I went out!

Our friends Matt and Alice got married last year and went to Spain on their honeymoon.  Inspired from their trip, they've had a few Tapas parties.  One a little while back Lorien went to, and I stayed home with Dylan.  I think all three of us were originally planning on going, but somehow it didn't work out.  Such is the unpredictable nature of life with a toddler.  They had another one this past Saturday, and this time Lorien stayed home with Dylan and I went.

I was a bit apprehensive.  Partly because I wasn't sure what I'd be able to eat, due to ongoing stomach issues.  But also because I was somewhat paranoid about being around too many other people and getting sick.  I was a bit obsessive about cleanliness and handwashing, so I'm nearly certain that I didn't catch anything from anyone there [I'll save details about how I'm feeling now for my next post].  One thing that I should probably try to make a better effort at is *not* shaking hands with people (or hugging) on greeting and/or departure.  It's hard though -- even if I think I'm thinking about it, it's such a part of our social construct that I generally do it instinctively without even thinking about it.  Perhaps I need to get in the habit of doing a wai instead.

The food was good, although I did have to somewhat limit what I ate.  Their gazpacho is excellent, but sadly still a bit too acidic for me to have more than a taste.  I look forward to having put all of this behind me and hopefully being able to enjoy it in larger quantities.

Midway through the evening I was feeling kind of so-so, and thinking about leaving because I didn't feel all that great.  But there was homemade ice cream (Alice is another fan of David Leibovitz and his vanilla ice cream, and I figured I might as well have a little bit before departing.  Somehow having a bowl of that made me feel better enough that I ended up hanging out for another hour or two.  Probably what had happened was that I mostly didn't feel well because I hadn't eaten enough, because there were enough things that were somewhat problematic for me to eat.  And having some fat and some sugar helped out with that.  Or maybe the lesson I should take away from all of this is simply, when in doubt, have some ice cream.  :)

I was also plied with wine and chocolate.  I had only a few tiny sips from a few desert wines, but it was one of the first times in a very long time that I had enjoyed any alcohol.  So maybe that's a sign of good things to come.  (I'm allowed to have alcohol in moderation when I'm not actively on any chemo drugs -- so loosely weeks 2 and 3 are fine.)  I especially want to try the port again, this time with dark chocolate.  They also had this orange wine, which was way better than what you might think based on the name.  It's not fermented oranges.  Think more like red wine infused with orange peels.

On the topic of chocolate, one of the reasons that I have generally preferred dark chocolate in recentish years is that way too many milk chocolates are lacking in sufficient flavor and/or are too sweet.  I'm not a snobby dark chocolate fiend, though.  70% is generally too bitter for me (although I think it might go well with the port), and something like 85% I find generally downright nasty.  I'm more of a 62% kind of guy.  Anyway, back to the milk.  For the past little bit I've been in search of milk chocolates that don't suck -- ones with good flavor and not too much sugar.  Alice came through again with a taste of madécasee, which she then insisted that I take a whole bar home with me.  Okay, I didn't protest too much.  This all despite the fact that she gave me this amazing box of Godiva chocolate truffles at the event I had a little while back (with the chocolate cake).  It's a good thing Alice and I aren't a couple -- I think we'd egg each other on to the point of excess with sweets in general, and chocolate in particular.  Matt and Lorien respectively inject a bit of sanity to dampen each of our behaviors.  Matt doesn't even like chocolate -- isn't that crazy?  I digress...  my point was that if there were any milk chocolate lovers out there, I just wanted to give a shout out about some of my favorites.  Besides the newly discovered madécasee, I also recommend Divine and endangered species.  No, it's not actually made from endangered species.

The main point that I had originally been trying to make (hence the planned title for this post) was that it was really great to get out.  Like just going to someone else's house and hanging out and eating for a few hours with some other people was a big deal for me, and yet another bit of normalcy that I crave so much.  But it seems to have veered more into a discussion about food and chocolate.  Maybe that's a sign that I'm hungry.  Time for a snack.