Merryland weekend recap

With all of the CBC happenings going on, I wanted to take some time to enjoy my new-found free Saturdays.

I've been obsessing over peacocks and the sidekick (Jaz) was totally down for going peacocking with me. So I had two options: a peafowl farm-out in the woods of southern Maryland or this other "farm" not too far from my house which wasn't exclusively peacock filled, but would also have other animals. I read the reviews of this farm and it talked about the lunch time feeding of the animals and other volunteer opps. Turns out that Jaz loves animals (like actual animals other than dogs and peacocks) so she voted for the actual "farm".

So Saturday comes around and we are all ready for the farm. We get to the park and can't find parking near the farm because everyone is having play dates at the playground. So we park on the other side of the park (the farm is a part of a county park) and trek past the little league football games to the "farm". We pass all of the mommy and me and daddy and me duos on the sidewalk and alas...we are here. We look at each other as we try to figure out where to start and head to the "cat scratch" or whatever the name of the gift shop was. We get there and it's empty, but I do notice the very pretty peacock feathers in the corner. After belting "hello" a homely looking woman-aptly dressed in overalls and farm boots with a long pony tail arrives. We ask her about feeding time for the animals because we had planned to participate. After shooting us a quick o_O the lady informed us that they hadn't done that in about 10 years! Annnnd cue the crickets and the cameras pan to our faces which are wearing quite the confused look. She informed us that the animals are on strict diets and feeding schedules and that allowing guests to feed them would just not work. So then we ask her where we start...she says to just go around the circle and see the animals. We take off, a wee bit disappointed, but first stop: the rabbits. Ok so the one rabbit not in a cage was really fat. Jaz was obsessed with his hop, but he looked overweight and uncomfortable to me. Across the way there's a mom and two boys looking at the caged rabbits and all we hear is yelling "stop this, stop that". Now I'm not sure exactly what was goin on over there, but these kids were about to get it. They did have a cute moment though when one told the other that the tail was made of cotton. We moved on from the rabbits to the chickens. Now this is the point at which you can buy little seeds to "throw" into the cages for the birds to eat. I hear the mother yelling about "not spending another 25 cent on the food if the machine don't work" followed by the sound of hitting the dispensing machine. Why can't our people do better? Anyway, some of the chickens were balding and that strange so we didn't spend too much time there. FINALLY WE REACH THE PEACOCKS (in their cage) . They were very pretty and we basically just gawked at them for a while. We moved on to the turkeys (one of which had growths on its foot leading me to believe that this "farm" was more of a rescue shelter), then to the ducks and roosters (which cock-a-doodle-dooed for a while) through the lazy llama and sheep finally to the big arsed cow and the ponies. FYI: Ponies are not baby horses. since I am sure that I am not the only one that went through childhood thinking that . I wanted a peacock feather but had left my cash in the car so we trekked back to the car for dollars...and back to the farm and then basically stood in the sun while some kid's entire birthday entourage took turns riding the ponies. I'm happy they had fun but I couldn't understand why someone couldn't break away and let me into the gift shop. hmph.

Got my feather. All was well. Next stop: Carolina Kitchen for some lunch and football. We went to the one in Largo. One word: Fail. That is more like a "to go" buffet than a restaurant and I wasn't feeling that so we drove across town to the one that I knew had a bar and actual restaurant with servers. We made it just in time for the Duke game and left mid-first quarter (those of you that watched know exactly why).

I met Miss Mistress at the Beacon for some rooftop mingling. We met Mr. Smile there but in true DC fashion- the rooftop was full of familiar faces (including two of my linesisters-digression: IM is everywhere and we might make up 90% of the gucci fan club). All was well until I stood at the very crowded bar for about 10 minutes waiting on my margarita and this guy moves in front of me. I didn't really care-I'm patient but then Miss Mistress and her friend point out the fact that this brotha is wearing (un-evenly) cuffed jeans and dress shoes. Basically is ensemble was tres confused. I looked at ole boy's face and he was actually someone that I'd met on spring break years ago...a que from south carolina. #Fail. We enjoyed the conversation, drinks, waka & and gucci, and got out of there and headed to dinner with 06.

We at at Bus Boys and Poets and since I'm not a fan of the place, I decided to at least make the meal interesting. There was a group of questionably fancy young men sitting next to us and when they got up to leave, one took a liking to 06. So I invited him to sit. He introduced himself. Then he started going on and on about people that we both or all knew, what he did for a living...the usual DC pitch. He sat through our dinner and clearly annoyed MM and 06 but I found it all a bit funny. Here's this guy who's trying his hardest to appear "less fancy" but failing at it and he's so wrapped up into who he knows that he can't even see that no one at the table is interested....

We ended the night at Teatro's which was an interesting experience. Mr. Smile and his frat brother (who was a little extra for the night but was at least enjoying himself) also came through. The atmosphere was cool until the 15 minute music pause. I don't know what happened, but it suddenly went from Saturday night kickin' it to Wednesday evening networking. My most poignant observation of the night: a couple duke alumna who have seemingly lost weight over the last couple years but have that whole "big head" thing going on now. Yes ladies, there is a such thing as being too skinty. Some sizes work well on people and on others it just looks....strange. Someone let their neos loose for the night, and these young nupes started strolling in the middle of the floor. Not like a line of them. Just two eager beavers...and with that it was time to roll...