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I rode my bike home from work yesterday, as I do every day that is warm (enough) and dry, and I was kind of stunned by the amount of traffic I rode past—both vehicle
and pedestrian. It was like there were people everywhere. Multiple blocks with cars backed up at a red light the full length of the block, and intersections with small swarms of people I had to weave around on my bike. I don't know if this is general post-pandemic return to normalcy or if something in particular was going on in town or what.
Shobhit did not want to go to this week's Action Movie Night at the Braeburn Condos theater last night, because it was the exact date of our anniversary—he waffled somewhat for a couple of days on whether to go out for dinner, but in the end decided he wanted to. We agreed we should go, yet again, to Saffron Grill, the place that had catered our wedding in 2013.
This was our third time going back there to eat specifically on the date of our anniversary—or at least, eating their food on our anniversary: we had dinner there
on June 14, 2017 (our fourth wedding anniversary) and then we had takeout from there during continuing stay-home orders
on June 14, 2020 (our seventh wedding anniversary).
We've eaten there plenty on other dates too, of course. We probably go there on average two or three times a year. This is at least the second time we've gone since Mohammed Sr. has retired, and his son, Mohammed, is now running the place. The trend of deep generosity is apparently hereditary: Mohammed Jr., after hearing we were there for our anniversary, not only sent us a free (and fucking delicious) slice of chocolate pie for dessert, he even gave us a bottle of wine in a gift bag!
Shobhit felt it was too much, and really wanted to tell him so, but the gift had been brought to us by a server and Mohammed had already left to tend to something at one of his other restaurants. Shobhit has been trying to get some time with him to ask for his Democracy Vouchers, and he just seems insanely busy. Shobhit briefly considered asking him again while we were at the table, but we both agreed it wasn't the right time. Even though the guy is so busy we can never find a "right time," but, whatever. We still deeply appreciated the generosity, which seemed even greater than his dad typically did.
Another server even told us that he had his whole family there for dinner once and Mohammed Jr. picked up their entire tab. I obviously don't know the place's financials, but that had to have been a pretty big financial hit.
Anyway. The food was as delicious as ever, at least in my opinion. I still love that place. And I didn't even ask to order Shahi Paneer like I usually do—maybe I will again next time. I have to mix it up every once in a while. Instead we had the Shimla Paneer, which is much more paneer-heavy with bell peppers and a light sauce; and Vegetable Kofta, with garlic naan.
I had a server take a picture of us with it all so I could post about our anniversary dinner
to my socials. In my effort to tag Shobhit in the photo, I accidentally posted it twice to Facebook. I don't want to delete one, though, because the first has 10 likes and the second one has 38. That's a total of 48 likes, and I don't want to lose any of them! (My
earlier post, resharing the 15-minute video edit of the wedding in 2013, has 28 likes and 30 comments.)
Oh, I also had a cocktail that I really liked, and was kind of surprisingly strong: a "Masala Chai Mule." I love all the mules! This one was one of my favorites. I hope to remember it and have it again the next time we eat there. We haven't gone with Alexia in several months so I should bring it up with her again soon.
We drove home and spent the rest of the evening watching this week's episode of
The Other Two on HBO Max and then the most recent two episodes of
Platonic on Apple TV+. And, eating the one box of leftovers we brought home. That didn't last long.
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In other news, as of yesterday I finally got word that I am officially authorized to travel for work to the Twin Cities in August for the "Co+nvergence" conference hosted by the National Cooperative Grocers (NCG) organization. I spoke about it briefly with Steven, the HBC Merchandiser, and he seemed somewhat surprised that I was going.
To be honest, I continue to exist in a kind of space between skeptical and insecure as to whether any part of the conference will be directly relevant enough to my job to make the trip worth the time and expense, at least to NCG itself, who is footing the bill for both my hotel nights in Saint Paul and the airfare. But, I was afforded this opportunity to take a trip to a city I have long been interested in but have never been to, so I'm going to take it! And, presumably, I can find ways at the conference to be proactive about
making it worthwhile. (Gabby just emailed me this morning again about specific online NGC trainings for the "Promotions Liaison"—which is actually her, technically—just in case any of that stuff might come up.)
In any case, I am now registered for the conference itself, which is in Saint Paul; hotel assignments apparently come next month. I have also selected a travel itinerary, and the NCG rep did her due diligence yesterday to email me back and make sure I hadn't made a mistake regarding the return date, since it means I will have to come up with my own accommodations for the final three nights within the date range I selected. Nope, no mistake!
My plan is to shift over to a hotel I'll pay for myself, in downtown Minneapolis—preferably one connected to the skyway system—on Saturday, August 5, for those last three nights. I want to have one full weekday in Minneapolis, so I can explore the skyway systen during regular business hours, so that's why I'll fly home on Tuesday the 8th. Shobhit will likely buy his own airfare to come meet me that Saturday to spend the weekend with me in Minneapolis before we fly home on Tuesday.
Steve, who is both in our work Book Club and in our HR department, actually was born and raised in Saint Paul. This morning he came by my desk and loaned me a great travel book:
AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. It was very thoughtful of him, and you can bet I'll be spending a hell of a lot of time with
that.
Well, anyway. That's a third official, multi-day trip out of town for 2023, after the two and a half weeks in Australia in February and March, and then only two nights (but still counts!) in Port Townsend last weekend for our anniversary. I'm kind of holding out hope for another trip to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving with Faith, but it'll be another few months before we can even consider crossing that bridge.
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[posted 12:31 pm]
