The Bacon-Chocolate Effect

Time and Italian dressing are two very similar things. Both flow, both separate into different parts on their own, and both have a certain tanginess which makes them distinctive. I believe I enjoy the passage of Italian dressing more than time, but that's beside the point.

Have you ever visited a strange place, only to visit it again once it was a not-so-strange place and realize that you'd been there before? I like it when that happens. For example, growing up I rarely came to Raleigh. My family homestead is something like 45 minutes away, but it was one of those things you only did when a distant relative died and you had to get a new suit coat or if someone needed to do their Christmas shopping at the mall. I usually was just excited at the prospect of going to Steak Escape and Barnes and Nobel, (two things I still get excited about, believe it or not).

I loved books growing up and my favorite author throughout middle school was a fellow by the name of Brian Jacques. He wrote a series of novels, most of them about medieval-era talking members of the rodent family, that I just adored. Visiting his fan page back in 2001 or 2002 revealed that he would be having a book signing at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. I went and had a grand old time getting two of my books signed. Fast-forward to 2008 when I got to know Raleigh properly as I interned at CCF and I had one of those moments. Stopping by the Whole Foods one day it hit me -- that time warp sensation that I had been there before. In what seemed like a slow-motion moment of crazy awesomeness, I twisted my head to the right just a bit and stared at the Quail Ridge Sign above me.

I think the reason I like it is because for a moment the world doesn't make sense. Just for a split second, the map you've built in your mind of the topography of this planet makes a dramatic shift in less time than it takes to read this sentence. It would be akin to gravity shutting off for about 2 seconds, only not as dramatic and with fewer confused and elated white guys having tried to dunk a basketball at the perfect moment. Magic. Something we could all use a little bit of, no matter how easy it is to rationalize later.