On Thursday, as I merged onto Interstate 40, I noticed that there was a little green fellow hitchhiking on the passenger-side mirror of the car. I’m fairly sure it was a Spissistilus festinus, or what the oldsters call a “Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper.”As I was already accelerating toward the usual 80 mph that Triangle drivers find comfortable for their morning commutes, I couldn’t do much but give the little guy a few cautionary glances every few minutes or so. I cruised along, finishing up with Sarah Vowell’s spectacular Assassination Vacation, and when I arrived in Raleigh, somewhere around the Oberlin off-ramp from Wade Avenue, my stow-away jumped ship. I hope he finds Raleigh a happy place, though I must admit, I myself am a Chapel Hill-ian through-and-through.
This is, of course, after only living here for two months. What can I say? The place feels like home. We have the house in such wonderful order, and the yard looks like heaven, the back porch is splendid, our neighbors are great… and I love the towns. Carrboro and Chapel Hill, which we are nearly smack-dab inbetween, are bastions of thoughtful-mindedness in an otherwise selfish state. “Hippie” and “hippier,” my friend Geoff calls these two towns, and he’s right. But in a good way.
Saturday was “Movie Night,” which is the newly-instituted tradition of getting everyone together in one place to watch one of our rented Netflix. Natania and I took a trip to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, which rocks the socks off of Greensboro’s. We got out of there, spending $9, and we had a treasure trove of goodies, too. I even got a cup of homemade root beer.
We made dinner and sat down to watch Wizards. And… I didn’t really get it. I suppose it has its merits, but for the most part I was simply appalled at Bakshi’s ridiculous attempts to tell a simple story. It seemed that everyone else agreed, and we’ll be attempting to pick something a little less lame for the next movie night. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Today, I spent a good deal of time totally and completely geeking out. I drew this map for the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign that we’re starting… I think it looks fairly good, although I’d like it to be a bit more stylized. I was looking at these Dutch city maps from the 1649 Blaeu atlas, Toonneel der Steden, and really wish I could reproduce the same old-world look and feel. Practice, practice…
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