Repaying @misohungry for pizza barter, and more owner awkwardness

@misohungry was truly, so hungry

Yesterday I went to Homeslice with Jennie, aka @misohungry.  She was the kind soul who let me borrow her photoshop-infused laptop a couple weeks ago when I needed it.  I told her I’d take her for pizza in exchange and yesterday was the day we finally met up.

On the way in, I saw Terri (the owner) again.  I felt just as awkward as the day before.  It was like I was transported back to 7th grade to find myself tongue-tied trying to talk to The Hot Girl.  I found myself saying random stuff in order to fill the vacuum.

Her: Hi Seth.

Me: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…hey.

Her: So………back for more pizza, huh?

Me: Yep…*searching-for-something-to-say…..searching…searching…*…yeah…………this is what I do… (Really, Brain?  That was the best you could do?).

Her: Ok…..cool…..

I don’t know why I’m so awkward around her.  Unlike The Hot Girl, I take advantage of Terri (financially and epicurially) all the time.  Every day this week, in fact.  I know that she agreed to the prize, and I’m sure that Homeslice makes plenty of profit on the beers my friends buy, but I can’t shake the goofiness.

After the encounter I walked into Homeslice for my pizza with Jennie, who I know from the Austin food blogger world.  She’s a phenomenal baker, and she uses all kinds of beer and other sorts of booze very creatively, like the 512 pecan porter ale brownies that she brought me for taking her out to pizza.  She’s also a very generous cook as well.  Nearly every time I see her she’s given me a taste of her latest creation.  Apparently the word has gotten out in the craft beer movement, because lots of microbreweries send her cases of beer for her to use.  She’s making a briyani out of a gingerbread ale tomorrow, and also making gingerbread out of said gingergbread ale.  Yummay!

Jennie’s one of those people who’s always doing tons of interesting stuff.  She’s big in the show dog world, and judges dog shows (recently in Alabama).  She bakes, she’s a graduate student in something that sounds complicated involving the word endocrine, she’s a blood-drawer for the prison system (I think she’s called a phlebotomist), organizer of the famous cupcake smackdown, blogger, twitterer, etc.  I don’t know how she keeps everything under control.  I think the key is that for her, doing stuff like baking counts as relaxing.  For me, baking (unlike cooking or making beer) is an act that I need to relax after accomplishing, when such a rare event happens to occur.

Perhaps she does it by being very, very organized.  When we were talking about toppings, she busted out her iphone to write down a list of them.  When it came time to order, the waitress didn’t recognize me and launched into the schpiel about less is more, if you get too many toppings it will be soggy, costs more, blahblahblah.  After I explained that I got free pizza so I wasn’t concerned with the price, she sorta looked around for a pen and paper, realized she didn’t have one, and just asked for Jennie’s iphone list to take to the ordering station.  I thought it was funnier than Jennie did.

The pizza came, and Jennie thought it was really good.  I was a little nervous, Jennie likes good food but doesn’t have much tolerance for mediocrity.  I shouldn’t have been worried though, Homeslice doesn’t let me down.

Also, Nano Whitman is playing tonight at Lambert’s at 10:30 with a bunch of other folks.  He’s one of the managers and gets mentioned occasionally on this blog.  Free admission but expensive drinks, so sauce up beforehand.  He’s really good, you should come.  Go to his site and play Break It On Your Own Time and tell me you don’t want to see him play a free show.  Try.