My ‘Odyssey’ Odyssey, Pt. 2

It’s 8 p.m. and a terrible moment to admit I’m feeling a bit sleepy. Still two hours before the screening for The Odyssey even kicks off.

We’re back at the hotel. The parking-lot crowd is down there again (have been all day, as far as I can tell) grilling and communing. We just got here, but they were in the same place when we left this morning.

It’s been a lovely day. The weather has been so pleasant we haven’t sweated a drop. Rain has threatened, but it’s held off all day.

We started off at Public Parlor House, a coffee shop (until it makes sense in the day to be a cocktail bar, which is honestly a pretty great business).

Giant lattes and giant croissants, all on a cozy little patio in the aforementioned perfect weather. After last night’s rocky sleep (see part 1), this was a perfect start to the day.

Then we wandered a few blocks away to The Whispering Shelf, a beautiful independent bookstore that could have been the rest of our day, if we’d let it.

We joined the suburban horde and ventured out to that dwindling testaments to capitalism: the mall. The Fashion Mall at Keystone, to be exact. A great mall.

Things I learned:

• Based on the parking situation at said mall, it’s very possible they built the whole thing and just decided to let people handle parking themselves, Hunger Games-style.
• I’m too old to unironically walk into an Abercrombie and Fitch. I was so in the way of the hustling and bustling by the attractive youngs who now claim A&F as their own, subjected to so many WTF-are-you-doing-here looks that I cowered, caved and eventually just left and stood outside and tried to avoid eye contact with them as they left the store.
• We'd still be standing in line to eat at the Cheesecake Factory at this moment because — what can I say? — basic-ass mall-goers love them some Cheesecake Factory.

Because we're no dummies, we didn't stick around to eat at the mall. The idea was convenience, but it very quickly became apparent there was no convenience to be had in eating at the mall.

Enter Half Liter Brewery, Bar and BBQ, a fantastic local spot that felt like it would be one of my favorite hangouts if I lived in Indy. We ate yet another meal outside on a covered patio, and the weather continued to delight.

Forgive us, because we were way too hungry to even think about taking photos of the setting around us. But, thanks to my enterprising photographer (Courtney), we did get some photos of the feast on which we gorged.

Courtney had the pulled pork sandwich and fries. I had the Carolina Cuban melt and fries. We also had mac and cheese and fried biscuits with apple butter. We crushed all you can see here, and it made perfect fuel for a late-night movie adventure.

We could leave at this point, and it would have been a great weekend. But we're about to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to this latest adaptation of one of the Western canon's oldest stories.