Misadventures of the Village Idiot #65

What a thoroughly enjoyable weekend doing what I do best:  eating and sleeping my life away.

Friday
As usual, I got off work very early so that I could go home and sleep, sleep, sleep.  For some reason the whole week I had been dragging, but I immediately recharged with a four hour nap after I got off work.  Later that evening, I went to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with Debonair.  It was restaurant week in DC, so it was time to try out some new restaurants.  Even though I have been Ruth’s Chris a few times, he had never been.  I don’t mind taking one for the team.

So, I mentioned Debonair in a previous post.  This was the guy I was unsure of.  Well, a lot more has developed since then but that is going to have to be for another post.  First, I do want to say that he cleans up very nice.  I was so surprised when he came around the corner looking like dapper Dan.  I mean, I liked the way he looked before, but now… wow.

We sat in Ruth’s Chris almost all night long.  It was funny because we had reservations for nine, but there was some mixup and we had to wait for a little bit.  We sat down and I had lamb chops while he had petite filet.  For a minute, we weren’t talking and I remembered something he once said to me, but after we finished eating we just started talking about everything under the sun.  It is absolutely bizarre everything that we have in common, and when I say everything, I do mean everything:  from music to philosophy of life to the children neither one of us wants to have.  The only thing we didn’t have in common was the fact that he doesn’t like ice cream–no, he hates ice cream.  That’s a black mark, but I think I’ll get over it.

Anyway, I happened to look at my cell phone to discover that it was 1215.  Hahaha.  Too bad the restaurant closed at 1030.  I noticed that the place was getting emptier and emptier and that they weren’t re-seating, plus the servers were shining glasses and redoing the table cloths.  We weren’t the last people in there, but I would say that we shut it down.

If it hadn’t been 15 degrees outside I would have suggested we walk around a little bit.  I didn’t want to end the evening, but they do say that all good things come to an end.

Saturday
Saturday I got up very early to hit the Amish market and I was back in bed by 815.  I laid in bed almost all day long, alternately sleeping and watching Star Trek reruns.  It seems like lately I don’t get a chance to sleep like that anymore.  I felt so refreshed and energized by the time I got up to do a good workout.  Then I got ready for evening out number 2 with Debonair.  This time a friend came along with us to a Thai restaurant.  Debonair had never had Thai food before and it seemed like a good time to remedy that.

The food was good and our friend decided to part ways with us when we finished dinner because I wanted to go downstairs for crepes.  I am in love with the crepes Suzette and I had this powerful craving for one.  Once again, Debonair and I shut down the restaurant.  We sat in there until well after closing.  We were really the last people in the place this time.  I guess because we have so much in common we have a lot to talk about.

When it is 8 degrees outside that is not the best time to be having a lover’s stroll so I got in my car and went home.  He told me to text him to let him know if I was home, but I emailed him instead (since I know he checks his email on his phone), and this started up an all night long email conversation with me briefly falling asleep and then waking back up at 6AM to finish the conversation at 4PM.  I am dead serious.  I sent him an email after midnight and we emailed until around 3AM when I fell asleep.  Then I woke up at 630 and emailed him back and then he wrote me and we stayed emailing until about 5PM on Sunday.

Sunday
Yes, I did spend the entire day emailing and cleaning the house and and emailing and working out and emailing and sleeping and emailing and getting ready to go to dinner number three.  No, I wasn’t going with him this time, though we both did want to see each other again.  This time I had a “date” with Ceecee.  We have not seen each other in so long and it was just high time to catch up.

We met up in Georgetown at this place called Mie N Yu.  Someone once suggested it to me and I really kept meaning to go but for some reason I could just never get there.  Finally, and I’m glad that I went.  The place is really beautifully decorated inside.  I do feel like I’m in some kind of middle eastern bazaar somewhere.  The food was good.  I think my dish could have been better if they hadn’t done my lamb chops all the way but I had some tofu fried rice and some scallops in their actual shells.

Ceecee and I really, really caught up.  So much has happened in the last six months since we saw each other last.  We used to go on all day shopping trips, spend, spend, spending and then dining out at our spot PF Chang’s in Tysons Corner.  Now that we are actually adults we don’t seem to have time for that anymore.  I hope we don’t let our lives get in the way.  That sometimes happens and that’s why it’s important to me to cultivate real friendships.  It takes work to keep those friendships alive while the lame friendships seem to flourish quite fine in the bacteria.

