Just Keep Rolling Along

Where have you been?! I'm slowly getting in contact with everyone, but if I haven't talked to you yet, hope everything is okay and you managed to keep your head above water.

I have been gnoshing my way across western North Carolina since Thursday. We drove through most of the night Wednesday with the cats/dog/belongings and got in town around lunchtime. It has been an eventful trip:

I found a very pretty and appropriately elegant/casual/formal/informal location for the wedding that I think will suffice quite nicely.

I began conspiring with a local celebrity of sorts - or rather, took up the gauntlet of said celebrity's conspiracy, already in formative stages.

We saw a show called The Love List by Norm Foster performed at the renowned Flat Rock Playhouse, and it was uproarious entertainment, well-acted and excellently staged - and a show I am now determined to bring to the stage somewhere in central Florida.

We hit Asheville, Black Mountain, Hendersonville, and Saluda, eating at least one dessert in each town. This is a very earthy part of the States - lots of organics, naturals, and vegetarians - but people still dress stylishly, so I feel very cozy here.

I found a spectacular restaurant in downtown Asheville called The Laughing Seed (website under construction), which was an organic/vegan/vegetarian joint that made me very happy. The food was really good without being that obnoxious vegan fare that makes me roll my eyes. Still, nothing compares to Spring Street Natural in SoHo, which remains one of my favourite places on planet Earth.

Oh, and apparently there was a hurricane in Florida while we were gone. Let's pretend I didn't spend a good portion of the weekend glued to The Weather Channel. (Anyone else feel a strange connection with Jim Cantore, The Storm Tracker?) I will not bother unpacking the car, remaining ready to flee Ivan - already a category 4 and 760 miles from Barbados. Yippee.

I am not looking forward to the drive back - I have a feeling the nine-hour trip is going to cost about 20 hours of my life in traffic. And I believe we are one of the many thousands without power, so I have that to look forward to. Whee.

For future reference, while definitely an entertaining moment for all, if I'm calling you, please avoid answering the phone "Oh my gosh, that's so funny - I had to run out of the bathroom to get the phone, and I was JUST thinking about you."

Um....say what now?