Not Quite New Year's
I gave him a hard look. "We can do whatever you want."
"Great! How about a poker tournament with pizza and--"
I held up a hand. "By 'whatever you want,' I mean, 'You do all the planning, cooking, setup, and cleaning.' I handled Christmas for 25 people over three days. I'm done! Done done done!"
Darwin has many, many wonderful qualities and talents, but planning parties isn't one of them. He tried, but everything fell through, leaving us alone on New Year's Eve. I was, frankly, relieved. The quiet was so nice!
We decided to go out for supper. (Max was at his mother's.) I plumped for a steak house, since this was the last day we'd be able to eat meat. But when we arrived at said steak house (at 4:30 in the afternoon, I might add), we found an hour's wait for a table. So we left. After some trial and error--and more error--we finally ended up at Johnny Carino's. They do serve steak, which is what I wanted. Darwin opted for chicken Marsala.
When I ordered a Coke to drink, the server informed me they were out of Coke. (!) I allotted that Cherry Coke would be an acceptable substitute. I ordered a New York strip, medium. The server returned to say they were out of that, too, but I could have a different cut with mushroom sauce. "Medium, please," I sighed.
The steak arrived. It was buried in an avalanche of Gorgonzola mushroom sauce. It was also so rare, it was mooing. I don't like rare steak, especially an low-quality cut, so I sent it back. This time the manager brought it out. The steak was fine, but by now the potatoes and vegetables had gone cold. Sigh.
Darwin and I had every reason to be upset with these continual stumbles, but we decided to laugh about them instead. "The whole point to me isn't the food anyway," Darwin said. "It's to come here, and sit with you, and watch the people."
In the end, I chanced dessert. I've come to enjoy dessert wine with a final treat, and was hoping for a glass of cherry or raspberry, but all they had was a Riesling made from peaches. I ordered it along with cannoli. This part of the meal, at least, was perfect. The creamy chocolate-ricotta of the cannoli complemented the peach wine to perfection.
Earlier that day, I'd created an order for our weekly groceries, so we stopped at the store to pick them up. (I love the "we shop for you" system.) It was our first load of veggie-based foods for the new diet!
The rest of the evening was spent quietly. At last, I pointed out to Darwin that it was five minutes to midnight. He opened a bottle of sparkling grape juice, and we toasted the incoming year with it, sealed with a kiss. Or three.
2017 was a dreadful year for me, and I'm glad to see it go. I'm hoping 2018 will be better!
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