We talked about family, friends, our jobs, potential lovers, ex-lovers, and everything in between including our bitterness over the cancellation of Law and Order and how we both could not get into Law and Order:  Los Angeles. Apparently there is a L&O UK on BBC so I’m going to try to find that and check that out.  It was a nice time but that cold ass wind!!!  No time for chit chat afterward, but get in the car and hot foot it home.

I was dead ass tired by the time I got back home and I tried to watch a bit of Star Trek but I fell asleep on it.  Monday morning I was dragging but I made it through the day.

This coming up week is restaurant week in Baltimore so I’m going up there.  I didn’t get to see Maq this weekend even though I planned to go over to see the boys.  I just got side-tracked but the boys will be back.

 

Misadventures of the Village Idiot #64

I had a pretty good weekend, a lot going on with plenty of time to get some much needed rest.

Friday
I went to work at 230AM so I could get off work early.  I know it sounds crazy but a lot of the times I’m already awake so I might as well go into work and get it out of the way.  I don’t get tired until the late afternoon so I’m not really bothered by it.  I wanted to finish my errands so I could get ready for my dinner party.  I had to go get my car from Pep Boys, and that place, don’t even get me started.  They really got on my nerves but whatever, I won’t go into that.

I had some friends over for dinner for a Fake Housewarming Party.  In case you didn’t know, a fake housewarming party is where you have a housewarming but you don’t really want your friends to bring housewarming gifts.  It’s kind of lame because I’m really only going to be there for two more months so there’s no point in having people bring gifts that I’m going to have to pack up and cart some place else.

The usual suspects were present plus another person from the unit and this guy from my job, who kind of invited himself.  Actually, I did not mind at all that he wanted to come because I thought we should have another guy to balance things out a bit.

I tried some new recipes that turned out well.  I even made a sangria, which I haven’t done in years.  Everyone gave good compliments and ate up everything so I’m going to say that everything was good.  The conversation was so good that we did not have to resort to games, TV or movies to fill in the gaps.  I hate that.  I don’t mind playing games at a party because that’s usually the only place I play games, but I hate going to parties where the central focus is watching TV or a movie.  That means no one is capable of having a decent conversation.

My co-worker got things off to a quirky start by blessing the food with this weird prayer, asking God to neutralise the nutrients or something.  It was the fact that he said nutralise in the middle of the prayer, and everybody started laughing even though prayer is supposed to be all solemn or whatever.  Then SF further damned us all to hell by saying Jesus was a Captain Save-a-Hoe, because it is alleged that he may have married Mary Magdalene, a known prostitute.  Luckily, we are all secure in our religious beliefs and nobody is a zealot.  LMAO.  It was funny.  I’m not even sure how the topic turned to religion in the first place.

After several glasses of wine, everybody was feeling it and we goofed off until about 1230 in the morning until Maq and MJ had to leave.  SF and War stayed a little later so I could have some company cleaning up.  It was like 2AM before I got into bed.

Saturday
Which made me cancel my plans to run a 5K with the Lunkheads on Saturday morning.  The race wasn’t until 9, but when I woke up around 7, I was like…. yeah, I don’t really think so.  Plus, I just had other stuff I needed to get done and I thought I was supposed to be picking up my dad from the airport that afternoon but it turns out he had the dates mixed up.  Go figure.

Maq came over in the morning and we spent several hours downloading music.  I was in desperate need of new music.  I like what I listen to but I wanted something additional.  So I downloaded the newest efforts from R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, Jazmine Sullivan and Taylor Swift.  I also picked up Rihanna (I don’t know why), Chrisette Michele, Adele and someone else.  I can’t think of who that last person is.  And of course, I downloaded several new death metal albums so I can have some new running music.

Maq forced me to get up and get dressed so I could go to Annapolis and change my piercings.  I had been putting it off and putting it off until she was like, “It’s time to go.”  I didn’t even want to go, but I’m glad I went because I discovered that one of them is slightly infected.  Nothing serious, like I’m getting gangrene or anything but I need to watch it and clean it more often.  I’m glad I changed the heads too, because I like these much better than the fake gemstones that kinda looked like pimples.

After Annapolis, she dragged me to the most miserable baby shower I have ever been to.  I don’t even like baby showers.  I’ve been to a couple good ones but for the most part they are usually lame to me and I never have a good time because, except for the males that may be in attendance, I am usually the only one who doesn’t have kids.  I can’t talk about pregnancy, potty training or child rearing.  I don’t have any cute stories about some infant that likes to wear his booties on his hands or some such.  I also don’t think that other people’s stories about their kids are that fascinating.  When everybody is oohing and aahing over bibs and onesies and other crap, I am bored to death.  But that is not why this baby shower sucked.

