It had to end



Tom with his bowling buddy.

It's damn cold.  Maybe not as cold as a couple of weeks ago, but still damn cold.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

I went out for sushi tonight with my friend Tom.  We were going to go to a movie, but the times didn't line up, so we did what you do in Macon, GA when it's cold and dark outside: we went bowling.  I'm not a terrific bowler, by any means.  I was on a team for a couple of years in middle school, but I've only done it a handful of times since then.  My swirly blue bowling ball (with my name etched on it!) is now propped on an old bird bath stand in my parents' backyard--my dad calls it a Polish gazing ball.  In the summer he sticks corn cobs in the finger holes for the squirrels.

I like bowling--the game itself is okay, but the atmosphere in a bowling alley is fun.  I mean, it's noisy and everything, but there's something about bowling...every time I go, we bond with the people in the lanes near ours.  Everyone cheers for the little kid whose ball caroms off the bumpers fifty times before nudging the pins over.  Everyone laughs at the guy who drops his ball on the floor before he even gets to the foul line.  Everyone politely pretends it's normal to have a filthy, pink-suited stuffed mousie in your ball bag that you use to wipe the ball between frames.



Sashimi regular and Jurassic Fire roll from Taki on Zebulon.
Photo by Tom.

Tom is one of my No Dairy January minions, so sushi was a perfect idea.  We split an order of sashimi and got a roll from the special board above the sushi bar--I examined all the rolls carefully to be sure we ordered one with no cream cheese.  Sadly, either the board or the chef screwed up, because our roll had cream cheese on it.  I immediately called it "some kind of weird white fish" and we ate it.  Yes, we ate it.  Twenty-one dairy free days, and I lost it at a sushi restaurant?  Hmph.

After the bowling alley, I made Tom go to Krispy Kreme because the "Hot Doughnuts" beacon was on and Tom admitted he had never had one right off the conveyor.  We got coffee and hot glazed, and discussed whether or not the doughnuts had dairy.  I just checked krispykreme.com and, sure enough, they contain just about a whole cow: "milk, butter, yogurt, whey, nonfat milk and nonfat whey."  I'm not sorry.  I haven't had a Krispy Kreme in at least five years, and it will probably be another five before I eat one again.