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Published: December 6th 2008
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Putting it out there!
Butterflied grilled shrimp with a seasoned crust Note: The Canada blogs have been rewritten and reposted due to requests for anonymity. Welcome to Canadia! I refuse to let jet-lag get the best of me, so I will myself to stay in bed until 10am. Meli is not as successful, waking up at 5am. She blogs, checks e-mail, renews health insurance, all the things one does at 5am after going to bed at 2am.
Big Screen TV Time The ladies have business to take care of this morning. I bashfully opt out, preferring to stay in to watch TV and play Risk. I get the full run down before they leave: these are the movie channels, tuna salad in the fridge, ice cream in the freezer, oatmeal here, cake there, bottled water up, fruit down. I think I got it all. A biography on Cleopatra is coming on, so I grab some food and watch the hour-long special with an intimate familiarity; I’m an Egyptian expert. I’ve gone to Egypt…me and Cleopatra are tight! Later, I’m cracking up with my pals Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. It’s been a while since the boys have had chill time, and we catch up
Game
Zuppa di Pesce
Tomato based soup/sauce with monk fish and shrimp time! At 3pm, the International Friendly soccer game between Brasil and England is on pay-per-view. A frantic call to the cable company for the four digit pin at 2:58pm and we’re all set. The game is no World Cup match, yet there is a hype to it that make it feels like it is the summer of 2006 all over again. Meli clapping and jumping up and down whenever Ronaldinho touches the ball. Her glass-shattering shrieks with a Brasilian shot on goal. She insults the refs for uncalled fouls against the guys in blue and gold. And when Beckham takes a free kick (one of which is headed for a goal), she is nervous with clammy palms. For me, Robinho and Kaka own the field—not taking anything away from Ronaldinho and Gilberto Silva. A late goal in stoppage time by Diego provides the equalizer that Brasil needs to deny the Brits the “W” at their new, 90,000 capacity Wembley Stadium. T.S.
Besides the mandatory viewing of the game, the only other obligation on the day is laundry. One of my checked bags from Spain was all dirty draws, socks, tees, shorts, shirts, jeans. We washed during the game and fold after the whistle. I love this day: the day during our travels when all my clothes are clean. I feel so new. So fresh and so clean. Dinner is served an hour later. Our hosts have been in the kitchen hooking it up: butterflied grilled shrimp with a seasoned crust—so spectacular, I’m putting it out there)—rice, Zuppa di Pesce (a tomato based soup/sauce with monk fish and shrimp), salad and fine Italian wine. Still in Spanish mode and jet-lagged, we take a short siesta before I call my boy Michael P.
Wanna Do Something Crazy? Poneesh! Michael and I were both on the track team at Stanford. He was the 6’7” Canadian high jumper who was one of the coolest cats to chill with. Me, Michael, Milton and Che…the boys. Oh the stories! Playing Krack Kart. The brawl with L.B. in the Suites on my birthday, “Get outta my house!” The summer of 2003, the most epic ever, will go down in history: “You’re my boy blue!”; Team Evil and Capt. Evil (where is old CB anyway?); the road trip to L.A.; “You wanna do something crazy?!” And let’s now add November 2006 in Ann Arbor to the list. Kicking down doors. Breaking screens. Scaling buildings. Breakfast at Denny’s. The Black Out two minutes before kick-off of the UMich vs. Ohio State game. I love my boys!
So this is who we are hanging out with tonight. We show up at his place around 11pm and immediately start doing what we are known for: dranking, catching up, trading war stories, talking ‘ish. An hour later, five of us (me, Meli, Michael, his sister Alexandra and a neighbor Brit) grab a couple taxis and head to The Hideout. It’s a bar/lounge with a band playing and word on the street is that it’s the spot. Some tall guy is trying to make friends with us when someone asks him how tall he is. He says he’s 6’8. Yeah buddy. Only you are two inches shorter than my certifiably 6’7” friend. Nice try though. Michael is in normal form, throwing them back and down everyone’s throat. Even Meli took down 2/3 of a shot after being stared down from a foot and five inches above her. I play wing man trying to snag a Brasilian honey for Michael. He thinks she’s feeling me, so he bails. Moments later, a group of three chicks drinking Guinness reel me in when the short girl randomly stretches her arm out and touches her glass to mine and smiles. Not a bad introduction. Again, I go to work for my boy. The last call is made, and we are starving. Happy Seven, which in my memory will forever live on as Happy Ending, on Spadina comes through for me, Meli and Michael with the spring rolls, shrimp fried rice, crispy beef, beef pan fried noodles (which should have been shrimp) and Kung Pao chicken (which we did not order, nor eat but paid for and took home). Michael crashes on the couch, Meli in his bed, and me in the reclining chair. Another classic night with my boy!
(P.S. We brought the camera but did not take any pictures. Our bad.)
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melee
leroy and melissa
Reposted Comments
June 5th 2007 - meli's mom: shrimp that looks delish!!!