Man, today has been productive. At least I feel that way. Incredibly productive considering I spent at least 80% of it sitting on the brown leather couch on the back wall of the Morning Times.

I spent a portion of my day having a cup of coffee (on said brown couch) with Tyler from TriangleBlvd, as well as Jason & Chuck from RtownLiving. We discussed a variety of fun things, including the irony of just now meeting people with whom one shares 900 friends in common with, as well as food and maps and tweeting and tattoos. I have a feeling there may be video cameras involved in our trip now. More on that as it develops.

I left said brown couch for a total of 15 minutes this afternoon to stop by Phoenix Tattoo for a consultation. I expect an angry voicemail from my mother approximately 3 seconds after she reads this. Fortunately for her, the visit was in vain, as the nearest available time slot for the piece I want (a 15-20 hour project) is in August. By that time I’ll be long gone. Fail.

I returned to said brown couch to gripe for a bit to Jason from RtownLiving, the only human remains from my earlier rendezvous.

I then took a 10-second walk to the Raleigh Times to meet up for grub with Jaclyn, Hollis, and Melissa aka “hotpocket.” Fun trick I learned tonight: You can order the shrimp burger buffalo-style. Buffalo shrimp nugget ecstasy ensued. My mouth was burning for more than half an hour post-ingestion. Also – Try the Big Boss seasonal if you get the chance. It’s sour and delicious. In my fit of mealtime excitement, I somehow managed to squash a stray buffalo shrimp between the bottom of my pint glass and the coaster-napkin encasing it, only noticing it whenever I stared into the bottom of my pint as I was drinking. Flattened shrimp residue was pretty gross to look at as I was drinking, so I couldn’t finish. It had nothing to do with the glorious beer itself though.

Anyway, enough about that.

There was a lot of hooplah today surrounding my upcoming First Friday show!

There has been a good response so far to our Facebook event, considering I just made it today.

Ok Great, a fantastic art & design blog based out of Durham, NC, was kind enough to write an article on our show. Read about it here.

The Busy Bee itself also wrote a nice little blurb about us on their website.

If you missed the memo, Tim, Logan and I (my travelmates for my upcoming phototour across the country) are presenting a collective exhibit for First Friday at the Busy Bee Cafe in downtown Raleigh. The photos will be on display & for sale for the entire month of June, but the opening reception is appropriately on First Friday (this friday) at 6 p.m. Seriously, come say hello. Ask us questions. Let us sign your body. Take a jumping photo with us. Buy me a “sting” (my favorite cocktail on the planet, only available at Busy Bee) if you please. Donate to the phototour survival bucket, or donate the bucket itself, since we haven’t actually bought one yet.

Logan and Tim and I had a good tour planning meeting today. We finally picked out our photos for the First Friday show. We have also been brainstorming millions of great ideas as to how we plan on funding this trip, where we will go, who we will photograph, etc. We also have been brainstorming the name for our collective website where we will be assembling and posting the bulk of our project. I think we came up with a winner, but I can’t share it with you as you might get jealous and purchase the domain name before me. It’s mighty good though. Also productive: Tim realized tonight that he has had his name spelled incorrectly on Twitter for the entire time he’s had it. I always noticed the inconsistency, but didn’t feel the need to bring it up until tonight. It’s fixed now. So now you can follow him HERE and view his correctly spelled name in all its glory.

Ok, that’s enough rambling for now. I’m going to Busch Gardens tomorrow. I had to do the east-coast white-trash amusement park excursion one last time before I head westward.

ALSO:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHY JURICH!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALSO – If you’re playing catch-up:
My post explaining my cross-country tour plans.
My post further explaining my cross-country tour plans as well as the First Friday show.

Be ready for more updates soon!! Hope to see you all on Friday!

hp