yuppie food weekend, or why you'll stop reading this blog

let's pick up where we left off, shall we?


I had a story to tell you about my weekend.

I was going to tell you how I met Ted after work on Friday to work on our summer fun to-do list. We took the train to Brooklyn to eat pizza at Grimaldi’s, which I think at least rivals Lombardi’s. It was early, so there wasn’t much of a line. We walked over to the water, where there’s an amazing view of Manhattan. Ted took prom photos there, and we saw a wedding party with the same idea.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, into Manhattan. I’d never done it, and we were able to check that off the list. I feel a little sorry for Ted that he’ll never be able to see the city as a tourist. But, as he’s from around here, we did walk over so he could show me his high school. We walked a little more, and at Bleecker Street, I asked if he’d ever been to Cones for gelato. And he decided we should go right then, even though we were on our way to pick up pie. So I got to show him something, and we split a cone.

Up to 13th Street to pick up (but not eat) pie (not our usual yummy-delicious cookies) at Milk Bar, and we crossed another thing off our list. We’d had an entire pizza plus that gelato, so it went straight in the fridge. We stretched, Ted made a Google map of our adventure (about 7 miles of walking), we cuddled, and we fell asleep exhausted.

I was going to tell you how we woke up late on Saturday, and ate our Crack Pie before we (officially) got out of bed. I’ve never eaten crack, but I think this was probably even more delicious. We had coffee around the corner from Ted’s place while we waited the hour and a half for a table at Clinton Street Bakery. I decided that I want to be friends with the café’s French proprietress and that sometime soon we’ll have our breakfast there. I’m not sure yet if I’ll have an almond croissant or a pain au chocolat. Maybe I’ll just have une tartine.

While we continued to wait for brunch outside the restaurant, and the host called lots of parties of threes and fours who’d given up, we (jokingly?) tried to convince a couple to sit with us so we could have the table. Once we’d finally gotten inside and ordered, Ted mentioned them again. We both admitted that we were pretty sure if we’d sat with them we would have been best friends by the end of the meal. We were both a little disappointed at the missed opportunity (evidenced by regular checking to see if they were still there), but wholly satisfied with our meal. Ted had the blueberry pancakes, I had the banana-walnut ones (which are better), and he managed to clean both plates.

I was going to tell you how, as we pulled into the Ikea parking lot, Ted commented on the yuppie-ness of our afternoon in Red Hook. We browsed shelving and plates and those fun little fake apartments they set up. Then we went to Fairway, which is even better than the one on the Upper West Side, and it was pretty adorable to see Ted picking out plums and buying swordfish steaks and comparing organic cleaning supplies. I was going to tell you about a comical (and still quite unexplained) grocery cart mix-up.

We got home and played gender roles. Ted put together furniture while I made dinner, and it felt sort-of right. On Sunday morning, he finished the previous night’s salad while I ate cookies and watermelon and chocolate. And it was a good thing I had to pop into work for a while, or he might never have gotten rid of me.

Those were the stories I was going to tell. Then I realized that that’s not why you are here. There are no more weeks of making out with five different boys or skipping work because of date hangovers or surprise late-night visitors. The kissing is great, but it’s not shocking or controversial. I’m not even fighting this serious relationship thing anymore.

Happy is boring. This blog is boring.

You’ll probably quit reading, but when you check in, the blog will be all pictures of what we had for dinner and very serious discussions of dvd storage solutions. I should just quit writing and buy some cute aprons from Anthropologie.

~beatrix

Dating boot camp: Domino Dave

Domino Dave and I had flirted and exchanged numbers, but we had yet to hang out. Unless, of course, you count the times when I brought him chips and salsa at the pub. Which I don't.

"What are you doing tonight?" he asked as I set down the chips and slid his Sprite towards him.

"Um, I'm working." You would think the salsa would have been a clue.

"What about later tonight?"

"Later tonight is late. I won't be done here until at least 3 am." (This is a major occupational hazard, by the way. Most men are willing to go grab a bite to eat at 3 am-- until they realize that you actually meant that you wanted to grab a bite to eat.)

Dave didn't care about the time. The plan was for me to call him when I finished work, and we would go to an all-night diner for our date. It seemed sort of romantic, getting to know each other over pancakes and bad coffee in the glow of the "Open 24 hours" neon sign. It had to be better than trying to talk to him and he and his friends played dominos. As luck would have it, I finished work early and was able to rush home and change out of my beer-soaked shirt. It was only 2:30-- I was early.

"Hey, it's Harper. I finished up early. Do you want to meet at the diner or do you want to pick me up?"

"Oh, hi.... Where do you live?"

"Right by the diner."

"Uh... (murmur murmur in the background) Umm... hang on."

I look at the phone. Had I somehow misunderstood? An hour ago, when Dave said we should go out tonight, had I failed to clarify his definition of "tonight"? Did I miss something when he said "go out"? Was his definition of pancakes different from mine?

"Listen," I say, clearly annoyed, "We can reschedule if this is a bad time."

"No, it's fine," he says. "It's just that I'm all the way at my buddy's house now. It's kind of far from you. You can come over if you want."

Silence on my end.

"But I don't want it to be awkward," he adds.

Good! He's not an idiot. He gets that this is weird, and I don't want to drive 45 minutes to watch him and his friends play dominos until the sun comes up. Not to mention, this was a first date. And I wanted pancakes.

"So," he says, "Can you bring a friend for my buddy? So he doesn't feel weird about it."

Yeah. Let's make sure he doesn't feel awkward.

I patiently explained that none of my friends were awake at this hour (now after 3 am) and I don't think they would appreciate me waking them up to drive to his friend's house. "Maybe another time," I offered before getting off the phone.

Worst part? No pancakes.

-Harper