Massholes!
Dec. 13th, 2004 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenSo, yeah, leaving early, in retrospect, may not have mattered much, may even have been worse than not leaving early seeing as my boss (who called me today to let me know this) called multiple times between 12-5. I was at the 'library' in case any of you are wondering. The 1:30 bus was pretty packed, and I didn't get much cross-stitching done, though I did some later that night, and the traffic was pretty horrendous. Liz met me right at the gate and whisked me off to her apartment. She lives right next to the border between Allston and Brookline, and her apartment is the first floor of a house, and it's really really nice. Her usual and familiar dorm-style decorations were there, but there were nice additions like the little pressed flower/paper design over her bed (which itself was new and very nice, tasteful, even). Her neighborhood was great, with easy access to good food of many varieties and about three liquor shops.
We went out to dinner with friends from her program, all of whom were really good (by good, I don't mean to have poor grammar, I just mean that they were 'good people' meaning nice, funny, and earnest), incredibly smart, and not at all afraid to speak their minds. Dinner were tapas shared between the lot of us, and by the end I'd found something to like in each and everyone of them, though I think the friendliest by far was Liz's friend Sarah (she reminded me of Hattie, physically, at least). We were soaked through by the time we got home, and more than a little glad not to go out and do anything while it was rainy and icky. This occasioned a meeting with Liz's housemate, Josh, whom she calls a 'sexual predator' and which he does not deny or find offensive. He was, in a word, great. He reminded me a little of Cindy's friend Tim in looks, but much more ribald and funny. Definitely a comedian, even if he's an emotional terrorizer of women.
By dint of me not having any specific site-seeing plans in mind, I agreed that it was high time to go shopping with Liz. She did better than I, getting more things, I mean, but we mostly just window shopped/browsed. She didn't end up buying any ornaments that she wanted (and thus starting a collection of her own), which was rather ironic as by the time we got back from one shopping jaunt, a tree had materialized in the living room (just that morning, she'd seen a tree stand and said "Huh, I wonder if this means we're getting a tree" but thought better of it). I browsed in a comic store for the first time in a dog's age (new year's resolution: visit comic shops more often!), but I hurried Liz out when Aqua Teen Hunger Force came on (that show is too weird). We trekked out to a mall where I stopped and bought myself a shirt at Old Navy because it was cute, and, as it turned out, cheap ($6.25! Plus, does anyone know if MA has no sales tax? The display said $12.50, and I guess there was a 50% discount, but that's all I paid, exactly $6.25). I also bought Carrie a ::EDITED:: at ::NO WAY, JOSE::. I was going to get my father some margarita glasses, but a call to my mother nixed that idea. Still looking for him.
Oh yeah, in the middle of the shopping spree, we stopped at two places to try free wine and cheese. Owing to the high concentration of college students in Liz's area (three schools' worth), they ID'd us everywhere, but we got some nice Rieslings and Indian food (which went surprisingly well together) at one store, then we moved on to the 'marquee' liquor store nearer to her house (It looks like an old fashioned movie theater, all lit up with a giant marquee advertising the tastings on Saturdays). That had a two spreads, one of whites and reds and one separate one for sparkling whites and champagnes. I barely stomached a lot of the whites and not a few of the reds; I just didn't have the taste for it, and made judicious use of the waste bucket they had. Methinks reusing the cup might have had something to do with it. We did find this absolutely great wine, Bouteille Call (that's right, it's Booty Call), which we went back for after dinner. I picked up a spare bottle for Christmas with my family.
Dinner...oh dear god, dinner. It was Brazilian BBQ, which means and endless supply of meat went by our table. This place had two things the one in Scarsdale didn't: 1) it only cost $19.99, and 2) it also served sushi and sashimi. Most people reading this know that I don't like Japanese food for the most part, sushi in particular, but I figured why not try everything and see if I liked something after all? I tried red snapper, tuna, and salmon on rice rolls, seaweed-wrapped eel, philly, and tuna rolls, and something else with eel in it. The eel was flat out disgusting, and the red snapper was a disappointment (especially as I'd only gotten it because of that line in UHF where that karate guy goes, "Mmm, red snapper! Very tasty!"). The seaweed rolls were uniformly icky, though not as bad as the eel. The salmon and tuna were mostly tasteless, unless dipped in soy sauce with wasabi, but why not just get rice and dump it in soy sauce then? Needless to say, I am no closer to going to the Yuka with folks than I was before.
