and caramel in a pecan shortbread crust topped with whipped cream. It was out of this world. I cannot even express to you. It's been a long time since I've ordered and finished any dessert anywhere, as they are usually disappointing, but I ate every last bite and was tempted to pick up my plate and lick it when I was done. She got the pecan pie which was delicious and she seemed to enjoy it, but I was so in love with my ban-offee pie that I barely noticed.

The other big thing that happened yesterday is I took Tater to a dog trainer. Let me back up. I'm moving again. I'll give you a sec for that to sink in. Okay. I'm moving for a couple of reasons. There's still a weird uncomfortable unease in the air between me and my roommate, plus I'm finally emerging from my drawn out post-breakup depression and I could use a change of scenery. Also I can't have pets in my current place and I really miss having a dog.

So I found another roommate situation nearby that looks like it will work out better (closer to my age, we share some interests, etc), plus it's less expensive, plus she's cool with me bringing a dog. Theresa and I discussed it and we decided that Tater would be the best one for me to take because Chutney was always Theresa's dog and Rosie doesn't like being an only dog (we're assuming...she tends to whimper around the house when one of the other dogs is at the vet). Plus Tater is smaller and has always seemed to us that she would be an excellent only dog. So anyway, yesterday I met with a dog trainer and learned some good things about how to interact with her to establish myself as the pack leader. She's an awesome dog now, but she's going to be so much more fun once she's trained. I'm terribly excited :)

That's all for now...have lovely days, folks!

xo,
C