I've officially reached the age where I no longer admit to my age
Happy day after my Birthday to me!
Yesterday was absolutely fabulous, and just what I needed; a day spent having fun, cuddling, and eating yumminess. A day spent in places I know, and places I've never been before. A nice mix of new and only new-ish in the city I'm only now starting to think of as home.
I slept in, which was decadently joyful, (especially after having woken up at 6:30am the day before, in some cosmic joke that I found Not-At-All funny) I found myself rising from between the sheets at around 11am, saying to the gorgeous sleepy-eyed boy next to me "I'd better get up, before I sleep my whole birthday away!" and padding off towards the bathroom, only to reach the phone, just as Autumn, (D's mother) called to wish me a happy birthday. She sang the traditional birthday song to me, which she followed with offers of love and support, the sort of kind words which, true to my character, nearly made me cry.
Our morning rituals complete, D and I headed out to enjoy the city. We stopped first at the World Cup coffee shop, a frequent haunt of ours, as it's a mere block from our apartment, and serves mochas, our lifeblood. From there we headed for downtown Portland, for a visit to the Nordstrom Rack, where I attempted to spend the gift certificate D's dad & step-mother had sent me, but I guess I just wasn't in a shopping mode, since I couldn't find anything I couldn't live without. I did have a very good time looking around and torturing D by trying on the ugliest sweaters ever made.
My ugly sweater fix sated, I realized I was hungry, so we headed off to Virginia cafe, a very old, and rather cool little diner/bar that was not too far away. D had read a story about it, apparently it's been in business for 93 years, and has been at its current location for 85 of those. If those walls could talk I'm sure they'd have a lot of really juicy gossip to share about people who have long-since forgotten their misspent youths. I ordered a bleu cheese bacon burger which was everything I wanted it to be, (complete with bleu cheese dripping onto my fingers when I squeezed the burger enough to fit it into my mouth....Ahh...Bliss) along with shrimp bisque which was really more of a corn chowder with a couple of bits of overcooked shrimp added for texture. Luckily the burger was big enough that I didn't have room for the soup, and perfect enough that I didn't mind.
At this point I decided that what I really wanted to do was find a place to play some pinball. I hadn't played in quite some time, but every now and then I get a hankering. D and I headed off in search of a phone book so that we could find the address for a place call Ground Kontrol (I’m offended by the K, but I'm sure I'll learn to live with it...Somehow) which is an arcade by day and a nightclub by, as I'm sure you've already surmised, night. By this time the weather had gone from chilly to chillier, and I was regretting my decision to forgo multiple layers of warmth and comfort in exchange for a cute top. With over a half mile of walking still ahead of me, I decided that the Ross store straight ahead was the answer to my prayers. There I found a lovely sparkly brown zip up hoodie sweater that manages to be insanely comfortable, while still retaining a little bit of cuteness, which D insisted on purchasing for me, along with my very own pool cue! I've always kind of wanted a pool cue, I'm a fan of the game, and it makes sense that using the same cue each time you play would allow you to adjust to the weight and feel of the cue, thereby allowing you a more consistent game, and a better ability to learn how to move the balls around the table in just the way you want them to move. Those things are all true, but mostly, I've always wanted my own pool cue because it's cool. I realize that I will now be automatically expected to be better than the average bear at a game that I do not particularly excel at, but I just don't care, because, deep down inside, I've always wanted to be cool, and having your own pool cue is undeniably cool. (It occurs to me that my version of what is, and is not, cool does not necessarily mesh with that of the rest of the world. I'm not letting that rain on my parade though)
Warmed by the comfy new sweater, and with a new, cooler, spring in my step, I grabbed D by the hand, and we headed off to find Ground Kontrol (Why, oh why, the K?!?) in the hopes that they would carry a pinball game that would fulfill my every pinball desire. I was actually hoping that they had either Attack from Mars or Medieval Madness, which are my two favorites, but I was only mildly disappointed to discover that, of the 15 or so pinball machines I had to choose from, neither was an option. I opted to try my hand at Batman Forever, which I found to be a worthy substitue. I only made the replay once, but I was still pretty happy I managed to do that, and had an absolutley fabulous time! D opted to leave me to my temporary obsession and wandered off to find a game he might enjoy. He ended up playing Tetris (another of my arcade favorites) and he made the high score list!
