true story

Day Fourteen of my leave of absence was quite entertaining. Katie and I slept until almost eleven, and then I regretted waking up when I discovered that the pilot light in my furnace is out, and due to the fact that these apartments are barely insulated, the temperature inside dropped 10+ degrees overnight. I won't be able to get it relit until tomorrow, which is v. sad. Anyway, we sat around for a few hours, played with our makeup, etc., before finally reaching Peter's Cafe for a v. late lunch around 3:30pm. We were both starving since we hadn't eaten anything all day, and so made quick work of a couple of delicious cheeseburgers. Katie was so enamored with Peter's Cafe that we intend to go back there tomorrow on our way to an outing with Vidius Chandicus. But, that's a story for tomorrow!

We then progressed to the evil city, where we picked up Vidya and went to Samovar (which, as you might guess, serves tea - and since it's in the evil city, you might also guess that it's entirely too filled with a hippie vibe and a multiply-pierced waitstaff). I made the mistake of ordering the 'Samovar Russian Caravan' - while I really like Russian-blend teas (v. smoky-tasting), the thing about this tea was that I had to get up and serve myself whenever I wanted another cup. This was supposedly because it's so authentic (since it comes out of a samovar), but it's annoying to pay $9.00 plus tax and tip for something that requires you to crawl out of your ridiculous cushion-strewn elevated dais and serve yourself. However, I enjoyed drinking six cups to get my money's worth, and also had a fabulous time with Katie and Vidya. They seemed to hit it off quite well, and all was v. lovely.

After Samovar, we went to a winebar, where Adit met us, and we shared a bottle of something reasonably-tasty and reasonably-priced. We then proceeded to Luna Park, where we met up with John, Jess, Sri (Sandwiches), Oniel (Bill Crosby), and Peder (Timmy Timer). I had a delicious fontina-stuffed ravioli with mushrooms, spinach, and truffle oil, none of which I will be able to procure in ye olde Iowa. However, the food is never the focus of one of those endeavors; instead, we proceeded to discuss a wide variety of things, few of which made sense, but all of which produced varying degrees of amusement and/or annoyance for our dining companions. For the waitstaff, we were likely just completely annoying, but we had a good time. We spent some time harassing Oniel about dating; Katie quietly got to know Timmy Timer better than I ever have; and for whatever reason, Adit is trying to make 'El Penguino' stick as his nickname. I'm glad Katie had a good time, since that group can be an acquired taste (due to the fact that we tend to be v. obnoxious and at any given time, someone has to be unhappy), and it was v. nice to spend some quality time with them since I'm leaving in a week and a half.

Adit, Vidya, Sri, Peder, Katie and I went to a bar for an hour or so after dinner, before Katie, Sri and I headed back down the peninsula. All in all, it was quite the enjoyable day. Tomorrow promises to be good as well, since we're going to see a movie w/Vidya and have dinner with Sri. Hopefully, Katie will continue to be enamored with my friends! Now, though, I need to go burrow under my covers before I freeze to death. Goodnight!