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Blog Entry 3 of 105 Places To Go, People to See

A new blog from the Buffalo born author of the novel, 'Traveling With An Eggplant', that deals with her work, book tour, and ridiculous midadventures, as well as descriptions of Clarence bars, restaurants, businesses, parks, etc so that people know more about her hometown and get a humorous look at what's featured in Clarence and what being there is really like so that they want to make an effort to check it out. People actually living in Buffalo have zero excuse for not going anyways but hopefully the blog will give them that extra push. For more info, there's always the official site: www.alyciaripley.com where you can read all about the lively, eccentric brunette and what she's currently up to. In addition to promoting "Eggplant," her new book 'Try Anything Once' should hit stores in late summer '07 followed by a novel called 'Winterphoenix' shortly thereafter. She is also an obsessive copyeditor, the co-editor of an anthology book of works by Buffalo born writers along with notorious Buffalo man about town essayist, Tom Waters as well as being a commentator for this just-born site. She has performed in many NYC stage productions and has an upcoming extended stay in Los Angeles to further her film work. Her nomadic life has helped her to appreciate what Buffalo and in particular, Clarence, NY has to offer, so get there already and see what all the fuss is about.

Blog Url: http://buffalo.yourhub.com/~AlyciaRipley

Entries:

Why my Tops is the best...and Falletta's too!

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Contributed by: Alycia Ripley on 12/17/2006

Today's adventure at Tops wasn't nearly as aggrevating as it sometimes is. Grocery shopping used to be the boon of my existence but for some reason, this year, I actually sort of enjoy and get some weird amusement out of it. That isn't to say it's not aggrevating because as you read above, it often is. But I think of it almost as a piece of performance art at this point and talk to myself and almost dance through the entire thing. Shopping there has become this strange and surreal activity where it almost doesn't seem like it's actually happening or is happening in a different universe. The strangest and most bizarre things go down when I'm at Tops in Clarence- it's at the corner of Maple (before it becomes Greiner) and Transit. First of all, I'm always dodging and darting with my cart in there. (Today the guy who puts back the carts told me I had beautiful hair and then went on a huge tangent about how he himself used to have long hair. The produce section can get tough and claustrophobic but not nearly as intense as Wegman's a few doors down but I'll get into that place at some other point. That place puts me in a whirlwind unlike anything I could describe.) Other times the lines are of out of control and people get attitudes about the paper in plastic issue but for the most part I can recognize the cashiers now and know which ones have attitudes (it's typically the more innocuous ones- it's the goth princesses that are super sweet and accommodating), which ones know not to include the cleaning products in with the produce, and which listen to me when I ask them to LOAD THE BAGS up so that I don't have 78 million bags to unload into the house. I work out for a reason, for god's sakes.
Meanwhile- truly ridiculous things have been known to unfold. Here is an all-true incident. I have a friend, Bart, who's well-known in Clarence because of his being a manager at the Clarence Center Coffee Shop (a place I'll definitely get into at a later date) and for his super friendly personality. Due to his David Cassidy-esque persona, young young girls tend to really like him. I mean high school age girls and younger. So there's this girl, at Tops (no names so as to protect the ridiculous) who asked me once if I've ever been with him. Keep in mind this girl just got her drivers license. My shocked response, "Uh, no. We're friends." Her next response: "Ok, well if you ever get with him could you tell me about it? My friends and I want to know." I'm standing there thinking, is this REALLY happening while I'm in the Breyers aisle??? That's what I'm talking about....ridiculous conversations ensue there through no part on your sake. It makes the shopping experience that much more surreal and the time just flies by...
For a more fun shopping experience- get to know the regular workers at Tops on Maple and Transit....
We stopped in for dinner at Falletta's (Clarence Center Road) tonight which is always a joy. We love to see the happy face of Mike the owner, who is friends with my stepdad's crowd. They have a 7 foot tall nutcracker and a 6 foot tall Santa in there at the moment- go see them both during the holidays- they're beautiful. The food there is always amazing- I have an eggplant obsession (I didn't before writing the novel) and they make amazing eggplant florentine. Falletta's gives you portions that are so massive you have food for the next two days and not through sacrificing quality. I LOVE their food..they just believe in REALLY feeding you. I promise you can't eat it all so bring it home and have lots of leftovers. I love their ambiance and one of their waiters looks like Ron Livingston in his 'Office Space' era which always makes me happy because I'm always sure he's going to break out with a rant about The Man and copy machines....definitely go and check it out.
I need more tea after all that screaming I did at Pearl St last night. Remind me to NEVER frequent that place during a Sabres game again...

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