My friends - I am on the mend, at least from the flu, and as my energy is slowly being restored to normal levels, the social calendar is starting to fill up a wee bit. Thursday night was the first outing for the week – meeting up with my delightful friends Hannah and Holly for a nice bite to eat and some spirited conversation at The Paramount (http://www.paramountboston.com/pages/home.html) – one of my favorite eateries on Charles Street in Beacon Hill. Their grilled steak salad was quite phenom, and I did not hear any complaints from my two friends about their dinner choices either. The most interesting topic of discussion for the evening circled around a new fad that is apparently spreading like wild fire on the West Coast - “cuddle parties” (http://www.cuddleparty.com /). Labeled by the organizers as a “structured, safe workshop on boundaries, communication, intimacy and affection”, I am not quite sure what to think of it. Actually, it kind of weirds me out. Now, believe you me - I am a very huggy, touchy-feely kind of person, most of you know that – but cuddling with strangers – I DON’T THINK SO!
Now, going to the Boston Wine Expo yesterday (http://www.wine-expos.com/) at the Seaport World Trade Center (http://www.seaportboston.com/) was as close to cuddling as I was going to get this weekend. I made the mistake of heading first through the food isle upon entering the exhibit hall, and I was honestly starting to feel the beginnings of a bout of agoraphobia coming on. I quickly zipped over to the other end of the exhibit to see my friend Holly who had a stand there (her Chinese pearls are phenomenal and guess who went shopping for some pearly bling?). I then got into the swing of things, and initially by myself and later accompanied by my vivacious friend Hannah, enjoyed sampling wines from all over the world. Since winter had commenced again when we emerged from the World Trade Center, Hannah and I decided to first go for a bite to eat (my favorite neighborhood restaurant, The East Side Bar and Grille on Cambridge Street) and then head down to Flat Top Johnny’s (http://flattopjohnnys.com/) to shoot us some pool. This was a perfect thing to do – first of all FTJ’s is a phat place, 12 pool tables, hip music, good beer, and cool people just like us. Hannah and I had a grand old time – I am not the world’s best pool player by a long shot, and for some reason, the more I played the worse I got. I started out pretty decent, but I don’t think I hit any of the balls into a pocket during the last 30 minutes of our play (maybe except for the Eight Ball which delighted Hannah to no end.).
Friday night I was out too - a whole gang of us went to the North End to Café Pompei to celebrate my lab colleague and friend Susan Boisvert’s birthday. There were fifteen of us, and we had ourselves a lovely table in the downstairs section. The piano man sat right next to us regaling us with some pleasant and relaxing tunes, and the food was fantastic. Mike’s Pastry (http://www.mikespastry.com/) in the North End provided the chocolate mousse cake for desert, and the evening ended pleasantly with everyone crowding into Susan and Ann’s cozy living room playing a round of “Apple to Apples”.
The weather here in good old Cambridge has been a bit moody these days, and the past week snow, flurries, rain, sleet have been alternating happily and put on quite a display. You may go into a building and the sun is shining, and when you emerge an hour later, it looks as if Boston has changed its season in just that hour. Last night as Hannah and I walked home from our outing to Flat Top Johnny’s, snow was coming down heavily. This morning the sun was shining for just a wee bit, and of course as bad timing and my luck would have it, the minute I was off to Petco to get Oscar supplies it started raining buckets!!! There I was loaded with plastic bags, trying to prevent my loot from Borders (yes, I stopped at the book store) from getting completely soaked – it was not pretty. My hair now has turned into its Don King version of a do, some hair product may be needed to tame the beast that resides on top of my skull. Actually as a I am writing this to you, the weather has changed completely yet again, and now some kind of rain, no make that snow (changes by the minute), is being blown around at wind gusts of 30 mph. Fun!
Well, this Friday I got yet another cortisone shot for my right heel, and the ever-present plantar fasciitis. The X-ray revealed that I do have a ginormous bone spur, however that is not the cause of my pain, but inflammation in the plantar fascia is. The options are not many, except for a lot of patience, since many of these cases resolved eventually on their own. It may take 18 months though, and I am currently only going on month #7.
I have to say a big thank you today also to my friend Stephanie who I forgot to thank last week (when I was so dreadfully sick) for the delivery of a most delicious smoothie the size of a V8 engine. I thanked her by breaking the Nalgene bottle it was delivered in. I am that kind of a person.
Friends, time to go back to the living room, Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles are waiting. You must see the version with Jeremy Brett - he is devious, with a hint of arrogance and wicked smaaaht!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
PetJ
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment