A satisfying visit (part two)

I was not able to blog earlier today, friends, because I spent my few sleeping hours in a teeny tiny motel somewhere north of Richmond.

I arrived about 1:30 am and rang the bell outside many times. It was cold - the temperature had dropped from 69 degrees (when I said goodbye to Terry outside the theater in Raleigh) to 34 degrees when I stood knocking pleadingly on the plexiglass at this little motel two and a half hours later ... anyway, the proprietor was pulling up his jammie bottoms (and neither quickly enough nor thoroughly enough, in my opinion) as he rounded the corner into his kiosk.

Well, anyway, there was no internet access at this motel. So now, as I sit in my daughter Melina's apartment in NYC, I'm back online. Addicted?

To back up, the previous night my visiting blogfriend Terry slept a good ten hours (after I fed him well and read him my favorite kids’ books). We went on an excursion to Carrboro and Chapel Hill. This friend, who a few months ago was seriously winded after walking just the half block from our parking place to the theater - and who subsequently was hospitalized with congestive heart failure - is so rejuvenated that he walked more than two miles with me, enjoying the balmy weather. I took him to Don Jose's Tienda where his eyes widened at astonishment at the delicious roasted beef taco wrapped in absolutely fresh corn tortillas, with onions and salsa verde. Then we walked toward campus, sat and watched the kids go by, ran into Brent Wissick my favorite gamba player, and then walked back and polished off some veggie fajitas at the Armadillo Grill.

We had decided to paint in the afternoon, so as we came home via the scenic route, Terry said "Stop here!" and he climbed up on the railroad tracks and took a scenic picture near abandoned buildings and the landfill. We painted for an hour or two (I'll post our pictures when I get home from this trip) and then sat and admired our work for a while.

Then it was time for dinner. I live right down the street from the famed Allen & Son Barbeque and Terry complained that his ballet friends never eat barbecue so (seeing as how we'd had a good walk earlier) we sat at an oil-cloth-covered table, enjoyed the pig decor, and ate barbecue and coleslaw (Mr. Allen said on NPR once: "If it doesn't have slaw, it ain't barbecue"). Once again his Terry's eyes widened in delight. We won't talk about the chocolate pie.

Terry is certainly easy to please! He's welcome back to the Pratieville spa anytime.

We saw the Carolina Ballet's Shakespeare Suite including Lynne Taylor-Corbett's premiere, Love Speaks, based on Shakespeare's sonnets, and the new ballet Robert Weiss choreographed, Tempest Fantasy, with music by Paul Moravec, Terry's friend who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2004. Absolutely beautiful! What an excellent high-brow end to a down-home day!

Now it's time for a nap before Melina's bevy of Slavic Chorus chums arrive and we all to go hear the The Mystery Girls.