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December 11, 2004
Mambo Italiano 
Man, that was fun. It was a misty, warm evening in Portland, making the lights more shiny, and we had a great evening at Mama Mia's. It was a bustling Friday night, even at 5:30, with a mix of downtown hipsters and suburbanites. When we came in, several of our friends were lined up at tables in the bar drinking fancy drinks. We got settled at the big family table (my fav!).
As predicted, I wore the little black dress with a long string of freshwater pearls that I got last weekend at a crafts show, a pair of fishnets, and my strappy red high heels. I also brought my lightweight hooded sweater to cover my arms if I got modest or chilly.
It was great. I'm generally a slob, so my pals were all knocked out, it seemed, by my dressing up. I was just elated—I kinda felt like I was playing dress-up.
We drank some fancy drinks (martinis with names like Mona Lisa [chocolate, but not overly sweet], Smoke & Fire Gottini [vodka & scotch with a jalapeno], and Michaelangelo [lemon creamsicle], ordered a pile of appetizers, chianti, and dinner, and someone let the waitress know it was my birthday, so they brought me a slice of amaretto cheesecake (oh my gosh, yum!) which I shared with the table. It was just lovely.
And amazingly, I didn't overeat. One thing about this place is that the pastas are huge, and the meat dishes small. Order a meat dish (mmm, marsala) with a side of spinach, and while you're probably not being good, you're certainly not being bad.
I changed into more comfortable shoes and socks, and we went out to a neighborhood tavern for a beer. Pleasant enough, thought the seating was awful. As much as I wanted to keep carousing, it's been a long week, and I was feeling the lure of my bed.
This morning, I am feeling lazy. I need to go into the office to collect the files that I need to work on, and I just don't want to do it. I keep thinking about how maybe I need to go on a long walk or do some hard cross-training, and then I think, um, VJ, you have a race tomorrow. And you have work to do today. Sigh!
(The extent of my procrastination is pretty profound. I just spent 10 minutes doing a search on h@mmer and s1ckle d0c marten5 in the hopes of finding a picture of my shoes--then I decided I should take before and after shots with the strappy heels and my propaganda shoes. And then I had to look at the current DM catalog and oooh and aaaah about shoes that would probably hurt me, but gosh they're cute.)
Posted at December 11, 2004
Comments
You've got a pretty hopping social life. If I can get out to rent a movie, then I've hit the big time.
Posted by: Jon in Michigan at December 11, 2004 6:09 PM
Jon, it really is mostly a birthday thing. And a holiday thing. Though I love an excuse to gather up a bunch of folks, but most of the time, it doesn't happen all that often.
Posted by: vj at December 11, 2004 6:58 PM
hey VJ,
happy belated birthday. I hadn't been keeping up so I am sorry I missed it on the date. and, again, those socks are pretty cool. which reminds me (for some reason): did I tell you I got a tattoo?
Posted by: Chrissie at December 21, 2004 4:21 PM