We saw Alison again last night, which was really fun. She brought along her friend Erik Love (who, for some reason is always referred to by his full name), a sociology PhD student and a friend of hers from when they were both teaching English in Japan after college.
I didn't really want to meet Erik Love. I figured we'd met enough nice people in Alison, Patrick and Anne and that surely our luck had to run out soon and we'd start uncovering boring people. But no! Erik Love is utterly hilarious and spectacular company.
Both the boys were late, which gave Alison and me time for chats before they arrived. Alison went on a date with a guy from her church last Friday who'd asked her out six months ago having never spoken to her, so she turned him down straight away. But then he asked again a week ago and, admiring his patience and persistence, she said yes and went on a date with him. His name is Brewster and he's 37 and works for Accenture.
It's interesting, being religious isn't a big deal here. Religion features so much more casually in conversation with people our age than in the UK - not as some great evangelical proclamations, but just as informing everyday life. It's no great mystery - more people our age are religious here - but it's nice for me to be able to mention faith in casual conversations without it being awkward, or sticking out a mile. It feels like in Britain, if you talk about it then you're defined by it and it is a thing. But here, you can just drop it into conversation and nothing is really thought of it.
We had dinner at a nice place called Zola, where we the wine flowed freely, as did the conversation. All of which led Max to order a $24 plate of cheese for dessert. You've never seen one person eat so much cheese.
It was nice to make another fun friend in Erik Love, though we're sad he's going back to California at the end of June, when his course here finishes.
It's the Oregon and Kentucky primaries today, so Max is working late tonight. But that meant I got to hang out with him this morning, as he didn't go to work until 4pm, which was nice. Unfortunately for him, most of the morning was spent at the supermarket, so I could take advantage of an extra pair of arms to carry lots of stuff home.
We can add puff pastry to flannels and duvet covers on our list of Things You Just Can't Buy In The US. I searched high and low for puff pastry, but there just isn't any. Apart from if you want to make baklava and, considering how disastrous my baking attempts have been so far, I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon. Problem is, puff pastry is the corner stone of my signature dish, so any dinner parties we give (we're having Sarah and Geoff over for supper this Friday) will be sunk without it!
I was meant to be playing my first ever softball game tonight, but it got cancelled because there'd been a lot of rain at the weekend and the pitch was still soggy. I was secretly relieved, as I'm getting increasingly nervous about my softball debut - it's been years since I played rounders.
Like the good housewife I am, I decided to make the BBC troops some cupcakes to get them through their long night. But I've lost it. I've completely lost my baking mojo - it's official. Two bad batches of brownies and now some disguuuusting cupcakes - the stats don't lie. I don't know what it is, but can only hope it has something to do with butter tasting different here, or something. *sniff*
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