Carolina Rollergirls

Over the past few weeks I’ve definitely gotten into a few random encounters and activities, this was probably the most unexpected. A new McCormick & Schmick’s is opening here in Raleigh at Crabtree Valley Mall. I learned all about this from Ginny and Sue. M&S has a giant crab resting above the restaurant to help advertise. It just so happens I share something in common with this crab. Fortunately it’s not anything freaky like an exoskeleton, or a related disease, or infection. No, we share a name, Jake.

Around a week ago Ginny and Sue made some connections and put me in touch with Dana with the PR firm running the Grand Opening event for this new restaurant. Apparently they though that having someone with the same name as the crab was grounds for involvement in the whole ordeal. So after a few email exchanges I was in. In addition, Dana was nice enough to let me bring along a few friends, Abby and Kelly, to help make some memories.

The “Toss” wasn’t really much of a toss, more of a passing down a line, but it was still cool. The sad thing about the whole affair is that they lined up about 10 of us in our aprons in front of the place and did introductions. “Please welcome Raleigh statesman X, Stormy!, Miss North Carolina, NBC 17 News Anchor Page Crawford, Executive Chef X, General Manager X, and some random dude named Jake.” Not really embarrassing as much as flat ridiculous. Hopefully some photos of the fish will show up, I’ll be sure to share.

Following the toss we all huddled inside near the bar where they were kind enough to provide lots of cold air conditioning, champagne, and delicious food! We ended up sticking around for a number of hours and even ran into some other friends from the Carolina Rollergirls. I think they may have even convinced someone we know to try out for the team!

Big thanks to my parents for blessing me with this wonderful name. Had it not been for them we’d never have had so much random fun.

Finally, thanks to Abby for the photo to commemorate the occasion.