service with a smile

i met my blogmate in the west loop last night to celebrate her belated birthday and my belated completion of the marathon, and also to exchange the gossip we'd accumulated in *gasp* 4-5 whole days of not talking to each other. i have no clever unifying theme for the following series of events; really, i think everyone working last night was just plain funny.

i stopped at the relatively new chicago chocolate company on randolph to try to find a last-minute gift to accompany the cute green running socks i'd found while in san diego. on being asked "can i help you find something?" by the guy behind the counter, i hesitated while trying to explain my dilemma, then blurted out, "i'm trying to finish a gift for a friend, and all i have for her is socks. they're cute running socks, but that's not an adequate gift. can you suggest a chocolate to accompany socks?" to give the guy credit, he first demanded to see the socks, then asked whether they were the kind with separate toes. on learning that they were not the separate-toe kind, he suggested that i purchase fudge.

socks and fudge in hand, i then walked across the street to meet my blogmate for sushi. i think it says something about my lack of class that i intentionally pick menu items based on their funny names. at the greek restaurant with twinset and her husband it was the saganaki flaming cheese. tonight it was poochi-poochi sparkling sake, served to us with great flourish by the very affected waiter (who, as my blogmate puts it, "must live in [her] neighborhood (boys' town)." is it really necessary to sip and approve a drink with bubbles that has a picture of a dog holding a blanket on it? but give me credit: i exercised some restraint and did not insist on ordering the fuji apple fu for dessert, mostly because another option involved green tea cheesecake on a brownie crust with fresh raspberries. mmm...

after dinner i dragged my blogmate to the south loop to pick up a gift certificate for our boss from the chicago firehouse, which is a beautiful rehabbed building with fancy american food. i walked into the main lobby where a whiny assistant-manager type was berating two bored staff about how they recognize restaurant regulars via their fancy computer system. this must have been riveting, because i stood there for quite awhile before they even looked at me, and even then nobody offered help. eventually i singled out bored staff #1, a tired blond career-waiter-looking guy, and asked him for a gift certificate. he suddenly realized that if he helped me, he would not have to be berated by whiny assistant-manager, and left to procure the certificate. meanwhile, another customer came to the front to ask for a cab home, where he too was promptly ignored for a few minutes. feeling bad for the guy, i whispered in his ear that if he was actually in a hurry he might want to consider interrupting their conversation. eventually he got his cab from them, but not before he decided that he should start a very poor attempt at hitting on me, complete with "so are you new in town?," "i'm in town for a conference... yeah, it's full of nerds," and "i'm actually running this whole circus" followed by a description of the trade show booth this very important man was in charge of. but i have to give the guy credit: his attempts were bad enough that they drew the attention of bored staff woman #2, because when he left she finally stopped her argument with whiny assistant-manager type long enough to laugh and reassure me that he must be tanked, seeing as his dinner partner was passed out on the table.

apparently all the fun happens on wednesday nights. who knew?