Birthdays & being Ridiculously Happy

What a wonderful weekend.

I have a few new things that make me ridiculously happy to add to the ridiculously happy page. Before I add them to the page though, I want to add some context.

As I've said before, I've been spending quite a lot of time with a new friend. We went out for my birthday to a wonderful restaurant that I had not been too before. He has quite a lot of food experience. But better than the experience is that he has the same passion and excitement for food that lead him down the culinary trail in the first place. At his recommendation I tried some things that I have never eaten before, things that scared me to try in the past.

He sampled them first to put his stamp of approval on it. You really should have seen his face. It was radiant with excitement as he explained how it was prepared and what to look for. He described the scallops in the terms that he noticed first. And then I sampled them and described them myself. He sat rapt paying attention to me. I said they were sweet and buttery. And then I got bashful. I didn't want to say what my first impression was because I thought that it would sound stupid to a professional chef. He was so expectant of the answer, like a kid at Christmas. So I told him anyway, that I thought the texture the way that it was done seemed a lot like marrow.

He didn't mock me for the idea.

In fact, the more that we talked about the food experience the more he encouraged the conversation to continue.

And it's been like that the whole time that we have been hanging out.