the soupmenu

i get too attached to clothes

after a while it’s really quite easy to build up a ‘golden boy‘ complex. your favorite shirts can provide good service to you for years. they can make you look good, feel good, and act confident. you can never predict which shirts will be these golden boys. it just has something to do with how the shirt feels…how the shirt fits on you….and how you look in the shirt….through all of these things…these shirts are perfect, unique, and irreplaceable.

there’s always that line though. the line of which a shirt can not be a favorite anymore. that line where the shirt has picked up too many stains to be ‘unnoticeable’….that line where the style is just…..too old………that line where so many people have seen you in the shirt that they wonder ‘does he not have any other clothes at all’

once you hit that point….it’s sad.

due to recent accidental bleaching, fish guts, and years of fading….i have to discard three of my favorite shirts. I wish there was some sort of ceremony that I could give them to show them how much i have appreciated their service.

if there was a service…this would be my speech.

for the squirts of ketchup
for the gallons of beer
for the millions of tosses into the corner
for the impromptu basketball sweat
for the cigarette fumigation
you will always be my shirt

tonight i will put these shirts to rest. tomorrow i will look for new clothes….but they can never replace my favorites.

i’m off again.

this time i’m heading up to southern indiana for a friend’s wedding.  it’s that time in my life where my friends are dropping like flies for holy matrimony.  I am happy for them all….the frequency of it all just freaks me out.  Between now and next march i have 5 weddings to go to. (that i know of so far)  i guess i will be quite used to it soon.

mike and i are actually road tripping up to indiana….i’m quite excited.  i was afraid that i wasn’t going to be able to get someone to come with and I was going to have to go solo.  mike pulled through in the clutch.  he is one of the few good friends that i haven’t road tripped with so this will be a great experience.

as always i will try my hardest to take tons of pictures and bring back many stories.

an interesting thing about florida is their infatuation with alligators. since i’ve moved down here, i’ve enjoyed being caught up in the fanfare. it’s odd to me for a state to be in love with such a basic, harsh creature…..but down here everyone loves anything to do with gators.

while up in the gator capital of the world (gville), me and some friends went out for sushi. There is not a restaurant in gainesville that does not have something to do with gators inside of it. Most places simply put up football posters…a lot serve the beast. Believe it or not, the sushi place had 6 rolls named gator ____ roll. Only one of these rolls actually contained gator…..i found my target.
i’ve tried again and again to enjoy is eating the beloved state mascot. I’ve tried gator tail again and again. Every time I have it, i’m reminded that i’m not a true floridian. The meat is semi-chewy (similar to turtle). It has a game-y taste to it complete with the smell of river fish (not good). The biggest kicker for me is how it’s somehow always greasy. It’s like gator meat is filled with pure cooking oil. when you bite into it you have be careful you don’t squirt someone in the eye. The gatortail sushi roll was no different.

but now i am able to say that i have been in the middle of a swamp eating fried gator tail sushi.