Dinner & Beer c/o St. Stephens Green

On Monday night L. and I went to St. Stephens Green for dinner. It was a lovely evening, so we sat outside. I ordered an Apricot Weizen that I found quite tasty...I ordered two more throughout our dinner there. Our table was, shall we say, a little less than level.
One of their specials was a beef short rib with black truffle risotto. I agonized over spending more money for something that sounded so tasty or spending less money to order an equally appealing dish (shredded lamb tacos) but, in the end, I rationalized the larger expenditure by the fact that a) I will soon have a job and regular paychecks and b) it was a special so if I came back I could always try the tacos but the beef/risotto combo would be long gone. I made a good decision, I think. I'm not really an expert on short ribs. I can't, actually, think of another time I've had them...so I can't really be sure of what an ideal short rib would be versus a less ideal one...but I can say what I can say about what I had in front of me. The meat was served on top of its bone but no longer attached to it. This was fine with me. It was super duper tender but had more fat than I expected. It was, however, the melty kind of fat as opposed to the gristly kind of fat. The risotto's texture was a bit funny, it almost seemed like they actually added cream to it (I learned from an episode of Rachael Ray that risotto is not in need of cream, it supplies its own creaminess from the slow cooking and release of starch)...that being said the actual flavor of the dish was great. Very truffley but simultaneously subtle. I added no salt nor pepper to any aspect of the dish. The asparagus that accompanied the dish were forgettable, so were the chopped tomatoes with very little color or flavor. Good, overall. L. ordered the turkey burrito with shoe string french fries. She seemed very happy with it...I didn't really care for the fries I tried but she did, just goes to show you: one woman's french fry is another woman's um, yeah I don't know.
After dinner L. stopped for ice cream. I had already had my ice cream quotient for the day but L. was very happy with her chocolate ice cream topped with peanut butter cup chunks.
This ends my Philadelphia week. On Tuesday I drove to Virginia and yesterday I arrived back safely in Tennessee. It was great to see the friends I have in Philadelphia and, of course, to get a job. You know what else was great? No? I'll tell you. C. and L. live in the same building but for reasons I won't get into C. needs a subletter for her apartment. After the jobby people called me and said I was hired I got a little overwhelmed by trying to find an acceptable place to live. This was partially because my work place is not really near any train stations, so I needed to consider bus lines or a very short walk to the office. The other difficulty was that all the places I was finding to sublet (since all my stuff is in Chicago, it seems like a wise move to get acclimated to the city and figure out exactly where I want to live before spending all sorts of crazy money to fly out to Chicago and somehow transport all my belongings back to Philly) included roommates. Ugh. I'm so over roommates. I've been over roommates since my senior year of high school. Then I had more of them...and it didn't always go so well. So when C. suggested that I could sublet her 'penthouse' apartment for a few months for less than its full retail value...like, considerably less, I was happy as a clam in sand. No strangers to deal with, pretty awesome location, balcony and Zul can come too! I am not a person who would ever live in a high rise setting on a permanent basis but for temporary setting, well, I will not be complaining. In fact I'm pretty psyched. It has been a pretty, shall we say, rough year for me. I haven't had that many great things happen...or great things would seem to be happening but were, in fact, going to become really awful things. So this turn of events is lifting my spirits a bunchy bunch.

I mean listen to this:

I decide to move to Philadelphia. I tell my Philly friends. One Philly friend (A.) within 24 hours gives me a possible link to a job I would actually like. I apply. I interview. I try out. I interview again. I get the job. This is in a 3-4 week time period after how many months with no luck? Many. I get the job. I look for an apartment. I find an apartment. Okay, somehow when I write it like this it doesn't seem as happy incredible as it is. Hopefully you know what I mean.