restaurant: Hecho

But first: Temptress had to postpone Sunday night's date, but she did it in style: she wants to walk around Green Lake, something I've always wanted to do on a date, but could never quite arrange.* She seems to a) know exactly what I want, and b) be at least OK with it. I could get used to this.

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I've lamented here how the fantastic veggie place just up the ridge from me, Carmelita, closed after twenty years. What replaced it is a yuppie Mexican place called Hecho. I had carne asada while I wibbled about Temptress to ionan and his missus. Despite being not much of a meat freak - I was hungry - I found the carne asada quite tasty. Presentation? A+. Service? Attentive to the point of an anxious vibe, which I'll ascribe to their newness. We did stay there until 2200, but we didn't close the joint. Price? Well, what you'd expect from a yuppie joint on Greenwood Ave., but not unreasonable. I'll grudgingly say that it's not an unworthy successor to Carmelita: not as creative, but it's good food with solid everything else.

Oh: In a fine demonstration of just how small Seattle is, Mr. & Mrs. ionan know Temptress and even camped with her husband at Burning Man one year. It's good to have further confirmation that she and her hubby aren't axe murderers.



*I did walk around the lake with Funny Lady once, but what was supposed to have been a date turned into a non-date with a few hours' notice.

a minor existential crisis on the way to work

There's this crazy, old Chinese lady who regularly rides the E line downtown with me in the late mornings. She never shuts up. Between her accent and her age, I hardly ever catch a complete sentence coming from her, so she's usually just barely tolerable. The subjects of her rants are usually, I think, related to federal economic policy; she often has a copy of the Wall Street Journal with her. Today, and not for the first time, I heard her call homosexuality unnatural.

Waddaya do? Well, as luck would have it, she gets off at the same stop as I do, now that StartupCo has moved its offices a few blocks south. Right after we got off, here's how the conversation went, if you can call it that:

Me: Ma'am, what were you saying about gay people?
COCL: [Giggles.]
Me: I'm gay!
COCL: [Giggles.]
Me: You need to stop with the homophobic rants. [Storms off and goes to work.]

So was this the right thing to do? If I complain to the driver, what are the chances that they'll do anything? Or have I finally become one of the crazies on the bus?