Somehow I don’t think the mother was all that excited about having a baby.  Even though she knew she was having a boy she kept referring to the baby as “it.”  She even said she did not care what the baby’s name was going to be.  Apparently she picked out a name but the father didn’t like the name and now she “doesn’t care what it’s going to be called.”  She already has one child so this isn’t like new mommy blues or anything.  I understand there are some issues in the background and that much was obvious to me.  All her friends were overly bright and enthusiastic but they all seemed to be in a rush to leave.  Nobody wanted any of the cake.  She didn’t get that many gifts.  It just seemed sad.

Maq and I made our excuses because we had other things to do.  We went to look at some furniture then she came back over my house where we had waffles and eggs for dinner.  My sister bought me a fancy waffle iron for Christmas so I wanted to use it again.  After she left I went to bed at like 830.

Sunday
I got up early to work out and then I laid up in bed most of the morning, listening to everything I had downloaded the day before and watching Star Trek reruns.

I was content to lay there all day long but I committed to go to lunch with a friend in Columbia.  We went to a spot I had never been to before and I would definitely go back.  Some Mongolian Grill place or something like that.  I had a good time and we’ll probably go out again.  I had to rush away though because I had to pick up my dad from the airport.

I’m glad he’s back but then in a way I’m not because that means I can’t ride around in his car anymore.  Time for me to go back to my old clunker.

Le sigh.  It’s time for a new car but I am just dreading going to get one.  It’s not like I can’t afford one but I just don’t want the hassle of a car note, and if I buy one straight cash then it’s going to be a little less than what I’m really looking for.  See how difficult everything is.  Why can’t I just wave my Harry Potter wand and everything just work out the way I want?

And speaking of everything turning out the way I want………………….

Read my next post.

 

Misadventures of the Village Idiot #48

Whew!  What a weekend!

Friday
Friday, I let the kid hang out at the karate school all day long so he could hang out with Mitko.  It gave me a breather, because he can be a handful.  One of my social clubs was hosting a dinner at Sakura, so I went out with them.  I met some great people, including someone who works in my building.  We’re supposed to get together to run this 5K in Columbia in a few weeks.  That’s what the whole purpose of the social clubs are for:  entertainment, of course, but networking, getting to know people, so my circle isn’t so limited.  I had a good time but I was dead tired by the time I went around the corner to pick up the kid.

I hate it when people give me convoluted directions some place.  Mitko is staying with his friend John who lives near the unit.  I didn’t know that at first, so I told him I was on Contee Road and how to get to his house from there.  He gave me these backwards ass directions.  I kind of recognised where he lived and I asked him if he lived in a particular neighbourhood.  He said, “yeah!”  Okay, why you take that way to get to your house.  It’s not just a matter of multiple ways to get some place, it was pretty much like going to China to get to California.  Bass-ackwards.

Saturday
I got up early Saturday morning to put in five miles.  I’m quite surprised at how well I am progressing with this whole running situation.  I am not really running any faster, but I can run further and further with ease.  I was not even worn down when I finished the five miles, indicating I could probably go more without death.  I was up at the ass crack of dawn because the heat has been brutal.  Running in the evenings is detrimental and if I wait for the sun to come down a little bit, there isn’t enough time to get the run in before dark.  The trail by my house is safe enough but not a place I need to be hanging out after dark.  One, it has lots of tree covered paths so it’s particularly spooky, even in daytime, and two, parts of the trail do go through some sketchy looking apartment complexes and the Metro station where it is best not to loiter.  I don’t want to have to shoot somebody and plus the slow ass kid.  I don’t want him hanging around out there waiting on me.

When I finished my run, I came home and smashed a plate of pancakes.  I am never going to slim down if I don’t drop the pancake habit.  I did cut it out during the week.  I used to eat pancakes six days a week.  Seriously.  I’m down to two and I think that’s going to be it because I can’t give up the delicious syrupy butter.  Mmmm…..

I wanted to take the Kid to Carnival so we could see the parade.  It is about 945AM on our way to the Metro and it’s hot as a bitch.  I should have driven there, but that was my mistake after about 10 minutes of walking.  We get out to Georgia Avenue and find a decent place to wait for the parade, but lo and behold the fucking parade didn’t start until three hours after the arranged start time.  Oh, you know how I am about things that are late.  Three hours late?  That’s completely unacceptable.  After waiting so long I did not want to just leave because we already invested half our body weight in sweat.  It was ridiculously hot there.  The water we brought was boiling.  Seriously.

