SAYING GOODBYE

My eyes are wet with tears as I'm writing this. even when i got up at 4am to pee, i was awash in grief before thoughts could enter my mind. I'm permeated with sorrow.

Today i took a final (this is how it feels to me: final, the end, finish, no more) marathon walk around all my old walking route haunts; checking out the gardens and seeing what's new on people's porches and checking out the parks i walk through. When i was here in April and May, the main flowering trees in the park were magnolias and now they are crepe myrtle.

All over Charlotte, even vacant lots; tall trees or short bushes filled to bursting with white, purple, orchid, pink, red flowers.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening with Alicia and Keith. Ate pizza and watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland. (this movie was scarier than i remembered it and very well done and  the music was an excellent addition to the tension of the pods)  getting to spend time with Keith and meeting him and talking to him was great. He is a super guy and just perfect for Alicia. They complement each other very well.

Today we are spending the day with Alicia before she goes to work and tomorrow morning we leave Charlotte heading to visit Bill's siblings and dad in the midwest. (is michigan in the midwest?) I don't know when we'll see alicia again. I can hardly swallow with the heaviness of not seeing her. We spent an entire season with her and daily too except for when we were in Asheville and  that was every weekend.  I am suffused with Alicia-ness and don't want this to end.

but it is ending. and my "escape route" from these overwhelming painful emotions is to plan; so already i'm thinking of when we might be able to visit North Carolina again; also thinking of seeing old friends in Portland. But the future fantasy tripping ain't workin' and i'm devastated.

This visit which was the main goal of the road trip has exceeded my expectations and imagination by 1000-fold.

Onward. It is, what it is. (damn it.)

SOME FINAL MOMENTS IN ASHEVILLE

 A view of Beaver Lake - my morning walk route and our evening stroll route. This picture was taken from the Bird Sanctuary.

 This is the metal bird that is at the front of the Sanctuary and is on top of the bike rack.

 Alicia in her new outfit that we got at an arts and crafts fair. We had so much fun. Bill for the most part took refuge on a bench in the shade and i would periodically visit him when i needed cash replenishment. It was the perfect weather day  for an afternoon of commerce.

On our front porch (we ate all our meals here) having a final spaghetti and 'kitchen sink' salad dinner.                                                       We have eaten twice at a wonderful restaurant called HomeGrown. Their motto is "slow food right quick". Their menu changes daily since they cook dependent on what's available from the local markets and farms. They have outdoor seating and also lots of tables inside. It is a converted house so there are several different and separate eating areas with different feelings.

Last night Bill ordered escarole in a bitter tomato vinaigrette. I had fried chicken one time and yesterday had a farmer's salad with fresh peaches and sunflower seeds and a wonderful creamy tomatillo and bacon salad dressing.

And our last hike here was in Dupont State Forest. It is crisscrossed with trails and some are forest walks and others go to viewpoints and the ones we took visited lakes and waterfalls. The forest is in the town of Brevard which is the waterfall center of North Carolina. I did better on this hike in spite of the humidity which had my fingers dripping! I think because i slowed my pace.

And we had the best most perfect lunch spot; all alone, deep in the forest by Lake Julia. On a clean non-buggy deck overlooking the lake. AHHHHHHHHHHH

CHEF

A great high energy, lively movie. We both rated it an 8 and the audience clapped with delight (as did we) when the credits rolled.

The plot was very simple; a chef at a high end restaurant in L.A. (Jon Favreau as Carl) was culinarily stifled by the owner of the restaurant (Dustin Hoffman). So after an argument in the kitchen and after a scathing review by a food critic (Oliver Platt), Carl quit the restaurant.

His ex-wife asked a favor of one of her other ex-husbands (played deliriously manic by Robert Downey, Jr.) to help Carl out. So he outfitted him with a food truck. This started Carl back on the road of cooking and serving food that he liked; in this case Cuban and South American food. He was joined by his young son and one of his cooking crew in L.A., John Leguizamo (Martin).

And that was it. Any criticism of the movie would be based around the absolute feel-goodness of it, the lack of reality in many scenes, the ex-wife who was beautiful and wealthy and had some sort of mystery important job, the perfect son. sort of like comfort food: filling but not very nutritious.  But the acting was excellent and all the characters were likable especially Martin (Leguizamo). He brought a lot of spiciness and verve to the scenes.

and speaking of spicy: that was the main attraction to the film. It was colorful and had lots of music; salsa, blues, soul; there was singing, the dialogue was snappy, it was the perfect length and the food!!!!! oh, the food!!!!! the buying of it, the preparation, the serving, the plating, the tasting, the cutting.

It was mouthwatering; there were a lot of times when me and the audience just groaned with hunger. One of the times was when Martin marinated a pork butt and roasted it for Cubano sandwiches. I felt like i wanted to snatch a slice of that meat right off the screen.

Even the sappy and especially fantastical ending, didn't detract from my love of this movie. I left the theater with my stomach rumbling and my toes tapping and my face in a huge grin.