A Day in the Life (of a Durham Resident)

8:30 AM: Walk to Joe Van Gogh for 20oz red eye (known at JVG as a stout). Sit outside drinking coffee and reading book.

9:00 AM: Head back into JVG for desired (but wholly unnecessary) 2nd 20oz red eye. Stand in line behind woman who complains that her coffee "tastes funny." Encounter woman again moments at sugar and cream station where she declares that her replacement cup of coffee tastes equally bad. Suggest that perhaps there's nothing wrong with the coffee but that, instead, she's coming down sick. Return to my previous spot outdoors to continue my caffeine and Vonnegut infusions.

10:30 AM: Walk to Northgate Mall to buy slacks from Macy's (on good sale) and sport shirts from Sears* (on incredible clearance sale).  Opt not to wait in the crowd for haircut at Flashlight Barber Shop.

[*This link has almost nothing to the commercialization of the Internet as it is currently considered; instead, it's a nearly prehistoric concept [i.e., 1990] that makes for a pretty cool read, assuming you're a nerdy geek].

1:00 PM: Walk to A-1 Stop Mail to return card of some sort sent by a former co-worker to some unknown couple but at my address.

1:20 PM: Having completed mailing, stop at Dain's Place for a beer and a burger while I read more of my book. Dain's possibly has the best burgers that I've yet tried (which is to say that if you know better, you need to tell me asap: I'll be dubious regarding your claim but happy to be corrected).

1:40 PM: Having eaten most of my burger (excellent burger but too big), decide to head out for a long walk in direction of Duke Hospital.

2:20 PM: In midst of walk, decide to visit the Sarah Duke Gardens. Agree to take picture of a group of four friends (four friends or a disturbingly close family). Find a bench in a nice sunny spot far away from the busiest areas and get in a good 30 minutes of more Vonnegut and his description of The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore.

3:00 PM: On post-Gardens walk home, pass by Nasher Museum and decide to check out newest exhibit, The Jazz Loft Project.  Excellent - I even bought the book.  Much better than the previous special exhibit, which was seemingly loved by everybody but me.  But as for The Jazz Loft Project, I urge folks to get down here to view it.

4:30 PM: Stop by Bean Traders for another outdoor caffeine and Vonnegut session, this time featuring iced latte.

6:10 PM: After coming home and taking care of a couple of quick errands, it's back out again, this time walking to Warehouse District.

6:45 PM: Enjoy excellent square slice of Klaussie's pepperoni and sausage pizza outside Fullsteam Brewery.

7:00 PM: Head across street to Motorco Music Hall and drink two pints of Oatmeal Porter.  Read more Vonnegut.

7:40 PM: Walk over to Manbites Dog Theater to attend fourth and final segment of the 2011 Strange Beauty Film Festival.  One of the short films -- "For the Birds" by Lilli Carré -- was quite good (and somewhat sad, although that might have just been me) but I was otherwise perfectly bored and finally decided to leave short of the 45 minute mark.  I guess film festivals and I aren't made for one another, a discovery which probably surprises no one, least of all me.

8:50 PM: Return to Motorco where I'm immediately given a pint of the newest beer on tap which I find to be excellent.  I think it was 13 Rebels ESB by French Broad Brewery, but I could be wrong on that.  Whatever it was, it was quite good and I had three of them.

10:30 PM: Still at Motorco, watched local band Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes perform a killer set of folk-rock (JR had been with Carolina Chocolate Drops, recipients of the Grammy last week for Best Traditional Folk Album).  I'd seen JR & the MAs perform back in November on opening night for the Troika Festival when I'd found them good but not great: I don't know if they'd improved since then or if I was simply more receptive to their unusual sound tonight; whatever the case, they put on a good show and I happily put in a few bucks to buy their CD EP (which was offered free but  donations accepted).

11:30 PM: And STILL at Motorco.  If only the second band had been half as good as JR & MAs.  I won't name names -- easy enough to find out, of course -- but only a minute or two into their second song, I decided to go back to reading the Vonnegut book and soon finished it ("Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean that we deserve to conquer the Universe.  THE END").  I would have returned to the book during the first song but was fascinated by the fact that the band featured a xylophone; no, that alone didn't interest me so much as the fact that this was the third band I'd seen since Thursday that included that instrument.  Interestingly (?) although perhaps not surprisingly, I didn't much care for any of them.

11:50 PM: As the band started into their fourth song, I decide that it's time to call it a day and walk back home, making a quick stop at the Family Fare to pick up some juice for Sunday breakfast). 

Xylophone aside, it was yet another fine day to be a Durhamite.