Wednesday, March 25, 2009

cross country journey

i just realized it's been 14 days since i last blogged. well, no fear to all my loyal followers...back by popular demand the pasta man is back on the circuit with a vengeance and will leave you with a trail of mishaps, fun, humor and sorrow. last i wrote we were in athens ohio and as im writing this we are now in baltimore, md. so let me take you back a little bit and account for my absence. sit back and enjoy the ride.

after ohio our destination was rhode island (home to the pasta man). stayed at my aunts who lives in narragansett about 2 minutes from the beach. we saw my aunt, grandmother, and my cousin linda the next day. called my aunt and she said she was on her way to grandma's house so we met her there. my grandmother lives in a retirement place for the eldery. navigated to north providence smoothly to her place. parking was a bit of a hassle because it said mostly reserved for residents and didnt see any visitor parking. ended up parking in a residents only, we figured at worse case scenario a confrontation with a 75 year old loud mouth with a walker and dentures was a winning battle for us, so no worries there. bring it on! so all seems well as we enter the building, gain access to the elevator and walk down the narrow corridor like a death row inmate to grannies place, with my aunt in the doorway with a smile ready to greet us with some yogurt. as we entered the apartment there was this insufferable, unbearable smell like no other. foul and unpleasant. there was almost some spontaneous regurgitation. it was like a mixture of body odor, mustiness and no fresh air for 45 years. but the sad thing was once we were in there for 5 minutes it disappeared. i only hope that fresh aroma didnt blend into my natural guinea oil. if you bottled and air sealed a pig's uterus for 30 years then opened it, im guessing it would have a similar aroma. ok go hurl ,next....

we stayed there for a bit, then cousin linda came over and took us to a coffee shop to get some chai. it was a really cool, hip place. after the usual talking and her cell going off every 2 minutes from a text we headed out.

went out with my friend john and we hung out on thayer st and went to the shops a bit before they closed, actually the worker kicked us out, said you need to get out we are closing (excellent display of ri's hospitality) then we ate at a little pizza joint called via via...excellent and delicious! then went to a local college bar and put back some cold ones and talked shop.

also saw my cousin courtney who lives down by the beach. she came to see us at my aunts (her mom's) with her 4 year old, aka.. dylan the wildman. OK... this kid as cute as hell with big blue eyes and has no rules or discipline. he runs around the house like an inmate running the asylum listening to not a soul, but his evil friend damien on his shoulder. he likes to throw his toys up at the ceiling and see them come spiraling down like a skydiver from 20 thousand feet not landing on ground but on human skulls. it kept hitting my aunt in the head and they told him not to do it, but in a sweet voice like you tell your lover thanks for making me cookies! yeah that doesnt work. so no discipline.

went to lizzie bordens b&b and also saw the live performance of lizzie borden, a one woman show. both were excellent. took sunshine to my old stomping grounds, went to the beach and went outside to walk a bit, but the frigid ocean air was freezing our face. so we just walked a bit on the rocks and took some cool pictures.

my cousin shannon who lives in nyc invited us to stay with her, so we took the bus from providence to the port authority, a 3 hour tour with the weather getting rough and then navigated the city and strolled to her apartment. it was a really amazing place, spacious for nyc standards with a 2 bedroom eat in kitchen, living room and 2 full bathrooms. she took us to a mexican joint and a little italian eatery where we shared some amazing pizza. my cousin walks to and from work, to the gym and everywhere else. it was st patty's day when we arrived and during one of our walks with the many irish pubs approaching in the distance an inebriated kid emptied his stomach after i imagine an all day drink fest spewing out vanilla color liquid and chunks from his mouth right in front of his. luckily our incredibly quick reflexes and superhuman broad jump we avoided that christened sidewalk like the ebola virus! ny was awesome!
i think phoenix will be similar to that in the walk friendly aspect.

took sunshine to marchetti's for some calamari a la mama which was good. then had some pasta dishes. they werent bad, but there was enough to feed a poverty stricken family for 6 months. probably like a pound a pasta each and some eggplant, so needless to say we didnt finish it.

then back to ri and we were suppose to go out with my cousin and her friends, but they bailed. back in the day i threw my cousin in the trunk and hit her friend over the head with a prop lead pipe. maybe they were scared! the night before we left ri we went out to my cousins place to visit because dylan wanted to see us and show us his room. its a nice little beach house type place. had some clutter and one room looked like an eight year old on crack had its way with it on a pogo stick and pitchfork, totally messy and barely able to open the door.

so next morning we left bright and early and shocked my aunt and uncle because they thought we would probably leave at noon which was about the time we left the house each day. my aunt cried as we departed saying she will miss us and misses the family in texas. she totally stocked us up with snacks and bottled water.

so the above is a little taste of our journey so far.

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