I learned the word atelier yesterday

Gretchen and I went on a non-date last night to Teranga, a Senegalese restaurant in the South End. Or at least I think it was the South End. Basically, you get off at Mass Ave and Newbury and keep walking for 15 minutes. Yeah. South End.

Anyway, it was delicious. I might have been more smitten with the plates than the actual food, and that's saying something since the food was pretty incredible. It's hard to believe (I know!!) but I've never had plantains before. Last night I was initiated into the club. They weren't overly sweet and tasted more like giant sweet potato fries than starchy bananas.

It's fun to go to a West African restaurant with someone who has lived in West Africa for a number of years. Because when they order they sound all knowledgeable and cultured. And then YOU go to order and you butcher their words with your thick, naive American accent. So instead of asking for the name of the dessert dish, you say "I don't know how to pronounce this, so I'm just gonna say 'I'll have the donuts.'" Classy, right?

It is day 4 with no cable. I haven't even turned my tv on once. (Though I did watch the latest amazing episode (with song!) of How I Met Your Mother online.) I should have done this about 2 years ago.

Unnecessary tears

I'm sitting on the stationary bike at the gym listening to some yuppy podcast and watching the (soundless) morning news on one of the TVs. A Hallmark card commercial comes on with an extended family sitting around the dinner table. It is the matriarch's birthday and she is opening a card from, seemingly, one of her relatives. You see her read the outside of the card and open it up to reveal the words "Happy Birthday Love, So-and-So." (It didn't actually say So-and-So, but I don't remember the name.) But that's it. That's all it says inside. And yet, she continues to stare at the inside of the card. Close up on her face to reveal that she's on the verge of tears after receiving such an emotional, heartfelt card. And there I am completely bewildered by this. She has spent 6 seconds reading 4 words, is STILL staring at the nearly blank card, and is close to weeping. What the fuck? Is this woman mentally retarded? I think to myself that Hallmark is way overdoing it and no one cares this much about a friggin' birthday card when the words "Hallmark Recordable Greeting Cards" comes on the screen. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, okay. I get it now.