Today I had what was probably one of my worst days at work. Thankfully, at least by now I know that a) I can keep my sense of humor, and b) it was my second-to-last day of 2009 today. I'm just so, so glad that homecomings for high school started this weekend. See, I've been working in the dresses department, and I can't tell you how many $150 dresses I've picked up from floors of fitting rooms, completely discarded, all frumpled, not even on hangers. I can't tell you how many $150 dresses I've had to chargeback to the company because of girls creating defects (like broken zippers, broken straps, busted seams, makeup stains... I've seen pretty much everything at this point). We've been having customers come in and steal/ransack each other's held merchandise just because they can't wait and have to have THIS DRESS RIGHT NOW.
I put a call in to another local store for a customer and was put on hold for 25 minutes while the associates from that store were 'locating' the one piece of merchandise I had requested. I assumed they had forgotten, hung up, and called back, only to receive a snooty "yes, we know" from the other end. Three hours later, the customer came back, and the associates at the other store STILL hadn't been able to take 45 seconds out of their schedule to find a dress. And to set the record straight, it was a mother-of-the-bride dress, not a homecoming dress, so I still can't figure out what the problem was. We also had terrible customers today, just really rude people.
But enough about my terrible day at work; I got to go out to dinner tonight for my birthday! I wore my favorite dress (zebra print!) and tights and my silky black trenchcoat and felt very British walking in the rain with my umbrella. I asked for my immediate family and my dad's parents to take me to dinner at Bon Vie, and that's just what we did.
It was delicious. The service was wonderful, on top of everything. The French loaf to gnaw on came to the table warm and crisp, but fluffy on the inside. We ordered the flatbread appetizer, which is actually a very, very crispy thin-crust pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. Absolutely delicious and more Italian than Italy. For my entree, I ordered a four-ounce filet mignon and a crab cake... which way exceeded expectations. The Yukon Gold potatoes that came with it were somehow sauteed until crispy and then baked the rest of the way, so they had the same outside texture and crunch as frittes (that's French fries to the rest of you). The haricots verts (French for 'green beans') were marinated and might have been grilled, or that might have been the steak juice that got all over them.
I ordered my steak medium for the first time in my life and absolutely was not disappointed; a four-ounce steak is probably all I could have handled anyways, so the portioning was perfect. Every single bite was heaven. Didn't exactly cut like butter, but melted like it in my mouth, and there was a slight crust on the bottom like it was seared. My crab cake had a lot of dill in it and was resting on top of a yellowish remoulade. I can't figure out what they made it with, but it was tangy and went with pretty much everything on my plate. (I also got a few bites of a fantastic chicken and mushroom crepe. Wow.)
Since it was my birthday, the waiter brought me a little bit of dessert: a warm nut-filled brownie with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce, served in a martini glass. It was really cute and delicious to boot. I'm very full right now, and very happy. My grandparents have found another of their favorite restaurants (my grandfather's portion of fish and chips was so huge we could have probably fed a family of four with it.)
I got to leaf through pics of last weekend's shooting outing, I got to watch two videos of my brother (one of him trying to eat a gigantic gumball, one of his piano recital today), and now I'm rooting for the Giants against the Cowboys in Dallas' new football stadium. Just one more reason to move to Texas I suppose... It's been a good day, after all.
Perhaps my birthday won't suck this year.
- Jen -
PS. Transcription of a conversation with my mother.
me: Aw, Eli Manning. He's so dreamy...
Mom: You do know that you're lusting for a married man, right?
me: Yeah, and I want to have Neil Patrick Harris' babies, too, and we all know that's never going to happen. [NPH is gay.]
Mom: This is why you should have three boys.
me: But you know I don't want kids!
Mom: But then you can call them Neil, and Patrick, and Harrison!
me: *facepalm*
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Gah, every time I catch up, you post another entry! It's a long one, too.
ReplyDeleteOnly four ounces? Wow. That's not much. And your first time to get it cooked medium? Wow. Heck, at Outback, I get the Outback Special 12 oz cooked medium rare. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.
But you didn't get a carriage ride. Too bad.
*shakes head at your mother*
You have to remember that I had a dinner to go along with my steak, so 4oz was reasonably sized (you know, not American portions). And in the past I've always ordered my steaks (lol @ stakes typo I just made) medium well 'just in case of [insert disease here]'.
ReplyDeleteAnd who said I wanted to feel like a pretty pretty princess? :P