Social Caffeine

So,

This past weekend was the most social I've been in literally months. And yes, sadly, that counts Memorial Day weekend, when I went to NYC to visit friends Sasha and Laura, and to participate in a NYC Cupcake Tour, though we didn't quite get as far along the route as originally planned (pictures of the Cupcake Tour to be posted soon). It wasn't that that weekend wasn't social, but that Saturday's social interractions were with the largest number of people that I've interracted with in a while. I spent 3 hours on the phone; 1 hour/3 different people, 3 hours talking over a glass of wine with one person (thanks to Lorna for spotting me the glass of wine, and to the girl at Aroma Cafe, for the free muffin!), and then another hour over another glass of wine with a group of people. Anyway, my point is, after all this socializing, I was all jittery-like, and unable to sit, and thus, unable to work...it's hard sitting down to write by yourself when your naturally garrulous disposition has been unleashed after months of confinement. I had trouble sleeping. I watched too much t.v. I started re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in preparation for the release of Movie V in July) for the millionth time. And eventually, I konked out, but seriously, dissertating often lends itself to social starvation, which for me, obviously poses the risk of serious side effects. Yet another reason to jump the academic ship.

Anyway, I'm continuing to have difficulties sitting and working...At the moment, I blame Leslie. We are getting ready to take an all-girl road-trip (ok, so that misrepresents things--it's just the 2 of us driving most of the way, though we'll detour to Philadelphia to pick up our friend Maya) down to the Jersey shore for our friend Hilda's wedding (a subject that dominated 2 of Saturday's phone calls) and according to Leslie, my mission, which I choose to accept, is to research the area, find out all the cool things to do, where the cool places are to eat, gamble, shop, etc. And this is an important function, and I take it very seriously.

I already know that we simply must visit a quaint little eatery known as "The Dixie Picnic," which is apparently family-run/based, and chock fully of familia memorabilia, which is the kind of thing I love. I love when an organization or company has a genuinely charming story to tell and does so in cute little anecdotal gems.

Not to mention, one of their specialty items is something called "upcakes"--that's right, my cupcake fetish simply must rear its lovely head--which are apparently enlarged cupcake tops. The idea is apparently that the whole cake is frosted, so the issue of biting cake without frosting is rendered obsolete. And plus, let's face it, the tops of the cupcakes ARE the best part.

Plus, they've done the same thing for muffins--I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone clever thought cupcakes should be in on the fun too.

Plus, they apparently have key lime frosting as one of their flavor pairings for the yellow cake (they of course have chocolate also), which will make up for the disappointment I felt when I wasn't able to get a key-lime cupcake at Crumbs in NY, after previewing their website, www.crumbsbakeshop.com and getting all psyched up for it. I just hope Dixie Picnic really does include the key-lime among its regular selection, as advertised on their website, www.dixiepicnic.com, and that I don't suffer similarly dashed hopes...

Here, check out the upcakes. This is a picture taken from the Dixie Picnic website, if you don't actually hit the link to check it out. Although, come to think of it, don't these look more like the BOTTOM halves of cupcakes, rather than the tops? What if that's what they did? What if, in an act of malice, they CUT OFF the tops of the cupcakes, and are using the bottoms to pose as enlarged tops? The thought is simply chilling. For the time being, though, I will keep faith in Dixie Picnic, and not succumb to the plague of doubt.

My point, however, is that with all this wishing, hoping, planning, I have little time to focus on my chapter revision. It's a case of self-delusion, of course. I KNOW I can work on my chapter; it's just that planning a trip to the Jersey shore is so much more agreeable, not to mention, so much easier.

Finally, did anyone else stand up and cheer and whoop with sadistic glee at the news that Paris Hilton, the subject of my last post, was returned to prison? I did. And I think Lorna, Saturday's compatriot wine-sipper and chatter, probably did as well. In fact, we both waxed nostalgic over Sarah Silverman's Paris Hilton pre-prison shout-out at the recent MTV movie awards, which was delightful. I don't tend to watch anything on MTV for more than about 5 minutes before confirming that, well, there's nothing really there, but it turns out the fates had me watch the 5 minutes in which Ms. Hilton was an"it" girl in a way she actually HAS earned.