Disregard

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. It was the first Thursday Ben and I had off together and we are definitely still figuring it out! Let’s see: slept late, missed buses, got lost, late to an interview, late to a movie… But it was okay. We persevered and ended up having an okay day.

It all started at 6 a.m. when I woke up in bed alone. I wandered into the living room and found Ben asleep on the couch! I frequently go to bed earlier than he does, and this time he fell asleep out there. I brought him to bed, but then couldn’t get back to sleep myself. My tossing and turning eventually woke Ben up again, and it took a while for us both to get to sleep. And once we did, we were out.

Ben had planned on waking up and making chorizo biscuits and gravy before I went to my job interview. That didn’t end up happening–he kept on snoozing until after noon. I woke up at 11:30, but only because I got a phone call from YES Magazine. I’ve been trying to connect with them for a while and it sounds like I might be able to write for them in an internship capacity! I am so excited to start reporting and writing again, and researching serious issues, and doing all that wonderful journalism stuff.

Once I got off the phone, it was time to call home real quick, then bustle around the house getting ready for my interview with Washington CASH, a nonprofit that provides support to low-income people who are trying to start their own businesses. I had to take the bus to the interview and it was doomed from the get-go.

I tried to catch the 4 right outside my apartment, but it never came. When I had been outside for seven minutes, I called Ben and asked him to look at One Bus Away for me. He called back and said the 4 had been there five minutes before. I was standing right there! No bus came! He gave me directions on how to take the 7 instead, but accidentally reversed a few street names, so I ended up getting more lost once I got off the bus.

When I finally made it to my interview, I was ten minutes late. To make matters worse, one of their interview questions was about my time management skills! How humiliating. I also had to show off my Spanish skills and stumbled through a few sentences about my time in Spain.

I am confident that I just need to get my Spanish brain turned back on and I could converse quite comfortably. Ben and I made a plan to watch every Almodóvar film in Spanish. That should do the trick.

After my interview, I moped around the house while Ben made hamburger soup. He forgot to add the peas and corn and didn’t leave time or get all the ingredients to make corn bread. Ben and I were both out of it yesterday. It felt like we lived our day inside a Bermuda Triangle.

We tried to go see Holy Motors at the SIFF and experienced yet another bus failure. When we finally made it to Queen Anne, Ben couldn’t find the theatre. I had to sprint after him for blocks, friggen snot pouring down my face, and all of a sudden he would turn around and run the other way! And that was with GPS! When we finally found it, hidden inside a park, the movie was 15 minutes in and we trudged right out of there.

That’s when our night finally took a positive turn. We had been trying and failing and trying and failing all day. We had no plans left. Ben’s phone was dead, so we had no Internet. It was time to wing it.

We stopped by the Regal, but nothing good was playing for a while. We started walking toward Capitol Hill. I was suddenly craving a fancy dessert so we decided to find a bar with yummy sweet treats. On the corner, beckoning with fluorescent lights, we saw–Tango. We’ve walked past a million times and never hesitated even briefly to go inside, but tonight was our night. We sat at the wood-paneled bar, debated between tres leches and El Diablo, decided on the latter and ordered Mexican chocolate sorbet to go along with it. And a whiskey ginger each.

from the Tango website

When we got our dessert, we were surprised to see that instead of a cake it was the lightest softest mousse! Every bite was literally a shock to get over the softness, smoothness, and incredibly creamy mouth feel. The flavor was rich with chocolate and a bit of spice, and the plate was garnished with a generous amount of caramel, fluff, and artfully placed almonds. That soft, sweet devil of a dessert went perfectly with the Mexican chocolate sorbet! Ben and I tried bites of every combination and enjoyed our desserts down to the last drop.

After we finished our drinks, we ran home so I could switch from contacts to glasses, then went back down to the Regal to see Argo. Ben has been giving me an education on this year’s Oscar nominees and I’ve been quite enjoying it. I liked Argo a lot: an interesting plot, made better because it’s true; characters both frustrating and believable; and a story to root for.

So chronologically, we’ve got Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and Beasts of the Southern Wild interpreting American history this Oscar season? I still need to see Beasts of the Southern Wild (tried to see it in Ithaca but it never worked out!!); it takes place post-Katrina, right?

Anyway, that was my day. Endlessly getting lost and missing buses and forgetting recipes was made better with a drink, a movie, and some perfectly soft chocolate. Something to remember.