Go Shawty, it's yo birthday...

Saturday and Sunday, July 17th and 18th, 2010

My husband is definitely not the romantic type, but he is incredibly thoughtul and puts lots of purpose behind his plans for birthdays, holidays, etc. We knew we couldn't afford to go all out in celebrating my 26th (fine by me as I am still unable to drink dirty martinis over a year after the last time people celebrated me) but he managed to plan a fun evening in Chapel Hill

Rain put a damper on our "window shopping" on Franklin Street, but we did mange to pop in a few stores and replace my sunglasses which ended up on the bottom of Jordan Lake last weekend (Guess who thought it would be funny to push me off the boat?)

We then drove a mile down the road to Carrboro for a surprise dinner at Southern Rail Restaurant and Bar. It is literally comprised of the old train station and some restored train cars and is by far the most unique place I can remember eating. All the pictures, doorways, signs, and even hardware has the look of the olden days. We had a view of the actual traintracks on one side and the open courtyard between train cars on the other. The food was mediocre, but the Bloody Mary topped with pickled okra (how's that for southern living) made up for it. We grabbed another drink in the former train station where a bunch of old dudes rocked out, and we were by far the youngest spectators around. I give Southern Rail a B+

After dinner, we met up with some buddies at Milltown and finally headed to Cat's Cradle to see one of our favorite bands, The Love Language perform. The LL performed a great show, but the most memorable part of the evening was the opening band. Their band name? S#!tHorse. Yes, you read that correctly, except without the censoring. It was more like a circus act watching these guys between the seemingly homeless lead singer and the scantily clad woman wearing a horsehead mask on stage. I've been working hard to erase that image from my memory.

Today, I am looking forward to some pool time, but the reality is that the majority of my day will be spent rotating laundry, grading papers, cooking, and cleaning. Guess the birthday fun is over for this year. Cheers to 26!