And not just in Boston!!! According to our friend Dana Litman, who was definitely on a roll last night at Ellen's birthday party and regaled us with stories from distant countries, one has to be prepared for this when embarking on a journey to India. Seems that clear-cutting and other such wonderful practices have eliminated the canopies of the forests where the little monkeys hang out , and as a result they are now frequenting the streets and apparently also the apartments of the cities nearby - even breaking into refrigerators, stealing sodas (or whatever one would find in a fridge in India - Mango lassis? I would steal that in a second). At this point, I was almost ready to take the wine glass away from Dana who was sitting next to me - but you know what, the stories just got better as the evening got along. Dana, bless him, also has the capacity to participate in two conversations at once, seamlessly and effortlessly - while he was in the midst of discussing the best worst SciFi movie ever made with Waleed, he quickly jumped into the highly intellectual conversation at my end of the table which focused on who the hottest female movie star is these days, and when I mentioned Reese Witherspoon, he spun around, said "Love her", and quickly resumed his discussion with Waleed.
It was a hysterically funny evening, our dinner group had congregated and surprised Ellen with a birthday shindig; Paula and Waleed had graciously hosted this event in their mod house out in Lexington. The air was full of spices and we happily anticipated the exquisite Middle Eastern food, for which the partially Egyptian Meleis household is known for. By the time I got home it was inching in on mid-night, and I think my stomach is still digesting yesterday evening's food - it was that good and I ate that much, yesssir.
Would you believe it, aside from the dinner last night, I had made NO social plans all weekend? I have been pretty much holed up in my office yesterday and today, loading up pictures from my brother's visit (almost done, expect them tonight or tomorrow - all 340 of them) and filling out my US citizenship application. After I am done, I will go shopping for Thanksgiving, and that is it! I have been trying to keep the weekends a bit more open, as the weekdays seem to be nuts, one crazier than the other, in particular when it comes to work-related responsibilities. Preparations for advisory board meetings and a two-day visit by a Pharma company pretty much floored me this week, and Wednesday night following a business dinner, I went home at 8:30 PM and headed straight into the dark bedroom, did not even turn the light on, straight to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
The week started off with a great event, the "Flavors of the Fall" at the Regatta Bar (http://www.regattabarjazz.com/) in the Charles Hotel in Cambridge (http://www.charleshotel.com/). Both of these places are superbly stylish, and the Regatta Bar is one the prime jazz venues in Boston, bar none (no pun intended). For the "Flavors of the fall" hoopla, the best chefs Cambridge has to offer congregated in the bar, and served up mouth-watering autumnal cuisine - lemme tell you, it was AWESOME!!!
Here is the line-up: Chez Henri (http://chezhenri.com/), Upstairs on the Square (http://www.upstairsonthesquare.com/), Rialto (http://www.rialto-restaurant.com/home/), Sandrine's Bistro (http://www.sandrines.com/), The Blue Room (http://theblueroom.net/main.html), Harvest (http://www.harvestcambridge.com/), Gargoyle's (http://gargoylesonthesquare.com/), Dante (http://restaurantdante.com/), Henrietta's Table (http://www.henriettastable.com/), Noir (http://www.noir-bar.com/), and Casablanca (http://www.casablanca-restaurant.com/). Who knew there were so many hoity- toity restaurants in the People's Republic of Cambridge, eh? Were I the judge, Dante would have to be the winner for the night, and Noir for their blueberry champagne cocktail, and some other concoction that had brandy and apple cider in it; Sandrine's Bistro had a killer creme brulee that needs to be mentioned, but at the end of the night, everyone seemed to congregate around the JP Lick's (http://www.jplicks.com) table with their free coffee and eight different kinds of ice cream (I can highly recommend the cranberry cheesecake flavor). Holly, Christos and I then zipped down to Noir and ended the evening on a cocktail that was either named LA Confidential or the Usual Suspects (for some reason I can only remember it was a Kevin Spacey movie...).
Flavors of the Fall an annual charity event, and this year's beneficiary was a Cambridge-based non-profit called CycleKids (http://www.cyclekids.org/), which teaches youngsters about the joys of riding bikes, as well as safety and bike maintenance.
Tuesday night, my friend Andrew and I met up at the 1369 Coffee House (http://www.1369coffeehouse.com/) on Mass Ave for our monthly philosophizing, which was much needed. Wednesday evening was the business dinner, emphasis on business, at the Pierrot Bistro on Cambridge Street (http://www.pierrotbistrot.com) , and Thursday was the first official "Petra Time" evening for the week.
For Friday I had signed up for ushering, this time at my favorite meeting hall in Boston, Faneuil Hall, and as usual for the Boston Classical Orchestra (http://www.bostonclassicalorchestra.org/) . I try to usher for them once or twice per season, and mostly just sign on for a particular date, not even knowing what is on tap for the night. This orchestra is just so cool and so talented, you must go and see them some time. The program this time was under the motto "Stolzman and the British are Coming" and maybe it should have been more adequately named "The Not-So-British" are coming, as the four composers featured all were born in Britain, but only one of them was actually a bona fide Brit. Edward Elgar, who I for certain had never heard of, was an English romantic composer, who lived around the turn of the century (20th that is) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Elgar). I loved, just loved his Serenade in e Minor. The rest of the gang of composers included Gustav Holst (who you may know for his composition "The Planets"), a very prolific and fun artist, also born in the UK, but of Swedish-Russian-Latvian decent - his real name was Gustavus von Holst, and last but not least, Gerald Finzi, an Italian Jewish composer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Finzi. Finzi's Clarinet Concerto was performed by Richard Stolzman, a world-famous clarinetist, who is known for both classical and jazz adaptations. The audience was so taken by his performance, that at times you could have heard a pin drop and at the end he brought the crowd to its feet for a standing ovation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stoltzman).
My friends, time to go shopping for TGD - I am hosting a turkey dinner at my place this Thursday, Hannah, Christos, Teresa, Peter, Dagmar and I will celebrate the holiday in traditional fashion, with lots of food, loose fitting pants and a nap.
Gobble, gobble!
Petra
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