On the other hand, I got a crap load of steak, sirloin, and, the best, TURKEY WRAPPED IN BACON before I'd let us give up, and I still wasn't full! I did manage to fill up after a really tasty rasperry alcoholic smoothie at a bar, in which Liz and I watched hog-tying and barrel racing rodeo stuffs. My only comment on that was "These are the people who voted for Bush," to which Liz could only agree and add that the uniforms were only differentiated by the tastelessness of one flannel plaid shirt versus that of another. We had our drinks, we picked up Dodgeball and drank our Booty Call wine. By the time it got to the surprise cameo of DOOM, I was dying. All Liz could say was "WHO WROTE THIS MOVIE?!" over and over. Seeing as I'd bought it for my brother for his birthday (and confirmed that he liked it earlier that morning), I'm glad it was so stupid funny.
Tuesday this past week, a guy approached Liz in Starbucks and told her it would make his day if she sat down and had coffee with him. She had friends waiting for her, and said no, but he gave her an e-mail address and she exchanged a few with him. His name was Baron, and he was a big hiking/nature guy, which is so not Liz at all, but which he tried to make her appreciate with pictures of bugs and dirt, things she said she didn't like. She said they could go get lunch while I was there, and he asked if that was really okay, to take up time with a friend from out of town. Unbeknownst to Baron, but knownst to us, Liz really wanted me there as chaperone/excuse to leave if necessary/distraction/more embarrassing than her person.
Baron showed up to the Vietnamese place with an apologetic story: his new account with Bank of America hadn't opened yet, so he could only pay in Euros. Euros! He would have given her a killer rate for it, too. We assured him we'd work something out, and we all sat down to dinner. I think I did pretty well not giving away too many of Liz's secrets or how she felt about this meeting, or what I was doing there (I sorta jokingly said exactly why I was there, and that got buried under other things I said). Mostly, I managed to embarrass the crap out of her by being completely shameless and telling personal stuff to a stranger, but it wasn't like it's anything secret, really, and nothing that I said I worry will get back to people I know. I enjoyed my send-off lunch, and, as it turned out, since they accepted credit, Baron was able to pay after all; he actually paid for both of us! Very sweet, nice guy, if a tad intense. Liz confessed to him that it was a bit weird how he approached her, though we were able to confirm it as being a very California thing if only because all her friends from California seemed to think there was nothing amiss about his conduct. She gave him her number and walked home (he lives right near her, too) so, we'll see how that goes.
Then it was time to enjoy the last bit of just being friends together and schlepping off to the bus station. No problems on that score, even got a pit-stop this time, and used it to get a drink. Had a couple more diet cokes when I got home and got freakily unable to sit still or concentrate on anything at one time. Think I've swung too far into drinking less soft drink these days, so I can't just have 40 oz+ in a night and be calm any more. Instead, I enjoyed listening to techno far too loud in my earphones, realizing how much I've missed doing that, just drowning out all outside noise with music. I did that on the bus with NIN, U2, Garbage and Depeche Mode, though the rockier songs are really better for that. A few rounds of New Order's "Confusion" and I managed to convince myself to sleep, though not steadily. No more diet coke for me that late, and not that much, either.
Cut to today, where I've now spent close to $300 on gifts with six, possibly eight more people to go, three of whom are family members, which is okay, since I can do theirs last minute. Yay! I finally pulled off the great coup: shopping mostly online! Okay, so I have to go pick up some of the stuff at Best Buy this weekend, but still, no shipping! No hassle! Woo!
