Freebird!!!!

There is an Afghan restaurant across the street from the Target I run to. The building is slightly run down and the sign has a faded, painted-over line about “Emerald Palace” or some name that it used to possess when it was an Americanized Chinese buffet of some sort. Green neon tubes outline the windows and something equally bright written in Pashto illuminates the front door. I would have paid little attention to it had I not noticed that every time I ran by it, no matter what time, the parking lot always seemed to be full. I said to myself that either the food was really delicious or that some criminal plot was being hatched in the back room. That’s what always happens in Jackie Chan movies at least. I, being no Jackie Chan, didn’t have the guts to go in by myself, but I remained curious all the same.

So, when Daniel called yesterday and told me that I had to pick the restaurant for my birthday dinner I decided that this would be as good a time as any to try out some Afghan food. Turns out Cameron and Daniel were curious about it too. So, it was decided that we would save Panera for some lackluster evening and try something exotic. Daniel made sure to park near the street so that we could make a quick getaway if the cops busted up a terrorist plot at the table next to ours. Turns out our fears were quite unfounded, as, minus the green neon windows, everything in the restaurant was decidedly normal. Pictures that looked like they were shot from the movie “Hidalgo” and scenic shots of Afghanistan hung on the walls and a big Afghan flag adorned the check-out counter advertising the fact that gift cards were now available. The food was great. (Any place that gives you bread is going to be a winner.) I had lamb kabobs and they were delicious. Our server was really sweet as well. So, thumbs up to the Afghans. If you are driving down Jefferson Davis Highway towards Crystal City, stop by.

We then went to Baskin Robbins where Daniel was quite disappointed that out of 31 possible flavors, chocolate fudge was not available. I would have thought that chocolate fudge was a staple, but Tallahassee does not have a Baskin Robbins that I know of, so maybe Cotton Candy really is more popular. I was just excited they had diet Pepsi. Some song from Guitar Hero began playing on the radio and it was decided that we would go over to Best Buy and try to play Rock Band. Rock Band wasn’t set up, but Guitar Hero III was. I saw some pithy comment on the screen while the next song was loading. That’s one of my favorite parts of Guitar Hero. They give bands some great advice, such as:

"Don't let the drummer handle the money."
"They don't really want you to play Freebird. They're just heckling you."

Much to our dismay, some fifth grader was hogging the game. He’d probably been there since the store opened this morning. That’s what they do. At least my brother has the consideration to take his friends to play in the middle of the night when no one else is waiting. Even after 9 straight hours, this kid had no intension of going anywhere. “Surely he’ll have to go to the bathroom,” I thought. It was then we would make our move. We lounged in leather chairs in front of two plasma TVs watching Transformers and Spiderman 3 simultaneously, eyeing the plastic guitar enviously. As soon as the announcer called for all customers to make their final purchases, Fifth Grader’s mom came and told him it was time to go. We dove for the guitar. I pounded out in red, blue, yellow and green a rusty version of “Welcome to the Jungle,” and Cameron and Daniel got in a song before they started turning out the lights and vacuum cleaners clouded up the music. Next week we’ll have to arrive early to beat Fifth Grader there.