It’s cold here. I have realized how ridiculously spoiled I have become living in SF. I can function completely without a car, I don’t wear pants half of the time because it’s between 50-80 degrees all year, and coffee is as thick as espresso. Oh, and the surplus of cornerstores with awesome juice selections. And the lack of jesus billboards and general perceptions of “weird.”

I can work via le internets, so I can still maintain my projects from wherever, which is really nice. It will be nice to get back to the new SF homeland though, as while most of my projects are online, they’re very locally-intensive, and you can’t do much local bay-area work from the east coast. Well, you can, but it just doesn’t feel right. I’m ready to see real faces instead of email addresses and twitter names.

There are plenty of real Raleigh faces to bide my time, though.

I’ve just been doing what I usually do in Raleigh. Work on projects in Helio’s or Morning Times all day, then when I become restless, begin wandering around downtown, seeing and catching up with familiar faces on every corner, grabbing Lebanese food at Sitti, BBQ + Aventinus at Raleigh Times, local bands + Big Boss at Tir Na Nog, ginger ale at Foundation, greyhounds at Landmark, the sting at Busy Bee… inevitably getting into adventures that last me through the rest of the night. Wake up on friend’s couch, get up and do it all over again.

Note: I bought my entire family Luchador wrestling masks for Christmas. They happened to make their way around Raleigh before I wrapped them.

I arrived at approximately 9:49 AM Thursday morning. I had expected ample sleeping time on my red-eye flight, but the fact that I was situated in the middle seat prevented that. And with the token obese-man-with-gas-problem to my left, I was at the optimum level of contentment, I assure you.

Raleigh couldn’t come soon enough. My compadre Sam was kind enough to tote me downtown, and I had things to do.

Day 1: Day of Raleigh clichés.

Objective: Basically do everything I would normally do in my typical Raleigh day prior to moving.

Tasks:
- Do work at Morning Times. Probably buy an iced soy chai latte with a shot of espresso. Maybe a apple brie sandwich as well.
- Go to Sitti (bar where I worked when I lived in Raleigh). Receive back massage from Ken the bartender. Order to-go food (likely a goat cheese and orange salad, chicken kabob, hummus, maybe okra stew, bread and bread and bread) minutes before dinner hours to have access to lunch prices.
- Take to-go food to Blue Martini (other bar where I worked when I lived in Raleigh). Set up elaborate Lebanese food buffet across the bar to be enjoyed exclusively by me and Tara, my homedog/general manager. A Wednesday tradition.
- Have a Dagmar (the martini named after me) at Blue Martini while food settles.
- Go to Raleigh Times for dinner. Likely a BBQ sandwich. Greyhound may also be involved.
- Go to Foundation to check out seasonal drink menu. Pick one. Enjoy.
- Go to Busy Bee. Mandatory order of The Sting and tater tots.
- Go to Landmark for bloody mary or Kriekbeer.

And that I did.

I’m surprised I didn’t take more photos. It may have had something to do with the 80 people I ran into on every corner. I kid you not – I probably caught up with more than 150 people in the first day, just strolling around the neighborhood. Good to be back, Raleigh.