Weekend Report

Friday- Got together with the hometown crew at a friend's house in Hopkinton for a make-you-own-pizza dinner party. On the way home, I realized that either A. I am not used to driving on unlit back roads at night anymore, having become a full-fledged city dweller or B. my night vision is failing, because I couldn't see shit. I'm hoping it's A.

Saturday- During the day, I babysat my adorable niece Nora, and she didn't puke on me, and I didn't break her, so we'll mark that one down as a success. At night, I went to my friend Gina's bachelorette party. First, we had dinner at Siro's in Marina Bay in Quincy, and I must have angered the culinary gods, because I was singled out for punishment. When our meals came out, mine was missing, and the server apologized and said it would be out in a couple of minutes. It finally arrived about fifteen minutes later, at which point everyone else was half-done with their meals. I had ordered the grilled mahi mahi, and when I cut into it, I discovered that the center was completely raw. Clearly, they had forgotten to place my order and tried to cook one up for me on the fly (how's that for restaurant lingo?) when they realized the mistake, but rushed things too much. By the time I found a server, everyone else had finished their meals. I didn't even want it anymore, because in the meantime, I had been sampling everyone else's meal, so I wasn't hungry, and it's not like I was going to make everyone else sit around and wait for me while I ate. The staff wanted to cook me a new one and make it to go, but I told them not to because we were going out dancing, and I didn't want to be carrying around a piece of fish all night. Finally, they offered to just nix it and take it off the bill, which is all I wanted to happen at that point. The waitress felt bad and was nice about the whole thing, but you'd think at a fancy restaurant, mistakes like that wouldn't happen. We had originally planned to go to Water Works, but since it was pouring out, it was closed, so we went to the Liquor Store, a big, cheesy dance bar downtown, instead. It was a good choice for a bachelorette party. We had fun dancing, and Gina got to live her dream of riding a mechanical bull.

Sunday- I slept in, then cleaned the living room and rearranged furniture with my new roommate, Ern. With her arrival, I've upgraded from one crappy futon to two black leather couches. Pimpin'. That night, I had a much better dining experience. I went to a Peruvian restaurant in East Boston called El Rincon Limeno. It's so small that it doesn't even have a website (gasp!). East Boston is a very ethnic area, and this restaurant is situated in a South American neighborhood. The tiny restaurant was crowded with latino families and the phone was ringing off the hook with to-go orders. I can see why; the food was delicious and reasonably priced. I had the seafood ceviche, a combination of (deliberately) raw squid, fish, and shrimp "cooked" by marinating it in lemon juice for several hours, and it was SO GOOD. I went with three Colombians, a German, and a Brit, and we had a fun clowning around with the language barrier- the waitress didn't speak English, and the two Europeans no hablan espanol.