My Christmas spirit sense starts tingling early and often here in Charlottesville. Way before Carter Mountain Orchard serves its first apple cider donut, I’m half-deranged with holiday anticipation, eager to push past the trick-or-treating munchkins on the Lawn and the dry forkfuls of Thanksgiving dinner, just to get to the good stuff: Call me Buddy […]
Let’s say you hate going to the gym, i.e., dragging your flaccid, corporeal form over to that place where, when you walk in, you’re supposed to stride toward a bunch of metal contraptions and cables and bars, as if you know exactly what you’re doing — all while avoiding eye contact with a Noah’s Ark […]
If Frank Capra magically came back to life and decided to remake It’s a Wonderful Life in Charlottesville, Chris Farina would be his George Bailey. The guy itchy for travel, the guy who has always celebrated and stuck up for the little guy—in his work managing the countercultural Corner Parking Lot; in his quietly forceful […]
Something about October makes me melancholy. The waning light, the dropping leaves. Back-to-school schedules, and the looming pressure to make happy holidays happen. All I really want to do is bask in the honeyed light of late afternoon—that golden hour—and do nothing. Look at the sky, watch for hawks, wish upon a pumpkin that my […]
In the late summer (August) of my life’s autumn (61 years old), I heard about a University of Virginia singing group for people who can’t sing. A little bell rang in my heart. “I can’t sing, and I work at the University of Virginia,” I thought, sweating my way across the Lawn, past the crop […]
Not all Charlottesville happy hours are alike—each bar/restaurant is happy in its own way. From seriously gritty to spacious and luxe, there’s a range of options to keep a (slightly crooked) smile on your face. Alamo Cinema Drafthouse Glass Half Full Taproom M-F 4-7pm Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the […]
I didn’t see the ocean until I was in seventh grade, when my friend Sallie (future homecoming queen) invited me (congenital nerd) to Amelia Island with her family over spring break. It was freezing and windy, and I had no idea how to get in or out of the ocean, so I just tripped along […]
Some say the world will end in fire (thanks, Canada), / Some say in ice (running through the wireless veins of Chat GPT). / From what I’ve tasted of CODE PURPLE haze / I’d say we’ll all go down ablaze. / But if we dodge existential dread / And visit the Botanical Garden of the […]
I have this embarrassingly shallow hate-love thing with luxury in Charlottesville. I get nosy and greedy, curious and snarky about what seems richie-rich and off-limits to Joe Schmoes like me. At the same time, I love being immersed, if only for a few hours, in the grandeur, style, and creative exuberance of what’s fancy and […]
When our kid went off to college in late August, my husband and I rejoiced. Freedom! Finally, we had our lives back! Time to work out, eat out, and party like it’s 2002 (the year before our kid was born). We started off strong. While walking the dog one September evening we stopped by a […]