Splendora!

What a whirlwind of a trip its already been. After leaving Philly Sophi and I met up with a friend in the cute little downtown of Warrenton, VA to have $1 tacos at the Main Street grill. After our severe pizza throwdown last night we couldnt eat much but grapes and bread for breakfast but then I realized how much of a champ S is when she ate an entire quesadilla and fries when i struggled with chicken tacos. Walked around downtown, found an old kitchen thats now exposed to the outside world with angel and gargoyle statues guarding it, took some pics, said goodbye to M then trucked on to Charlottesville.

We arrived to find that S's car was still in tact, even though a very rough dream had warned the only things to remain may be her tires, axle and Obama sticker. Inside we found most of the House of Dimes was home. Let me take a minute to describe this HOD. From the outside it looks like just another white house attached to a new apartment building...?! But once you step inside (on any other occasion but today due to some recent remodeling) you are pleasantly surprised. Walk into the kitchen which doubles as a hall to the first of 10 housemates room, B, is an extremely creative and fashion forward designer who makes most of his own clothes. Back through the kitchen, turn left to find some amazing paintings and other artwork done by the residents here...they were each given one week and specific colors to create and sort of design and although each cheated just slightly by adding one maybe two colors, the end result is a wonderful wall collage that is the spark to many conversations. Sophi has this wonderful ability of painting flowers so realistic they look like they were dried and glued on, Mikes scene of a Sahara sunset looks like something straight out of Africa, Stephanies face is gorgeous and Brendens windblown silhouette is beautiful. St comes out just as we are looking at these paintings, a fellow architect, she has this cool laid back, feel about her...a few hours from now she will be making buffalo wings for A in a cute little nighty...and really what better homecoming for her beau.... Pass a few more bedrooms and you enter the back entry fully equipped with antique craigslist find bar, mirrored walls, bright lights, old maps of the city and crazy cool drop lighting that leads you upstairs to yet more rooms and more housemates to meet. B and W looked especially handsome as they pregame for the UVA bball game, S room is a sanctuary, a place to calm and relax with more tranquility than most spaces allow. I do especially love the fairy wings in relation to Trex figurines. Another A is in the kitchen evaluating the amount of time and energy to redo the redo. I should note that this reconstruction I am soon to mention was brought on by the owners of the property and not the tenants, as Im sure it would have gone much differently if so. There was an attempt at some pretty severe redecorating during vaca...an attempt that seems pretty badly planned and unfinished. If we lived in cartoon world, Taz would have been the previous houseguest. Both kitchens were changed a bit...downstairs they added a washer/dryer which is so great, but now there is no storage. Upstairs they ripped apart the kitchen to add cabinets and counter space, but was so awkwardly done that there are now only 2 1' counters and 2 high liquor cabinets that dont utilize the space of the wall. S spent some time reorganizing, and did a great job reconfiguring the table, storage and misc. items. I think once some open shelves are put in and possibly the fridge door is switched itll be much more workable. Another fun thing we discovered is that the ceiling caved in on one of the downstairs bathrooms. Each floor has one large and one small bathroom, the large bathroom upstairs had a burst pipe that was unknown and finally showed itself by demolishing the ceiling of the bathroom below, leaving a nice sludge for K to clean up.

After settling in and greeting everyone with lots of hugs and OMG's, S, St and I decided to walk through UVA to downtown for some Splendora and possibly a lil Hookah. It was fairly warm so the walk was lovely but we soon realized a restroom was needed which had us wandering the halls and grounds of locked buildings for about 20 minutes. Once we powdered our noses it was off to the trolley stop, which turned out to be the 7 bus to downtown. SPLENDORA is this cute little gelatto shop with about 25 different flavors for your sampling. you can take a 2 minute tour of out back if you so choose...we opted to just dish it out. Pistachio, Mango and Pumpkin were mine, S got Salted Caramel, Mexican Coffee and Maple, St got pear, pumpkin and another. St peaced out to get groceries for her late night buffalo party...S and I went to the top of a parking garage to take photos and talk about the history of Cville, which is really interesting. Oh and the story of how UVA came to be...so cool, thanks Soph. Checked out the ampitheater where Alanis played, stopped by the hookah bar but there was a big cover, due to live music, and only about an hour left so we stopped by the Jefferson and another music venue before returing to the HOD. Trolley dropped us at the fallic lighthouse and we hoofed it up to the house. Soph organized I read and facebooked for a minute. OH and I have to mention that S is going to live on a boat with Travis in Puerto Rico soon....and we may start a hotel with Richie and Abi, so she is getting rid of most material possessions which means Steph and I were gifted with a ton of S stuff. I am crazy happy and so thankful that S gave me an entire new record collection with...wait for it...Bob Marley, Sage Francis, Modest Mouse, Apathy, Beatles, Joni Mitchell and so much more. SO AMAZING! I had left all my records at home for the trip, but brought my portable record player, so this is so cool. I also received a new pair of cowboy boots and the fairy wings that adorned the wall. Its like Christmas x10.

After a sharing of dreams we had breakfast of oatmeal and nectarines...Ive never had syrup on my oats and have to say its quite yummy. Hung out in the cute little breakfast nook upstairs, which is two walls of windows that overlook the street. Now S is reading 'Families we choose' which talks about the legal rights of gay parents, and im blogging. St got more groceries to make homemade mac and cheese for her outing with A's mom. I wanted to leave at noon, its now past 1 and I need to get myself in gear.

Hopefully pics will be on here soon. Off to stop #3