Friday night nice

Yesterday I carried my backpack all around the city, because T met me halfway between our apartment and the subway station so we could go out for drinks after school & work. After staying late at school all week to try and get back to my original intention of treating it like a 9-5 job, I was really ready to unwind yesterday evening. T walks to work every day, cutting through the heart of the city and passing all sorts of cool things. He had noticed a bar that looked low-key and down-to-earth, so we decided to check it out. Turns out its incognito style had more to do with the fact that it was a gay bar than anything else, but it was perfect for getting that well-earned gin and tonic, plus a little general encouragement. (Sample exchange -- me: "what are your happy hour specials?" server: "YOU'RE special, honey.")

After a couple drinks, we were good and drunk, and walked all over the grid, kind of looking for places to eat and kind of just tottering around. Eventually, we made our way back to our own neighborhood, where we tried to eat at a hookah bar around the corner from our apartment. The menu posted in the window looked good, but inside the overwhelming smell of pachouli and raspberry-flavored tobacco was oppressive. All the patrons were literally draped across couches and the servers lacksidasically wandered to-and-fro. Nobody noticed we had sat at a table. T: "Should we give it five minutes?" Me: "Sure." (30 seconds later) T: "Two more minutes?" Me: "Sure." (10 seconds later) T: "Let's hurry up and get out of here, I think they're on to us." For some reason, the whole place felt like a bad drug trip. We sped out the door.

And we ended up at the Thai restaurant we ate at with T's family back in August after we had just moved here. It was awesome and delicious and was really a perfect way to get over a really long week. At the beginning of law school, administrators gave all sorts of speeches to the new class. In one of them, someone admonished us: "Midway through the semester you are going to have to work really hard to remember that the world does not revolve around you and law school." I am definitely guilty of getting wrapped up, or as T put it, always trying to keep my head in the books. But then there are great nights like yesterday, where I almost forget law school is even a part of my life. Thank God for nights like that.