Saturday was a LONG day. It was blisteringly hot and humid, and we were all waiting for rain that never came. Jamie played the first half of the makeup game for his Crozet team, Purple Galaxy, and got lots of accolades for his contributions to the team before he left. He then headed out to Richmond to play with his old team, the Rockville Rockets, as a ringer really. That left me with time to buckle down and work. The office was hot and I stayed sweaty most of the day. I spent 5 hours at the office finally completing a paper I’ve been struggling with for 70 days to revise. Now it rocks and if it doesn’t get published quickly and in a solid journal, I’ll be surprised. I decided to reward myself with an evening out with a big group from work. So I popped home, showered, and changed into my fun, swirly, kicky black and white sundress and the only black sandals I can tolerate with my still broken and painful toe.
Mike’s idea was to gather for drinks and dinner and Amy suggested Mono Loco on Water Street, just off the downtown mall. We had a group of 12 but Mike had made a reservation so we were accomodated on the unlit side of the large outdoor patio. We got to hear a little about Amy’s college reunion, Leah’s recent upstate New York marathon, Mike and Cecily’s upcoming move to Memphis, and Corey and Katie’s upcoming nuptials and her second graduation within a month! I’m sure the other end of the table had fun too, but it was too far and loud to hear what they were talking about. I had the fish tacos and could only eat about half of what was on the plate—they started with black beans and perfect rice, loaded on crisped red, yellow, and green sweet peppers, added some habaneros for fun, and layered on top of all that 2 perfect handmade tortillas and some crispy Mahi with a cilantro sauce. Yum! We also heard rave reviews for the roasted chicken which came in a au gratin style dish with a creamy sauce and lots of veggies and cheese, the p0rk tamale, and the chicken burrito. Several types of margaritas were sampled but they were a bit light on the tequila. We had a great time despite the humidity and loud crowd.
After losing Corey & Katie, Theresa & Mark, and Amy, who had high hopes for the rest of her evening, we headed for drinks on the downtown mall. Of course we ended up at the Rapture patio, and the beer drinkers in the crowd were satisfied. I had to make do with Knob Creek but really the crowd was why I was there. That and the notoriously uneven service which usually inspires multiple funny comments. Florence entertained Brad and the rest of us with wild stories of the politics of grad school and dealing with nearly autistic advisors, and made me feel better about what had to be one of my most bizarre job interviews ever. Mike informed me that we have a MySpace page for our project (we do????) and that we keep getting hit up to be friends with scantily clad young women, and that he has to spend a lot of time blocking them (yeah, yeah, better look through all those photos carefully!) We got to hear more about Stefania’s trip to Croatia and how much better its Adriatic is than on the Italian side. Stefania’s husband Alex entertained us with tales of their recent pool tournament fiasco and reassured me that the competitiveness and bad sports moods and related angry withdrawal after a soccer loss that I see in my eldest are normal, good signs—he’s a solidly American boy! Unfortunately, I’ll be dealing with those for at least another 9 years! We also got to hear longing comments from the gay guys when Mike got up to leave. We knew he was gonna get into trouble with those eyes…..
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