We went out to dinner with friends from her program, all of whom were really good (by good, I don't mean to have poor grammar, I just mean that they were 'good people' meaning nice, funny, and earnest), incredibly smart, and not at all afraid to speak their minds. Dinner were tapas shared between the lot of us, and by the end I'd found something to like in each and everyone of them, though I think the friendliest by far was Liz's friend Sarah (she reminded me of Hattie, physically, at least). We were soaked through by the time we got home, and more than a little glad not to go out and do anything while it was rainy and icky. This occasioned a meeting with Liz's housemate, Josh, whom she calls a 'sexual predator' and which he does not deny or find offensive. He was, in a word, great. He reminded me a little of Cindy's friend Tim in looks, but much more ribald and funny. Definitely a comedian, even if he's an emotional terrorizer of women.
By dint of me not having any specific site-seeing plans in mind, I agreed that it was high time to go shopping with Liz. She did better than I, getting more things, I mean, but we mostly just window shopped/browsed. She didn't end up buying any ornaments that she wanted (and thus starting a collection of her own), which was rather ironic as by the time we got back from one shopping jaunt, a tree had materialized in the living room (just that morning, she'd seen a tree stand and said "Huh, I wonder if this means we're getting a tree" but thought better of it). I browsed in a comic store for the first time in a dog's age (new year's resolution: visit comic shops more often!), but I hurried Liz out when Aqua Teen Hunger Force came on (that show is too weird). We trekked out to a mall where I stopped and bought myself a shirt at Old Navy because it was cute, and, as it turned out, cheap ($6.25! Plus, does anyone know if MA has no sales tax? The display said $12.50, and I guess there was a 50% discount, but that's all I paid, exactly $6.25). I also bought Carrie a ::EDITED:: at ::NO WAY, JOSE::. I was going to get my father some margarita glasses, but a call to my mother nixed that idea. Still looking for him.
Oh yeah, in the middle of the shopping spree, we stopped at two places to try free wine and cheese. Owing to the high concentration of college students in Liz's area (three schools' worth), they ID'd us everywhere, but we got some nice Rieslings and Indian food (which went surprisingly well together) at one store, then we moved on to the 'marquee' liquor store nearer to her house (It looks like an old fashioned movie theater, all lit up with a giant marquee advertising the tastings on Saturdays). That had a two spreads, one of whites and reds and one separate one for sparkling whites and champagnes. I barely stomached a lot of the whites and not a few of the reds; I just didn't have the taste for it, and made judicious use of the waste bucket they had. Methinks reusing the cup might have had something to do with it. We did find this absolutely great wine, Bouteille Call (that's right, it's Booty Call), which we went back for after dinner. I picked up a spare bottle for Christmas with my family.
Dinner...oh dear god, dinner. It was Brazilian BBQ, which means and endless supply of meat went by our table. This place had two things the one in Scarsdale didn't: 1) it only cost $19.99, and 2) it also served sushi and sashimi. Most people reading this know that I don't like Japanese food for the most part, sushi in particular, but I figured why not try everything and see if I liked something after all? I tried red snapper, tuna, and salmon on rice rolls, seaweed-wrapped eel, philly, and tuna rolls, and something else with eel in it. The eel was flat out disgusting, and the red snapper was a disappointment (especially as I'd only gotten it because of that line in UHF where that karate guy goes, "Mmm, red snapper! Very tasty!"). The seaweed rolls were uniformly icky, though not as bad as the eel. The salmon and tuna were mostly tasteless, unless dipped in soy sauce with wasabi, but why not just get rice and dump it in soy sauce then? Needless to say, I am no closer to going to the Yuka with folks than I was before.
On the other hand, I got a crap load of steak, sirloin, and, the best, TURKEY WRAPPED IN BACON before I'd let us give up, and I still wasn't full! I did manage to fill up after a really tasty rasperry alcoholic smoothie at a bar, in which Liz and I watched hog-tying and barrel racing rodeo stuffs. My only comment on that was "These are the people who voted for Bush," to which Liz could only agree and add that the uniforms were only differentiated by the tastelessness of one flannel plaid shirt versus that of another. We had our drinks, we picked up Dodgeball and drank our Booty Call wine. By the time it got to the surprise cameo of DOOM, I was dying. All Liz could say was "WHO WROTE THIS MOVIE?!" over and over. Seeing as I'd bought it for my brother for his birthday (and confirmed that he liked it earlier that morning), I'm glad it was so stupid funny.
