Hittin' the Streets

My work schedule is not conducive to me going out late at night. It's horrid! If I do ANYTHING outside of my normal realm, my body rebels. I was supposed to be taking a nap around 1 yesterday afternoon except I was reading YOUR BLOGS (so I blame you) until 3... or was it 4? The point is with the coughing (What? No I didn't get anything yet. I can't stand taking medicine and it could go away... all right all right! I'll look for B.uckley's before I go to bible class tonight. STOP YELLING AT ME!!) I didn't get to sleep yesterday afternoon until maybe 5:30 or 6 and was supposed to get up at 7 to wash my hair.

It ended up being 7:30 when I got up and I was supposed to be downtown at 8:30. I'd have to leave by 8. Yeah... that didn't happen. I got out of the shower with wet hair at 8! I send "I'll be there at 9" texts to my two coworkers. The one texts back, "You better come, don't leave me on a date!" Hilarity. I should have said, "I'm so sorry I set you up. He begged me to help get you on a date." She loves pranks so I know she would've been too out on that one! Bah. I'm not good with pranks at all. Blame that doggone honest streak. It just doesn't come to me to lie to people.

I get to S.eviche @ 9 and they already have shrimp tartare. I don't like shrimp but I like shrimp tartare! Delicious! I had a mojito of course! Except if I'd seen it was made with B.acardi I wouldn't have even bothered. How do you make a Cuban drink with Puerto Rican rum? Plus that drink needs a more refined rum. B.acardi is fine for some occasions but mojitos do not fall into that category. I had a caipirinha next. It was pretty good. Taste-wise, though, their caipirinhas don't taste vastly different from the mojitos. I kind of wanted to try one of those $10 drinks but I decided to go slow not knowing how many places we would actually end up going.

We also had some Cuban pulled pork sandwiches-- DELICIOUS!! The bread was amazing. There's also something about manchego cheese that gets me going! You know I wanted to try the mini ahi tuna burgers, too. I really wanted to try everything on the menu but even being tapas that can get expensive so I didn't. I got the trio of 3 seviche preparations. Wait before we get to that why did this dude at work who wasn't there try to argue me down about ceviche. Wait wait wait homes. You had ceviche for the first time this weekend, I ask you what kind of ceviche and you don't know what I mean-- that you can have different preparations with different kinds of fish or sea creatures-- but minutes later you want to tell me this restaurant doesn't have the type of seviche you ate because it's spelled the Spanish way with an "s" so this is the Spanish seviche. Go sit down somewhere with that. You don't know so you shouldn't try to argue with someone who does.

Back to S,eviche. The coworkers I was with were all excited over what I ordered-- conch, hamachi and the fish of the day which I've now forgotten. The preparations were tomatillo & curried mango, fire & ice, and tiradito. Mmmmm. I'm saying people. If you're going to a restaurant like this I need you to get something more unusual than shrimp tartare. It was mahvelous but branch out! Let your tastebuds run free! You know you wanna! Say you like it. They loved the tiradito so yay for them trying some things they might not have have.

Next stop, O.live or Twist. Why do I always see random S.teelers when I go out in Pittsburgh? I guess because we go to low key spots with dim lighting. I don't know but we saw this dude on the street and he happens to be other coworker's frat bro. But it was just a quick hi, bye in the street and keep it moving. It was super dead in the bar but we each got a drink anyway just in case the music was live. It really wasn't but we sat and talked anyway. I had the Georgia peach (Ciroc, peach schnapps, oj & grenadine. The grenadine sold me. Why does it taste like love?) even though I know how vodka wreaks havoc with me. I would pay for that.

Next spot, A.rt's in the Strip. A little hole in the wall hood bar. It was cool, though. The music was hot and the vibe was chill. The coworkers bought a bootleg DVD... wow... lol. I think the guy sets up outside in the summer. Wow... but it was chill. I actually saw this girl in there I went to Hampton with but she was acting whatever so it was just a wave and that's it for her. She was with her Pittsburgh friends so I didn't bother her. Oh I'm snickering hard over here. You want to half speak because of that?? Ok... get that together. Hilarity. And one of my coworkers' whole family went to Hampton so she knows the deal-- we are fly. This one... maybe not so much. Mostly because of her ATTITUDE! Coworker was like, "Wait she went to Hampton?? Are you sure...?? Wow..." Oh man. Hate hate hate. Too funny.

We each had a drink there. I had P.arrot Bay & Pineapple, she had rum & coke & I don't remember what guy coworker had but the bartender charged us $5. Uhhh... what?? Cash only... yeah... I don't carry cash like that. Sometimes but not that night but it was cool. The coworkers had me. I mean my drink did cost like $1.50!! And it was delightful. She said it was because coworker is new. Hilarious. It's weird going out with people who are on air. They get recognized everywhere so it's like a constant "Hey!" "How you doin'?!" Why did this dude tell coworker she looks taller on air? I was crackin up. Alrighty then... that's someone who didn't have anything else to say. Lol.

Next spot. This is how you hit so many in one night: one drink and out. We meet more coworkers at Media Night-- it's organized by one of our photogs where media people from all three stations are invited to hang out. I don't know if people were there earlier but by the time we got there around 12:30 there was next to no one hanging there. Me & coworker are a crazy team. We were gettin on another coworker's secret fiancee' (they were engaged for months before anyone found out) about liking Coach like "We'll upgrade her. Get her on that Gucci, Prada status real quick. Balenciaga her up." Now I don't do designer purses because though beautiful, whatever shall I do with a $1000 bag with someone's logo all over it? That's why if you get an expensive bag, it shouldn't be a logo bag. The logo should be discreet where only the trained eye would even know it's expensive. There's no need to flaunt. It's very gauche. Plus I'd rather spend my money on food, clothing and travel.

We get a couple of beers and chill for about an hour, hour 30 then go to our respective cars and leave. I was on the phone for hours and hours and hours. I woke up 3 hours after I got off the phone. Alcohol always wakes me up early. That jerk. I drank something like 50 oz. of water before I went to bed (since I was up anyway). I didn't wake up with a headache but I felt like one was coming because I could still smell liquor. It didn't come until after I ate a bowl of cereal. Ain't that bout a... I drink all that water and still end up with a headache. That's for the birds. It's not a pounding headache, but a minor annoyance. Something that should be killed with more food.

I was trying to see if my dad was coming home for lunch. It appears not. Booo... guess I'll have some of that whole wheat pizza I made yesterday instead of whatever he's eating for lunch. (He always shares.) The upside: I don't have to listen to him talk about the news. It's not as annoying on Thursday but other days of the week it drives me insane! When you get off work, do you want to talk about it? I can't get him to understand talking about the news is work for me AND I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!! Drives me bananas.