time to eat
my Best Restos in Seattle 2023 list ran last week to great fanfare, although the sheen has sort of worn off already. i guess it's been exactly a week. glad i did it, glad it's over. the response has been great: the owners of the best restos (bestos) who i happen to know personally have said they've all been happily slammed as a result.
i've been asked to make some short instagram reels to help promote the restaurants on it, just four or five of the 15 restaurants, and that will certainly help bring the beat back from last week. i have great trepidation about my videos being shitty, but it would smart and wise to just do this regardless. the on-staff videographer will help me polish it up. also who cares, people watch those things for like ten seconds tops.
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hanging out with chef long beach a lot this week, mostly to talk about our cookbook proposal. we spent the morning at a culinary bookstore, looking for inspiration, and he bought me two expensive books that i fell in love with on the spot. <3 then we went out to breakfast (at one of my 2023 bestos), and he wants me to go hang out at his shop later tonight too, when i'm done with work.
things have been very texty, very late at night as well. i think nothing will ever happen between us romantically, but he is acting kind of emotionally dependent. he does seem pretty devoted to his (pretty young) girlfriend, who he lives with, but she seems a little sick of his shit. good luck to you both.
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chef guayaquil disappeared for a while and then reemerged with 10,000 texts with heart emojis in them and then vanished once more. he can't fool me again; i didn't fall for the lovey textstorm this time. i know he has kids and is busy, but nah.
i've given up on his cookbook project---it's impossible to imagine having a weekly meeting to talk about a proposal with this flaky motherfucker, or even a single meeting. he's never in the shop when he says he is; i'll say "hey, i'm coming by!" and he's like great see you soon, and then he checks in on facebook in vancouver, BC, or miami or something. maybe someday.
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stephen has been sweet and nice. boy has been love-languaging me all kinds of beautiful meals lately, and it works. i feel loved by him. message received.
he seems like he's in better shape mentally too---i've dialed down my drinking by about 90 percent and lost a few pounds, and he's slightly following my lead (although he's swapped in weed for booze), so that could be it. alcohol's a neurotoxin, eh, go figure.
i was actually up by about 12 pounds due to a very late perimenopausal period, all bloat, but now that my cycle has come and gone, i'm back down to the 220s. still aiming for 190 or so. that's still a little overweight for 5'11", but my pal lola, who's a fitness trainer, was saying it's probably fine because "you're pretty ripped underneath the fat." it's true. i'm strong as hell.
not eating at three or four restaurants per week, because i'm compiling a master list of the city's best, will be helpful to this end too.