I contemplated investigating the various celebrations of the Feast of St. Mark Downs yesterday, but opted not to. I was still a bit wound-up from the festivities of the previous day.

I'd decided that it was probably time to start winding down for the evening, and curled up on my bed with a book, when norabombay pinged me and declared that she was not walking a foot farther than necessary in search of dinner, and I was the one with the car, and we had approximately an hour and twenty minutes before Bad Things happened to Ase's blood sugar (on which point I trusted her, for she and Ase are, after all, Fandom Married). The spirit of urgency had affected me. I located my jacket, clock ticking, trying to think where we could go that I knew where was, knew was edible, had parking. (My contribution to the discussion: In-n-Out.) ase declared that JD should come too. (Ase and JD had bonded, as I'd hoped they would.) This made things much easier, as I am not particularly adventurous (I am seriously not the local that you ask for dining tips, nor Fun Things to Do tips), but JD likes to try anything and everything. There was a brief four-way chat (me on Google Talk with Nora, Nora in the room with Ase, me on the phone with JD, and Ase saying that she should Skype JD); JD located a place (after I clarified that in-the-city was not the priority, *close parking* was); Nora kept saying "MEXICAN MEXICAN MEXICAN" (having been thwarted by the chairs at the previous night's taqueria); JD made reservations for 1930hrs, this being the earliest feasible and appx the anticipated time of crash. I zipped out the door 5 minutes behind schedule already, not entirely sure quite if I would also have to pick up JD and Ryan, and whether everyone would *fit*.

Locating the hotel was exciting. I was, as I made the approach, on schedule to arrive at 1900hrs (as planned, having caught up the time on the highway), but Riddle was not happy with the tall tall buildings, kept losing his lock on enough satellites to keep him oriented, and the display was lagging a good 30 seconds behind, with the indicator swinging about wildly. This was not the happiest of events. I arrived 10 minutes late in front of the hotel. Just as I pulled up, the phone rang; I thought it was Nora, and deeply confused MissKat by saying "I can see you guys now, ok" to her.

We wound up at Stonestown mall, 10 minutes behind the planned time of 1930hrs. It was Chevy's; it turned out to have been better for JD and Ryan to meet us there, and there they were, at the table, already with the chips and salsa.

Ase had a truly gigantic Long Island Iced Tea. I had underestimated the size of the large frozen strawberry margarita. When alcohol is really affecting me, I feel it in my thigh muscles, a warm tingle that feels either like the urge to create motion or a warning of weakness. The frozen strawberry margarita got passed around like a communion cup.

It was good for everyone to meet Ryan.

Everyone had leftovers. It was a *lot* of food. One dessert was enough for everyone to share.

MissKat had impeccable timing, and called back just after I'd dropped Ase and Nora at their hotel. We cannot go too long without talking, because that means we are missing parts of our brains!


When Ase moves here, and the next time Nora visits, we are going to have to plan more stuff ahead, because it would have been really nice to have Tif and possibly other people there too.

Crossposted. comments.