Ginny from the Blog

It seems nothing is free anymore. It even costs money to sit on Santa’s lap at the mall and tell him you want a puppy for Christmas. So it’s good to hear some Durham organizations are teaming up to sponsor free visits with Santa today and tomorrow in downtown Durham.

What’s more is that it’s possible that it’s the only public opportunity for kiddies to visit with an African-American Santa: “… our admission is FREE and we have the only African American Santa in the Triangle as best we can tell,” organizers said in the a news release I received earlier this week.

Santa will be on hand at the Multicultural Festival & Expo from 3 to 8 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Also on hand will be vendors with last-minute gifts, many of which are apparently under $5. Jazz artist jazz legend Stanley Baird and other performers will also be there. The event is at 108 Morris St. near the Durham Arts Council Building.

So if you love a bargain (anything that’s truly free is a bargain in my eyes), check it out and feel free to share your photos with me.

Can’t wait to check out this grocery store in downtown Raleigh at Seaboard Station. Apparently Capital City Grocery is a locally-owned, independent grocer not too far from my place.

That’s the one thing that hasn’t seemed to catch up to this downtown living boom in Raleigh and Durham — local grocery stores. It’s not so bad in Durham, with Whole Foods and Food Lion a short jaunt from the downtown loop.

As for Raleigh, I have to expect that more grocers and shops will pop up downtown with all the condominiums that are cropping up. The Raleigh Connoisseur brought up this point in his blog earlier this week.

Anyway, I’ve driven through Seaboard Station before, so I don’t know how I missed this new store. Thankfully the Raleigh Chronicle brought it to my attention today.

In case you didn’t know it, Raleigh “was long overdue” for another topless club. So says one of the new owners of a planned topless club near RDU, the News & Observer reports today.

So long as the long arm of the law doesn’t get in the way, the club would open in spring 2009 on Mount Herman Road, according to the article. The club will be called The Runway.

One of the new owners told the N&O that he’s taking on the project because he believes there’s a need because apparently there’s only four or five other similar vice venues around these parts.

Despite peer pressure by some friends, I’ve never been to a strip club. Without being grossly inappropriate on my blog, may I ask, have you ever been to any such clubs in the Triangle-area? If so, do you think there’s really a “need” for another?

I’ve been exploring my neighborhood during lunch breaks because it’s the only free time daylight time during the week. Today I found this charming playground sandwiched in the middle of my Five Points neighborhood at a place called Roanoke Park.

What I love best about the park are the random toys scattered about the basketball court.

It looks like a bunch of 5-and 6-year olds were playing and then got called inside for lunch by their parents. The toys were left littering the basketball court, the only testament to the tots that were just there.

Apparently, the Roanoke Park neighborhood dates back to the early 20th century and its streets are named after people and places from the Tar Heel state’s history.

It’s an easy neighborhood to get twisted around in because the streets are laid out in a curvilinear pattern because of the area’s topography, according to a local real estate agent who has a Web site highlighting the neighborhood.

As a former government reporter, I’ve probably sat through at least a few hundred public hearings at meetings of city and county councils, school boards and even state legislative committees.

Sometimes they’re well attended (particularly in Durham, a city where residents actually come out to speak on everything from speed humps to theater designs). But often the public never shows up and residents lose their chance to have any say with a quick tap of the gavel.

It’s disappointing more people don’t get involved in the way governments spend their taxes. But it’s not always convenient to show up to city hall in the evening and wait your turn to speak. Apparently a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ administrator recognizes this. The Herald-Sun reports today that Steve Scroggs has started a blog to generate feedback from the public on the district’s 10-year plan for building and renovating new schools.

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Today is apparently the day for talk about teen pregnancy.

This morning I learned Britney Spears’ 16-year-old sister is pregnant. For the record, this is information I would rather not have taking up space inside my mind, but the headline guiltily caught my eye today.

Anyway, two hours after learning this disturbing news, a Durham-based nonprofit dedicated to preventing teen pregnancy sent out a press release about an upcoming program on the topic of preventing teen and unwanted pregnancy.

The Adolescent Pregnancy Coalition of North Carolina is sponsoring the event, which will showcase an effective teen pregnancy prevention program. Details of the plan were not in the release, but they’ll be released at the Feb. 27 event.

In the meantime, if you’re curious about what might happen if stupid people keep reproducing, check out Mike Judge’s 2006 flick “Idiocracy.”

If one year on the Internet is like dog years … the equivalent to seven years per year lived … then what will blogs look like a year from now?

I’m going to the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference next month in RTP to learn some skills, meet other bloggers and absorb the energy that will no doubt be produced when you bring 200 bloggers with similar interests together.

It will be my first blogging conference. Man, if my journalism professors could see me now. When I was in J-school, blogs didn’t exist and Google wasn’t even on our radar (we were taught to use ixquick to do all of our searches). But times change, the Internet evolves and we either decide to either get on board or get passed by. I, for one, plan to enjoy the ride.

I made a new friend during my lunch break today. He (I guess it could be a she, I didn’t look under the tail to see) lives outside my apartment complex and is the sweetest kitty I’ve met in a long time.

I just hope there are no gaps in my neighbor’s chicken coop, otherwise I have a feeling this sweetie will be pilfering poultry.

Are there any animals that don’t belong to you roaming your neighborhood?

I bought a Christmas tree last night. Snagged it off clearance at a local fabric store for $15. It’s not exactly beautiful, but since it’s my first Christmas in Raleigh and yet another away from home, I felt like I needed to put something up.

I also set up my Christmas village. If you were one of the porcelain people living in my village, here’s what you would find: A train station (because porcelain people have places to go); a lighthouse (because you never know when you’ll lose your way) along with a bakery, toy shop and greenhouse (my porcelain people are apparently joining this ‘go green’ movement).

It might sound like a boring fake town to live in, but don’t worry I’ve got my porcelain peeps covered. There’s a tavern and a winery!

I’m so tired and I blame the newspaper delivery lady. She called me at 5 a.m. this morning — 5 a.m. — to say that she was at my apartment complex, but couldn’t find my door so she was leaving the newspaper in the commons area. I just subscribed to the newspaper this weekend, so today was my first delivery day.

I want to be angry at the woman for waking me up (I never managed to fall back to sleep thanks to my cats and my neighbor above). But at the same time, I’m a firm believer in good customer service.

So I guess I wonder, was her phone call good customer service? I mean she wanted to do her job by ensuring she left the paper at my doorstep, but was it really necessary to call me at 5 a.m. (an hour typically reserved for emergency phone calls or the occasional drunk dial)?! Couldn’t she have just waited until this afternoon and called me a decent hour to let me know?

So what do you think? Was she providing good customer service or suffering from a lack in judgment? All I know is I’m now suffering from a lack of sleep.