Tuesday this past week, a guy approached Liz in Starbucks and told her it would make his day if she sat down and had coffee with him. She had friends waiting for her, and said no, but he gave her an e-mail address and she exchanged a few with him. His name was Baron, and he was a big hiking/nature guy, which is so not Liz at all, but which he tried to make her appreciate with pictures of bugs and dirt, things she said she didn't like. She said they could go get lunch while I was there, and he asked if that was really okay, to take up time with a friend from out of town. Unbeknownst to Baron, but knownst to us, Liz really wanted me there as chaperone/excuse to leave if necessary/distraction/more embarrassing than her person.
Baron showed up to the Vietnamese place with an apologetic story: his new account with Bank of America hadn't opened yet, so he could only pay in Euros. Euros! He would have given her a killer rate for it, too. We assured him we'd work something out, and we all sat down to dinner. I think I did pretty well not giving away too many of Liz's secrets or how she felt about this meeting, or what I was doing there (I sorta jokingly said exactly why I was there, and that got buried under other things I said). Mostly, I managed to embarrass the crap out of her by being completely shameless and telling personal stuff to a stranger, but it wasn't like it's anything secret, really, and nothing that I said I worry will get back to people I know. I enjoyed my send-off lunch, and, as it turned out, since they accepted credit, Baron was able to pay after all; he actually paid for both of us! Very sweet, nice guy, if a tad intense. Liz confessed to him that it was a bit weird how he approached her, though we were able to confirm it as being a very California thing if only because all her friends from California seemed to think there was nothing amiss about his conduct. She gave him her number and walked home (he lives right near her, too) so, we'll see how that goes.
Then it was time to enjoy the last bit of just being friends together and schlepping off to the bus station. No problems on that score, even got a pit-stop this time, and used it to get a drink. Had a couple more diet cokes when I got home and got freakily unable to sit still or concentrate on anything at one time. Think I've swung too far into drinking less soft drink these days, so I can't just have 40 oz+ in a night and be calm any more. Instead, I enjoyed listening to techno far too loud in my earphones, realizing how much I've missed doing that, just drowning out all outside noise with music. I did that on the bus with NIN, U2, Garbage and Depeche Mode, though the rockier songs are really better for that. A few rounds of New Order's "Confusion" and I managed to convince myself to sleep, though not steadily. No more diet coke for me that late, and not that much, either.
Cut to today, where I've now spent close to $300 on gifts with six, possibly eight more people to go, three of whom are family members, which is okay, since I can do theirs last minute. Yay! I finally pulled off the great coup: shopping mostly online! Okay, so I have to go pick up some of the stuff at Best Buy this weekend, but still, no shipping! No hassle! Woo!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 07:01 pm (UTC)(Where is the korean BBQ place you mentioned? Sounds tasty!)
Welcome, my dear...
Date: 2004-12-13 07:02 pm (UTC)On another note, sounds like you had a fun weekend. Shame you missed the party though.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 07:04 pm (UTC)Ewww... eel. Bleh. That's pretty much the only sushi I won't eat. That, and the poisonous stuff.
Yay for weird bug & dirt men with Euros!
I gotta check out Dodgeball some time.
Online shopping is totally the way to go. I don't know how people ever got Christmas shopping done in The Before Time. I suppose if you don't know exactly what to get for people it's useful, but it is so very stressful.
Re: Welcome, my dear...
Date: 2004-12-13 07:05 pm (UTC)There's no real match for the turkey breast wrapped in bacon, and I don't know anyone who's tried it that hasn't loved it.
Oh how quickly we forget. What about the chicken breast wrapped in Ozark bacon with a apricot honey glaze *_-
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 09:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, sorry about not saying hi and such, next time. I thought you'd be too busy 'cause end of semester stuffs. Sorry duder.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-14 03:10 am (UTC)*hides*
no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 02:40 am (UTC)Also, being asked for ID is always a good thing, provided you have it.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 04:07 pm (UTC)-heddy
no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 05:32 pm (UTC)Yeah, baby, yeah. And, oh yes, I went there.