When the parade finally got under way, it wasn’t even that good.  It was all political and crap in the beginning, and I guess that’s how stuff is in DC, but I wanted to see true Carnival floats, like how they do in Mardi Gras.  Yes, this is not New Orleans but Carnival, like in Brazil and the islands, it’s different.  It isn’t marching bands and processionals like in the US.  It has flavour.  This parade did not have that flavour I was looking for.  The only thing I liked is the soca music.  You know I’m sucker for that beat.

We left outta there around 330.  Talk about having zero energy.  We could barely walk back home from the Metro.  I hate for the kid to complain, but I was complaining too.  We got into the house and for once I was thankful that my air conditioner is full blast, in fact, it wasn’t even cold enough.  We looked like we’d be in the Gobi Desert somewhere.  We had dinner and went to bed at like 730.

I always wanted to go the Caribbean Festival because I missed it every year messing around with TSA.  I think this is my first and last year.  Not just because I didn’t have a good time and it was hot, but because I hope I’m not in DC next year.

Sunday
Sunday morning I woke up early to get some things done around the house, and then me and the Kid went out to SF’s storage place.  She gave me decent directions to get there because Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Mapquest all had me fucked up.  The last time we went out there, we ended up in Greenbelt.  I followed the directions given to me perfectly.  The storage place is in Lanham, not Greenbelt.  Even when I called the place to talk get directions, the lady couldn’t really give me directions.  I planned on raiding her storage place for things but when we got there, the place was a disaster area.  She did warn me about it, but I didn’t think it was going to be a Mount Everest of precariously stacked up furniture.

The kid was worried for his life.  How the movers got a couch to stack up on top of two beds (the long way) I don’t know.  We did get what we needed and I feel like we left the storage in a worse off condition.  Think of those cartoon characters and they are trying to shove some shit into a closet before the door closes, and then someone else comes along and opens the door and all this shit just comes tumbling down on your head.  In cartoons, it’s a laugh a minute, but in real life, yikes.

Later that day I went into Silver Spring to have lunch with my other social group.  I left the kid at the movies, so he could feel grown.  I even let him eat a pizza sandwich.  I’m trying to get him into healthy eating so I’m limiting what kind of junk he’s allowed to have.  No fast food.  No fattening snacks, salty snacks or any of that garbage.  It’s good for me too because I won’t sit there and shove a Big Mac in my mouth when I’m telling him he can’t have one.

The luncheon went off pretty good.  I was the hostess this time.  I feel like more people are becoming interested now that I’m really doing some good things with this group.  I hope people continue coming.  I also went to Borders to buy some educational materials for the kid.  I told him that this wasn’t a real summer break, that he was going to have to do some work so he could catch up with the other kids next year.  He’s in seven the grade and it’s a whole new ball game out there.

I had to dash out of Silver Spring real quick so I could take the kid home and then head down into DC for Chantae’s birthday dinner at Lauriol Plaza.  I said many times I don’t like Spanish food but Lauriol Plaza was not that bad.  If invited, I’ll eat there again, but I probably wouldn’t go there on my own.  It’s a huge ass restaurant with bad parking anyway.

The dinner was going quite well, and I met this guy who I thought was just hot as hell.  Too bad he’s moving at the end of the week.  Always my luck.  Every guy I’m interested in is either in a relationship, gay or on his way to the moon.  I don’t stress about being single, but I’d like to date somebody too, you know.  Anyway, the dinner was going quite well until the final dramatic scene in which I had to extract myself.  I’m very self-conscious about some things, even though they do not have to do with me, and I just didn’t want to be in the situation anymore.

The problem was the waitress.  She was one of the worst waitresses I’ve ever had.  I know what it’s like to have a large party and still have other tables to attend, but sometimes enough is enough.  Ask for help.  Yeah, I’m sure you have to divide your tips, but it’s reality.  We had a huge 16 party table and she took forever to do anything.  At the end, when things started to get heated, I wanted to pay and leave.  She brought the check and I had cash in my hand and she was like, “You’re going to have to wait.” I’m like, trying to pay you.  Who doesn’t want money?  Now, if I had run out that restaurant without paying then it would really be some shit.

I ended up giving my money and check to a friend and dipping out because it was just too much going on.

I got home around 1030, and then I finished the rest of True Blood.  That show is so good.  I wish it was real.  I hate/love watching fantasy stuff because I want it to be real.  If vampires and werewolves were real, I wouldn’t be scared of them.  It would just be more people I could get to know, more culture and an interesting view on life.

Anyway, it’s back to the grind.  Luckily, it’s only a four day week this week and a four day week next week.  I’m taking off to Boston for the 4th.  Going to see the Boston Pops and the fireworks.  I hope it doesn’t rain.