Sushi Maki and assorted nuts

Last Friday was one of those disastrous days when not only do you not accomplish anything you set out to do, but everything goes wrong.  Every gray hair I have I can directly attribute to my son.  Well, my ex-husband is probably responsible for a few.  After a midday nap to forget my craptastic day, I went over to Wendy's apartment with Evil G.  We made pizza and picked up some rolls from Sushi Maki in Sunset, and washed down the whole mess with the Passion Fruit and Guava wines from Schnebly Redland's Winery my mom got for Christmas and donated to the cause.  The pizza dough was definitely something I'd use again-I like my pizza extra vegetable-y and I'm too cheap to pay for it.  And those vacuum sealed containers are so fun and retro American to open...where's my oil cloth apron when I need it?  I just had a piece from the JB roll and California roll Evil G bought but it was soooo good...I swear, sushi turns me on.  Just saying.  The wine I found too sweet - the guava I liked better than the passion fruit.  We revisited Swingers and I swear we didn't even crack a smile until the last three minutes of the movie.  It did NOT age well.  I kept waiting for the dancing, and there was a lot less of it than I remembered.

Saturday night I went to Tobacco Road to see Juke play.  Man, I loves me some harmonica.  And, isn't every man that much hotter when when he's got tattoo sleeves?  Midway through their set the lead singer was fumbling for a light and I walked up to give him my lighter...oh, no, you keep it, honey.  Sigh.  I think I should go there more often; it's one of the few places I've been to lately that feels age appropriate.  I've always wanted to try their midnight steak dinner, too.  Oh, and to the woman having that awesome time dancing?  Yeah, dance like no one is watching but please, never, never, tuck your blouse into your shiny black American Apparel leggings again.  We pregamed at my apartment before heading out, and I got Sam Adams Coastal Wheat and Shock Top.  Yeah, I know it's not very hard core of me but I really prefer Belgium Wheats...I didn't like the Sam Adams at all, it seemed very flat and tasteless...I've had Shock Top before (Harvey's has it on tap) and I like it.  As an aside, my recycling bin has an embarassing amount of alchol containers in it...does being green make up for being a drunk?  After Tobacco Road we got some pizza at Casola's, which is a Miami institution for late night drunken munchies.  I swear, that must be one of the worst things ever - working the late night shift at Casola's on a weekend.  I can't imagine how many people have puked in that parking lot.

Sunday I went to the Greek Festival at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  I'm not really sure why.  Such a pretty church!  I think one of my all time favorite smells, besides Sharpies, is the smell of old churches...all that wood, those candles and incense...it's delicious!  We had some Greek food and yeah, I've already given my opinion on that.  Then a long nap and a return to Sushi Maki for a proper meal, which honestly didn't impress me as much as it did on Friday, though it was still very good and fairly well priced.  I didn't care for the vegetable dumplings - the sauce was too vinegary.  I do appreciate the healthy amount of fish in the rolls.  Sad to report, their spicy tuna roll did not pass my litmus test.  Also, I don't like my restaurants cutesy and I have to say, they fall just short of being too clever.  Their gorgeous take out bags almost redeems their haiku tutorials and chopsticks cartoons.  Though it's a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff; go with someone there on a first date and see if the chopsticks wrapper inspires them to actually make walrus teeth with the chopsticks.  Went to Sunset Place to see Shutter Island on a gift card my sister gave me for Christmas (the really confusing one was the one she gave me for IHOP).  At least this gift card had a balance on it; my mother and I just about died laughing when we tried to use a Walmart gift card she gave us recently...and it had only a balance of $3.82 left on it.  Merry Christmas to you, too!  Honestly, she is just very distracted, it's not deliberate.  Stop reading now if you don't want to read a spoiler on Shutter Island.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

I personally don't care if people spoil movies for me since I rarely go, and knowing the ending doesn't affect the experience for me much...I'm not big on surprises but I know a lot of people hate it.  Anywho, the movie was fine, I mean, how could it not be?  It was not a horror movie as I expected from the trailer, so I behaved fairly well during it.  The ending was all right, a plot twist that's been done before and will be done again...but it's an effective one (just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you...or maybe you are only paranoid, after all).  I had to think about it a bit, the very end where DiCaprio's character goes off willingly to his lobotomy...but then I figured, ok, he wants this because he can't stand thinking about what happened to his wife and kids anymore.  I'm all right with that...but I hated the fact that it was all a deliberate role playing ruse set up by the entire psychiatric staff and with the cooperation of a bunch of mental patients...I mean, come on.  Puh-leze.  That is just too unlikely, and screw your suspended disbelief...if several important elements of the story solely exist in his imagination, why couldn't it all be like that?  Makes more sense.  Honestly, the role playing explanation was about as crazy as what he was imagining!