birthday party

I had a very tasty orata with spring vegetables at La Bottega last night. The meal definitely exceeded my expectations, we sat outside, and the prices were very fair. All in all, a nice spot. The party was a little slow getting started but as always, after a round of drinks, everyone lightened up and the mood improved. Thank you ALCOHOL!

The most interesting part of my night, besides devouring my food, partially in attempt to get rid of a pounding headache (which didn't work), was a conversation I had with the guy sitting next to me. I didn't really think I'd have anything to talk to him about, so I didn't even bother introducing myself after we played musical chairs and my seat was switched after I went to use the restroom. But, my friend introduced herself and since I was directly next to him, I had to introduce myself as well. And so he says "I'm sorry but I have no sense of humor because I just lost a large sum of money in a taxi cab." I immedately felt sorry for him and wanted to hear more. It turns out, his girlfriend wanted her own place for the month they were staying in nyc, to cook, instead of staying at a nice hotel. So he was on his way to pay for a month's worth of rent for a loft and left the bag with all of the papers AND money in the cab. For everyone who has ever left anything in a cab, you know that as soon as you walk away from that cab, it's gone. And by "it" I mean the cab, and anything that you left behind and basically donated to humanity. Any hope that you will recover your lost possesssions should also be gone. My poor conversant was blaming himself rather harshly for these turn of events because apparently he was quite rich, and even though this was a substantial loss, and would truly be quite HUGE for anyone who wasn't FILTHY RICH, in the end, it really wasn't a big deal for him. And what exactly was this undisclosed sum of money? Let's just say it was more than my entire year's worth of rent...and about all of my life savings.