Sigh

I had such a lovely day yesterday. Insanely early (for me on a Saturday) I got up and took the train to Haymarket where my friend promised to meet me and ride the bus with me to the Chelsea Soup Kitchen. He stayed true to his word and we had a pleasant bus ride (one that might convince you not to hate the bus if you hadn't already had too many experiences to harden your heart against the bus).

When we got to the soup kitchen there were only a couple of other people and my friend suggested we rearrange the food pantry. That's a task I can handle, I mean I am a librarian, I know how to classify and order stuff. Also, I like having a concrete task when I am in a new situation because I am shy and don't do well continuing conversations with strangers.

After organizing the closet my friend came back and said we had to do inventory. I'll admit, there was a small uprising (by which I mean I said WHAT!? why didn't you tell me that before I stacked everything on shelves three deep and have to pull things out to see what's there?). His terribly amusing response (no, I mean it I actually laughed out loud when he said it): "On Thursday nights you're in charge. Here, I am in charge, you have to take orders from me today!" Perhaps some background is needed to fully understand how amusing this statement is. On Thursday nights he is the sweetest, most mild mannered soft spoken guy. He comes into the kitchen and quietly and diligently does everything he sees that needs to be done. In one of my not so shining moments I snapped (physically snapped my fingers at him) I don't even remember why I did it, what I do remember is that instead of slapping me (or at least my hands) he just did what I asked. Anyway, knowing that, it was really funny to see him pulling rank.

The day was really pleasant. After finishing the inventory, I went out and talked to some of the guests. Then people started serving the food. I mean really serving it, just like waiters and waitresses. It was an incredible spread (not the least because all the food is donated so who knows what they'll have from week to week). They had a tomato bisque starter (not cream of tomato soup, honestly a very fancy looking tomato soup) and then a light chicken fricassee (not fried I don't think) and rice (really really good rice). There was also a nice garden salad and incredible bread, with a perfect chewy outside and soft inside. The meal was actually made by a professional chef (apparently three professional chefs help and on the other week incredibly talented amateurs cook -- sort of like chef Olympians :)).

It was also cute to see how much the people at the soup kitchen love and value my friend. They were constantly singing his praises and going to him with questions/asking for help. It was such an interesting turn considering that's the role I usually play in our church kitchen. It definitely gave me a different perspective on my friend.

I told him he should take a first date there. Then he'd know if she had a heart for the underprivileged like he does and he'd see how much of a hard worker she was. He'd also have tons of people talking him up to the girl and they'd get to share an INCREDIBLE meal that wouldn't cost him anything :).

When the work was done he and I went to my candy store in the north end and took a quick trip through Haymarket before heading our separate ways.

I went home and chilled for an hour with the current book I am reading: The Thirteenth Tale, which so far I really love. Then my friend Laurie came over and we spent the evening cooking dinner (we had Newman's pineapple salsa which was incredible and then a lovely baked squash and sweet potato dish with salad) watching arrested development (really we only saw two episodes, but I think I could really get into it) and then just talking for hours. It was really nice. We hadn't had a chance to do it in over a year.

After she left, I watched two Cosby show episodes and went to bed. A perfect day.