Happy birthday to me! Also, happy national day of mourning! While the whole 9/11 thing has gotten easier than it was a few years ago (note that most of the coverage this year seemed to be of the "are we commemorating enough?" variety, not "omg we must recount everything that happened that day" variety), I was still pretty depressed about it this morning. Or maybe I was depressed about Nick and Ellie; they're going well, but I tend to expect perfection, and they're not perfect yet.
sssanyway. My plans during the day were mildly awry; I wanted to have brunch somewhere else since my kitchen was dirty and I didn't want to cook, but the restaurant I usually go to down the street is closed on Tuesdays (a fact I remembered after I threw on clothes and walked down the block), and nowhere else within a couple of blocks is easy for gluten-free enjoyment. So I came back and ate here, after cleaning the kitchen; the melodramatic version is that I ate tuna fish out of a can, but the less melodramatic version is that I made tuna salad and then made open-faced sandwiches with toasted gluten free bread. Yum. Then I worked for six hours, with a couple of breaks to talk to the 'rents and my sister, plus two trips to the corner store to get Diet Mountain Dew (necessary) and half and half (useless, since it turns out my coffee is no good; yes, I'm a coffee snob now).
The writing is what it is, and I won't concentrate on it now. Around 6:15, I threw in the towel, dolled myself up, and grabbed a taxi to the downtown/Union Square/Financial District area, where I had plans to have a girls' night dinner followed by post-dinner drinks, all at the Burritt Room/Tavern. Due to various scheduling difficulties, people couldn't all come at the same time, so I had dinner with Lauren (aka Subz), Katrina, and Terry in the main dining area of Burritt Tavern. I'd requested a booth, which was awesome; we had little curtains to divide us from the dining room, which was fun even though it probably made us even more prone to be forgotten by the staff. I had an utterly lovely time, and the food was to die for (one of the best salads I've had in recent memory, with endive/arugula/grape/goat cheese, plus an amazing salmon dish that included a corn puree, a creme fraiche, and some great veggies, and a sorbet/gelato dessert). But the service was admittedly pretty terrible; I liked our waiter, but the wait between courses was crazy, and more unacceptably, the wait to have dishes cleared was way too long. And the other waitress spilled quite a bit of wine while trying to pour it. Oops.
That said, though, the food was awesome, and since we were in no rush and the venue felt quite private, it was perfect for the sharing of confidences (which is what dinner devolved into, since my friends, and Lauren in particular, like to ask for reflections on the past year and thoughts on the coming year -- all of which made it patently obvious that I'm too hard on myself, since I only came up with criticisms and took approximately five minutes to mention that I'd published two books this year). And then we adjourned with our desserts to the bar area outside the restaurant, where we met up with John, Jess, Adit, Priyanka, and Nathan.
So, between two hours of dinner and two and a half hours of cocktails, I feel like I've well and truly celebrated my birthday; as with every birthday since 2001, I started off pretty depressed, which was then made up for by enjoying some quality time with friends. Two and a half glasses of tempranillo and three cocktails (Singapore Spice, Strawberry Macaroon, and some gin/egg white/raspberry concoction whose name escapes me) was probably enough to make me enjoy anything, but I'd prefer to believe that my friends were responsible. When we finally adjourned, John and Jess dropped me off at home, and now I must sleep so that (fingers crossed) my hangover is bearable tomorrow and I accomplish what I need to get done. To all of you who sent me birthday wishes today - thank you! Goodnight!
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