A Savage Birthday with Friends

June 23, 2013

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been dealing with a lot of stress lately, which has made it hard for me to focus on my writing. Fortunately, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and it seems like a lot of the conflicts I had going on are about to be resolved, so I am very happy. Art therapy, setting boundaries, attending support groups and being gentle with myself are the top four things that have helped me the most in dealing with the stressful situations and I will write more in depth on how I used these coping skills in later posts. For right now, I will keep myself in the positive, happy space by remembering the great time I had during my 32nd birthday celebration with my friends.

 I invited lots of my friends and planned a day where we would relax in my favorite part of town - Atlanta's Little Five Points area.  First we would eat at Savage Pizza and then we would just window shop at our leisure until we would stop at Kolo (a piercing place with the best jewelry ever) and I would finally get an Industrial, which is a type of piercing that I have wanted since I was a teenager.  We would finish up the day by eating ice cream at nearby Morelli's.

My plan for the most part worked!  Savage Pizza was the perfect location for lunch, for though the interior of the restaurant is small, it has plenty of seating outside and the weather that day was beautiful.  Nine people arrived for lunch and we had a great time talking and laughing.  We were in no hurry, so we just took our time and we stayed at the restaurant for at least two hours.

Savage Pizza is one of my favorite Italian restaurants.  There are two in Atlanta and their theme is comics superheros with fun murals on the walls and superhero action figures hanging from the ceiling. It definitely has a fun feeling, besides having excellent food.  I also like the fact that they recycle all of their paper, cardboard, plastic and metal containers!

In the picture below you can see part of one of their huge murals and two of my friends.  Of all the pictures I took of my friends that day, this one turned out the best and if you think my shirt looks familiar it's because it's the same shirt I wore for my birthday celebration last year.
You can't tell in the picture, but I wore a beautiful golden colored tiara all day long as a headband.  People should know when they're in the midst of the birthday queen!

For lunch, I ordered the eggplant parmesan sub.

"Breaded and baked eggplant, red tomato sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan on a sub roll"  This was a very satisfying and filling lunch and great comfort food. The breaded eggplant was firm, yet moist, and the tomato sauce gave it great flavor.

After eating our fill, we leisurely browsed the funky shops in Little Five Points, like Junkman's Daughter and Crystal Blue.  It was especially fun, because some of my friends had never been there before!  We ahhed and ooohed over fun clothes and funky knickknacks.  When we got to Kolo, however, most of my friends trekked on over to my favorite bookstore, Charis, because the thought of seeing someone getting pierced made them squeamish.  I have wanted an Industrial ever since I first saw one as a teenager.  Here is a picture of one from the Kolo website, in case you don't know what they look like:

I was very excited about getting one until the piercer there busted my bubble - apparently my ears are not shaped right!  My ears are mostly straight and the industrial has to be done in the curve.  With my ears, the industrial would have to be done horizontally instead of at an angle.  This wouldn't be so bad, except that I wear glasses and the piercing would constantly rub against them, causing more pain and a longer healing period. Who knew that I am "too straight?!"  My squeamish friends certainly had nothing to worry about.  My dad was very happy when I told him that night that I wasn't getting another piercing, but I was very disappointed.  So I bought myself some books!  I trudged on over to Charis, where a couple of my friends surprised me with a gift certificate.  In fact, I was very surprised that day when many of my friends gave me little presents - I had not expected anything but their wonderful company!  Even though I was still disappointed, buying several books from my favorite feminist bookstore certainly helped brighten my mood.  The books I bought were:
 Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion by Virgie Tovar
 
The Fat Girl's Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker
Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture by Amy Erdman Farrell
 
It's so nice to go to a bookstore that actually sells these kinds of books!  I picked out three fat acceptance books, because whenever I read one I feel more empowered and more loving and accepting towards myself and other people's bodies.  I may be fat, but most days I love my body anyway.  Our culture tells us that we should never love our bodies-even when women are thin, they are still told that there is some weight that they should lose.  We women must be ever vigilant of how much room we physically take up-if a woman takes up too much space, she is out of control and if a woman loves her body for the way it already is, then she very dangerous, because her empowerment will spread to other women and then we won't be as easy to control anymore.
 
To fully provide solace and delicious fun, we then ate ice cream at Morelli's.  If you have never had their ice cream and you live in Atlanta, then you need to go now!  Morelli's is a gourmet ice cream shop that changes their flavors weekly.  They make some standards, but they're known for their wild flavor combinations, which they update every day on their facebook page.  Here is the list of possible flavors they had for that day:
Strawberry Balsamic

Pecan Praline
Blueberry Rosewater
Oreo
Krispy Creamier
Flan Caramel
Ginger Anis
Coconut Almond Joy
Ruim Raisin
Caramel Almond Cloud

I had the pecan praline, which I know isn't nearly as exciting as some of their other flavors, but it was still fabulous.  What made it even more fabulous is that I had in a waffle cone that was dipped in hot fudge and then covered in nuts.  They did this right before handing me the cone, so the fudge was still warm and wonderful.



I really wish there was a Morelli's in my area of town, but then again, I would probably spend all my money on their ice cream!  We stayed and talked and laughed and enjoyed our ice cream for at least another hour before parting.  It really was a very happy day, even if I was not able to get the piercing that I wanted.  My favorite DBT skill is "creating pleasurable experiences" and I certainly accomplished that goal that day.  I am glad that I had such a memorable day and so in the times when I was really stressed out in the next month, sometimes I would pull out the memory of this day and remind myself that I have a lot of friends who love and support me very much.

 

3 comments on “A Savage Birthday with Friends”

  1. What a great reminder of your wonderful birthday party. We had a blast, didn't have to watch anybody get pierced and got introduced to fabulous pizza and to betty what's-her-name.

    I'm sure I have had pizza from Savage before, but I don't remember it being that good. Maybe they got a new cook. Once again, I'm glad you invited me.

    Karen

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