dinner at via mare

I had dinner with a friend tonight at Via Mare. I actually have a lot of things to say, but I don't know what they are. I cannot believe that I cannot remember most of what happened while we were having dinner.

I met her at Fully Booked, which was a haven for booklovers like me. I was able to browse through my usual Arturo-Perez fiction to the Soccer Almanac 2004 to Photography in the Digital Age to the Basics of Sketching, Watercolor and Acrylics. After 2 years of not seeing her, I immediately recognized her.

Anyway, after haggling our way on who gets to choose the place to eat, she chose Via Mare and so off we went. She of course ordered her favorite baked oysters and some pasta while i preferred the lasagna.

I can certainly vouch that she has loosened up a bit. I think her 6-month trip to New York and exploration of NYU certainly did it's trick. There's her comment on how one of our friends would be enjoying her time "with the old ladies" instead of referring to them as "mature ones" as she normally would; there's her comment on how she told someone that give her the usual mabait, responsible guy who would make her happy and she'll marry him by tomorrow so long as he's good looking enough. Oh and she also clarified that she doesn't think she'll get married anytime soon at one minute and the next she's telling me how when she was leaving Bel Air a few weeks back, she saw a top-down Mercedes entering the village and until now she has not forgotten the features of the very handsome driver of that wonderful car. And then there's her cookie-jar Christmas gift concept when she asked for my opinion about it. After asking her what, aside from the gift inside the jar, she intends to do to the jar itself to make it more "Christmas-y", she shrugged her shoulders and replied, "oh I plan on buying the gift, not making it. Besides, the jar has a box! " I, of course, had to explain that it doesn't matter if the jar has a box, it has to have a good presentation. Oh and a classic one with me telling her I can't take coffee, but i wouldn't mind having tea. She nodded and commented, "that's right. you can't have coffee because of your... kidneys, right?! and so on and so forth.

You can just imagine what I night I had!

Before we knew it, I had to leave since i needed to go with another friend to pick up someone from the airport.

I sure missed her and would look forward to many more of the same dinners in the future!