Putting in Work at The City Market

This past Thursday, I volunteered for the final City Market of the year.  The city market was started back in the spring and runs through the summer into early fall.  It's usually held from 5-9:00PM in the downtown railyard (now converted into a paid parking lot).  There are a lot of vendors and local businesses that sign up to advertise and sell their brand.  Another part of the market of course... is FOOD.  There are catering companies and restaurants that come out and provide tapas side samplers and drinks. The currency for the food market is tickets and they cost $3 a pop. 

Eku Ojobi! A Very Nigerian Birthday

I was invited to the birthday party of the mother of a former coworker.  Here's the kicker, it's a Nigerian party. I hear so much about international parties and weddings and now I finally get to experience another one.  I attended a Somali reception back in December and enjoyed it so I knew I was definitely going to take full advantage. 

Foodie Files: Ethnosh 2.0

D and I planned to go to the Ethnosh event on the first.  This was a nice date to celebrate eleven months in our relationship.  Ethnosh is a great way of discovering local ethnic food in the greater Greensboro area. The event runs from 6-8PM and costs $5 to get in. The first was was at a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Hien Vuong.  It was pretty successful and the food was awesome.  This time we took our tastebuds to DaSaRang, a local Korean restaurant that sat in the FantaCity shopping center.

The Fall Classic

So this time last week I was experiencing my first major fighting game video game tournament.  It was headlined as the EVO of the east coast!  I totally enjoyed myself. Warning: this post is image heavy... I guess.

Late Pass: First Friday Ventures

I know I am super late but so much has happened in the past two week. I can finally get around to posting about First Friday.

Our first stop was the Art Mongerz gallery:

I freaked out over these minitures! I love miniture models.

Lovely downtown.  Our treck back was great.

I don't know what this instrument is but the music he played was so nice.

We found out there was a mini food truck festival the next block over at the Carolina Theater.  It was nice and quiant with long lines.

We then ventured into Oscar Oglethorpe's eyewear shop:

The store's employees had a ball picking out frames for us to try on.  Free beer and cool frames. Loved it.  Afterward we went up to Center City Park and checked out the music then visited the Center for Visual Artists and checkout out two gallery openings.  The first one was ANIMATED!

Interactive art.

Showcasing characters from various anime.

Ran across Belle and her prince.

Every medium is was awesome. I loved the printed work the most.

We decided to mosey on over to the Design Competition opening across the hall.

Had a pretty decent crowd.

This photo does not do the colors in this any justice.

Mylar. I LOVE mylar.

This was a furniture design event. I'm all for artistry and creativity but I believe in functional furniture.  The music was hype, I had to ask the DJ for a couple of tracks that he had spinning.  The night was awesome and we saw so much art.  Great way to start my weekend.

Stay True and Keep it Awesome!

Source: http://liquidinplastic.com

Sooooooo it's officially my birthday weekend!  I'm currently at work since I'm making up some hours.  My ailments and a bunch of business put a big delay on my 25 by 26 list so I will accomplish these goals by the summer's end.  It didn't put a damper on my mood or anything, I just keep striving forward.  I have been discovering so much lately and this excites me and opens up more opportunities for me this summer.  I am going to work on vlogging and such.  I am expanding and finding more and more people that share similar interests with me.  **A little secret:  I have always embraced my nerdy/geeky side (what-have-you) but I have always kind of kept it low-key around certain folks due to them just thinking that I am just straight up weird. That all changes from this point on.  I will be posting more about those interests up here since this IS MY personal blog anyway because I find myself having so much to say about the shows I love and my current activities and going-on's but can never get any ideas posted when I want to speak on other topics.  So I guess in a way that this is a sign that I am trying to hard and not being fully true to myself and my blog.  All of my current drafts seem so gimmicky and just- UGH!  Sooooo I will be posting more about the things that I love.  So be prepared to be bombarded with superheroes, movies, shows, activities, and ideas.