After proving to myself that I was really still as much of a geek now as I was a decade ago, I decided that I needed to take my new cue out for a test drive, so D and I headed for the bar that is connected to Touche, one of our favorite local restaurants. We'd attempted to hang out up there once before, but had been deterred by the obscene number of people with the same idea. It was early enough (around 5 by this point, I suspect) that only one other table was in use when we arrived, which was lovely. The music was nice, the drinks were well made, and the pool tables were full sized. My cue performed like an old pro, though I did not. D and I giggled and kissed, and alternately sucked and did surprisingly well, and it was really an amazingly good time. I asked the bartender if I could get a free drink since it was my birthday, and he agreed to give me a shot, provided it could be a shot of his choice. I hesitantly agreed, terrified that he was going to mix up something absolutely abysmal that I would have to choke down, but he was nice, and made me a drink he called a german chocolate cake. I have no idea what was in it, but it was dee-licious!
Having sufficiently demonstrated that neither D or I will ever make it as pool sharks in Vegas, or even Junction City, (population 4,721) we headed home to snuggle up on the couch, have a slice of boston creme cheesecake, (each bite eliciting moans of pleasure which only made D a little jealous) and finish watching the rest of Firewall, which we had started watching the day before. Once the movie was done, D headed off to the grocery store in search of ingredients for the "secret" dinner he was making me, and I curled up on the couch to enjoy the last few pages of Grass, an enormously entertaining and engrossing novel that came highly recommeded, and did not disappoint.
I finished my book before dinner was ready, but was shooed out of the kitchen when I attempted to sneak a peak, so I went back to the couch and started a new book. Dinner was served before I'd had a chance to become too engrossed in my new book, and it was absolutely fabulous. I was a little scared at first, since this was really the first time I'd seen D cook anything that required more than one dish, but the Fettucine Alfredo he made for me (one of my favorite dishes) was really yummy. He had purchased a bottle of wine for the occasion the week before (at the seafood and wine festival, where we'd had a chance to taste, and be amazed by the best white wine I've ever tasted) and he even included a salad on the side, a very nice gesture from a boy who's not a particular fan of things that are naturally green. (he's fine with appletinis and lime jello)
While I lounged around and enjoyed being full of yumminess D cleaned up the kitchen and did my laundry. (I know I'm the luckiest girl in the world) Then we played Scrabble and watched crappy TV while we finished up the bottle of wine; the perfect ending to a perfect Birthday
Yesterday was absolutely fabulous, and just what I needed; a day spent having fun, cuddling, and eating yumminess. A day spent in places I know, and places I've never been before. A nice mix of new and only new-ish in the city I'm only now starting to think of as home.
I slept in, which was decadently joyful, (especially after having woken up at 6:30am the day before, in some cosmic joke that I found Not-At-All funny) I found myself rising from between the sheets at around 11am, saying to the gorgeous sleepy-eyed boy next to me "I'd better get up, before I sleep my whole birthday away!" and padding off towards the bathroom, only to reach the phone, just as Autumn, (D's mother) called to wish me a happy birthday. She sang the traditional birthday song to me, which she followed with offers of love and support, the sort of kind words which, true to my character, nearly made me cry.
Our morning rituals complete, D and I headed out to enjoy the city. We stopped first at the World Cup coffee shop, a frequent haunt of ours, as it's a mere block from our apartment, and serves mochas, our lifeblood. From there we headed for downtown Portland, for a visit to the Nordstrom Rack, where I attempted to spend the gift certificate D's dad & step-mother had sent me, but I guess I just wasn't in a shopping mode, since I couldn't find anything I couldn't live without. I did have a very good time looking around and torturing D by trying on the ugliest sweaters ever made.
My ugly sweater fix sated, I realized I was hungry, so we headed off to Virginia cafe, a very old, and rather cool little diner/bar that was not too far away. D had read a story about it, apparently it's been in business for 93 years, and has been at its current location for 85 of those. If those walls could talk I'm sure they'd have a lot of really juicy gossip to share about people who have long-since forgotten their misspent youths. I ordered a bleu cheese bacon burger which was everything I wanted it to be, (complete with bleu cheese dripping onto my fingers when I squeezed the burger enough to fit it into my mouth....Ahh...Bliss) along with shrimp bisque which was really more of a corn chowder with a couple of bits of overcooked shrimp added for texture. Luckily the burger was big enough that I didn't have room for the soup, and perfect enough that I didn't mind.
