Monday, May 3, 2010

Some Singing and Some Pasta

As I mentioned on Friday, L. had a solo in his a cappella concert, singing Love and Memories by O.A.R. Here's the rockstar now:



Pretty great, huh? The concert was super fun and, as you can hear, really high-charged with energy. That may or may not have been a factor of legitimate excitement to hear these cute boys sing, and the pregaming that most likely went on beforehand. C. and I collected money (Octet's tickets are "about a dollar") before the show and in return got specially reserved seats. The boys had a big party afterward which was okay, if not highly testosterone-charged. Senior Biology Major, who you might recall from this post, showed up and went on for awhile about how lucky I was to have someone, and he said he thought college was the best time to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Having a boyfriend is great, I told him, but you get to meet all kinds of new people! His response? "So do you...you met me." This conversation followed one we had Thursday at the bar, and I don't think I can doubt that he's into me now. I'm hoping we can be friends--I've already tried to help him with some other girl issues he has--and he's leaving to go study in an exotic country on a fellowship after he graduates anyway, so he's a non-issue. The attention is definitely nice, but I was anxious to find and get back to L. Then we played Wii, which is always better than a party, in my opinion.

Saturday was our one and a half year anniversary! It might seem silly to celebrate a halfsies anniversary, but we didn't get to make a big deal out of our one year since it was the tech weekend for the play I was directing, so we ordered pizza and watched the Green Bay Packers game. If you know me, you know that that was actually perfection, since I'm a major cheesehead, but it was nice to actually make a big deal out of an anniversary.

We drove to Pittsfield, which is about a half hour drive from Williamstown, for our 8:15 reservation at Elizabeth's, a tiny family-style Italian cafe that's owned by an adorable husband and wife couple: Tom and, you guessed it, Elizabeth. Isn't their menu adorable? Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures; we took them on L.'s iPhone.


Elizabeth's is probably the best dining experience I've ever had. The only forms of payment they accept are cash, check, and IOUs. Yes, they actually do accept IOUs, mostly because people show up with credit cards, order oodles of delicious noodles, and then have no means by which to pay. Every meal comes with warm, crusty, fresh-baked bread (as much as you want!), and a huge metal bowl of a really eclectic salad that's always changing-- ours had strawberries, cheddar, parmesan, kiwi, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, celery...it is so good.

I ordered their Gorgonzola stuffed shells (on the other side of the menu, in case you were looking for them above!) It sounded like it would be too rich, and lo and behold, it was, but only in the way that chocolate cake can be too rich--you might get a little sick but it's just so delicious!


Look at how gooey and gloppy that Gorgonzola is...and how some of the shells are just perfectly crisp. It was like homemade baked macaroni and cheese...without the bread crumbs. Perfection.

L. got the Pasta with Bolognaise sauce, which intially I thought I wouldn't like. When I thought of Bolognaise I also thought of Hollondaise sauce, which I detest. I thought Bolognaise would be a white sauce, but when it arrived on L.'s plate, it was a delicious, meaty, tomato-y, amazing looking gem of a dish:


I like some tomato in my pasta, and while my gooey, gloppy cheese was DELICIOUS for the first few bites, I realized that I couldn't finish it. I did, however, eat quite a few forkfuls of L.'s pasta. He liked it too, as you can see:


We were too stuffed for dessert by the time we finished our meals, but when we said we weren't going to order any, Tom (who likes to walk around and talk to everyone while they eat, while Lizzie cooks up the food in the open-concept kitchen and "chef's tables" dining room), sent over some delicious thin, crispy sourdough cookies on the house. We somehow found room to eat those.


Thank you L. for a delicious, romantic, and completely non-South Beach friendly anniversary!

In other news, I promised a Poli Sci Jeps recap for all y'all, so stay tuned for that...(hint: it did NOT go as well as hoped.)

4 comments:

  1. A man who can sing? Hold on to that one girlie!

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  2. So glad that you cheated on your diet and got that amazing pasta dish- I salivated just looking at it. I don't know how you are so good about staying on South Beach while in college, my diets in college always consisted of drinking beer and making cookies at 2AM

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  3. Wow that dinner looked so sinfully delicious.

    I just have to say, as the quasi older sister type, as far as that Senior goes, beware! Hopefully L knows about him? He seems like one that might try to sway you away from your dear L. Don't trust those types. I have had "friends" like that who pounced the moment they saw a window of opportunity. Trust your instincts girlfriend!

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  4. kk-- Yes'm!

    Melissa-- I am SO GLAD too. And it is so hard. But in my little world of modified South Beach, I drink whatever I want ;)

    DG--You're totally right. Luckily whenever we bump into one another we're in a crowded bar or at a crowded party so he doesn't ever have the chance to "strike," but I hear you girl!

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