Highlights of my week

• I found a ton of blogs geared toward lady geeks and girl nerds of color.
• I befriended two female competitive fighting gamers of color through twitter.  They are so nice, inspirational and quite awesome.  They also play games that I dabble in!
• All of my plans for the summer for [bfp] is slowly but surely getting locked in and recruitment is looking very promising.
• Cashing in all of these free birthday coupons and such. This will carry throughout the weekend.
• Quality time with the boyfriend.  He is really embracing my vlogging.
• I rediscovered Dr. Who and am now officially a Dr. Whooligan! (I like to think I coined the phrase since I believe the official title is "Whovian" but I like Hooligan better.)
• Caught up on Game of Thrones, YEEEEEAAAAAH! I want dragons now.

I'm sorry ready to leave this library and take my client home, get some red robin and red velvet cupcakes, and go to the trampoline park in Winston-Salem with the boo.  So much fun planned.  You all have a great weekend. My personal new year starts tomorrow.

Foodie Files: An Evening at Dame's

Dame's Chicken & Waffles! Finally!

We sat down and placed our food and drink orders.  After giving the menus back, I told Donnie I usually take a photo of the menu so he snatched one off the neighboring table and posed.

This was such an impromptu trip. We had a lazy day at home and we were being bums (hence the sweats).  Roaming about town in between tornado warnings, running errands, and wandering in a living food store; our stomachs were on the fritz so finding some eats was the answer.  A couple of the usual places were brought up but all I had on the brain was Dame's Chicken and Waffles.  So we decided to make a stop.

He was excited to be finally getting some food.  

Our sides came out first. I have to snag a pic of boo's first.  He ordered the the Quilted Buttercup with mac  n cheese on the side.  It's an herb mac n cheese.  Very different taste but it was delicious. The texture and amount of cheese was an even balance. Quite decadent.

I ordered the Buff Brahmas with the wings instead of the cutlets and got the Whiskey Creme Sauce on the side.  The waffle was decent, to be honest, I've had better. In combination with the smear, sauce, and chicken, it was quite awesome.   The chicken was fried to golden perfection and had so much flavor packed  in it.  I don't indulge in fried chicken often but when I do, I don't like to be disappointed and this certainly did not disappoint.  I also ordered the spicy greens for my side and I cannot get them out of my mind! I am still aiming to master cooking greens so I can put my own spin on them.

All in all the dinner was awesome. A bit pricey but the food was definitely worth it.  I want to visit the original location in Durham to see if there is a difference in quality or taste.

Food: 4/5

Price: 3.5/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Dame's Chicken & Waffles [Greensboro]

301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

Greensboro, NC 27406

Saturday Love: Art Culture Edition

This is the first Saturday that I have had absolutely nothing planned. I had a potential event [The FabEllis Two] to go to but the tickets had not become available. So I am spending my Saturday watching The Walking Dead, doing some leisure blogging, and thinking about last night.

My boyfriend Donnie, our friend Ronnie, and myself. Courtesy of Robert Bratcher [@creativebobbie6]

Last night after our BFP meeting, me and some of my closest friends went out to Greensboro's First Friday Event. We toured through several craft shops and art galleries, chowed on light hors d'oeuvres, and mingled with several artists apart of several co-ops.  It was a great networking experience. I had to leave early but it as still a good night.

As I sit and plan out my calendar from here until May, I try to add in some days to take time for more art appreciation and taste expansion.  I want to eat, drink, and live art. I don't want to wait once a month to have this, so I am looking for more opportunities in the immediate area, whether it be the Piedmont or Triangle.  I'm taking full advantage this year.  I had a great time traveling and such last year, now's the time to top that.

Saturday Love is going to be a new biweekly series of posts focusing on different types of love for myself.

With that being said, I leave you with a music selection fit for today. I love the Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal original but this remake done by Toro Y Moi definitely sets the mood in a mellow type of way.