At this point I decided that what I really wanted to do was find a place to play some pinball. I hadn't played in quite some time, but every now and then I get a hankering. D and I headed off in search of a phone book so that we could find the address for a place call Ground Kontrol (I’m offended by the K, but I'm sure I'll learn to live with it...Somehow) which is an arcade by day and a nightclub by, as I'm sure you've already surmised, night. By this time the weather had gone from chilly to chillier, and I was regretting my decision to forgo multiple layers of warmth and comfort in exchange for a cute top. With over a half mile of walking still ahead of me, I decided that the Ross store straight ahead was the answer to my prayers. There I found a lovely sparkly brown zip up hoodie sweater that manages to be insanely comfortable, while still retaining a little bit of cuteness, which D insisted on purchasing for me, along with my very own pool cue! I've always kind of wanted a pool cue, I'm a fan of the game, and it makes sense that using the same cue each time you play would allow you to adjust to the weight and feel of the cue, thereby allowing you a more consistent game, and a better ability to learn how to move the balls around the table in just the way you want them to move. Those things are all true, but mostly, I've always wanted my own pool cue because it's cool. I realize that I will now be automatically expected to be better than the average bear at a game that I do not particularly excel at, but I just don't care, because, deep down inside, I've always wanted to be cool, and having your own pool cue is undeniably cool. (It occurs to me that my version of what is, and is not, cool does not necessarily mesh with that of the rest of the world. I'm not letting that rain on my parade though)
Warmed by the comfy new sweater, and with a new, cooler, spring in my step, I grabbed D by the hand, and we headed off to find Ground Kontrol (Why, oh why, the K?!?) in the hopes that they would carry a pinball game that would fulfill my every pinball desire. I was actually hoping that they had either Attack from Mars or Medieval Madness, which are my two favorites, but I was only mildly disappointed to discover that, of the 15 or so pinball machines I had to choose from, neither was an option. I opted to try my hand at Batman Forever, which I found to be a worthy substitue. I only made the replay once, but I was still pretty happy I managed to do that, and had an absolutley fabulous time! D opted to leave me to my temporary obsession and wandered off to find a game he might enjoy. He ended up playing Tetris (another of my arcade favorites) and he made the high score list!
After proving to myself that I was really still as much of a geek now as I was a decade ago, I decided that I needed to take my new cue out for a test drive, so D and I headed for the bar that is connected to Touche, one of our favorite local restaurants. We'd attempted to hang out up there once before, but had been deterred by the obscene number of people with the same idea. It was early enough (around 5 by this point, I suspect) that only one other table was in use when we arrived, which was lovely. The music was nice, the drinks were well made, and the pool tables were full sized. My cue performed like an old pro, though I did not. D and I giggled and kissed, and alternately sucked and did surprisingly well, and it was really an amazingly good time. I asked the bartender if I could get a free drink since it was my birthday, and he agreed to give me a shot, provided it could be a shot of his choice. I hesitantly agreed, terrified that he was going to mix up something absolutely abysmal that I would have to choke down, but he was nice, and made me a drink he called a german chocolate cake. I have no idea what was in it, but it was dee-licious!
Having sufficiently demonstrated that neither D or I will ever make it as pool sharks in Vegas, or even Junction City, (population 4,721) we headed home to snuggle up on the couch, have a slice of boston creme cheesecake, (each bite eliciting moans of pleasure which only made D a little jealous) and finish watching the rest of Firewall, which we had started watching the day before. Once the movie was done, D headed off to the grocery store in search of ingredients for the "secret" dinner he was making me, and I curled up on the couch to enjoy the last few pages of Grass, an enormously entertaining and engrossing novel that came highly recommeded, and did not disappoint.
I finished my book before dinner was ready, but was shooed out of the kitchen when I attempted to sneak a peak, so I went back to the couch and started a new book. Dinner was served before I'd had a chance to become too engrossed in my new book, and it was absolutely fabulous. I was a little scared at first, since this was really the first time I'd seen D cook anything that required more than one dish, but the Fettucine Alfredo he made for me (one of my favorite dishes) was really yummy. He had purchased a bottle of wine for the occasion the week before (at the seafood and wine festival, where we'd had a chance to taste, and be amazed by the best white wine I've ever tasted) and he even included a salad on the side, a very nice gesture from a boy who's not a particular fan of things that are naturally green. (he's fine with appletinis and lime jello)
While I lounged around and enjoyed being full of yumminess D cleaned up the kitchen and did my laundry. (I know I'm the luckiest girl in the world) Then we played Scrabble and watched crappy TV while we finished up the bottle of wine; the perfect ending to a perfect Birthday