i've been running full force, and finally my body has caught up to me.

on possibly one of the most beautiful (sunny, breezy, warm) and eventful (boston underground film festival, my roommate making butter-sugar crepes from scratch, many plans for social m-eatups, and burning star core et al at p.a.'s lounge) weekends, i'm house-bound (bed-bound? couch-bound?) with wicked chills, a wracking cough, zero appetite, and a throat sorer than the sox-yankees rivalry.

inadequate sleep, frequent nights out, incessant stress (both physical and emotional), and altogether busy-boddying has reduced me to this sniffling, swaddled heap o' mess that's wearily typing right now.

it hit me like a truck on friday afternoon, when i explicably began mumbling and zoning out during a brainstorm meeting at work, and then later on (at the warmly irreverent grub gone silly reading at boston's grub street writing center) i just knew i'd crash and burn immediately. my lungs raw. my lymph nodes swollen. i turned down a movie-in with two wonderful friends. it became (and evolved into great variation) a complete surrender to this virus.


see? it was indeed silly.

yesterday i was quite useless. somehow i survived a sweaty, dizzy 5 minute walk to fetch emergency supplies at walgreens (it's a vague memory). a medley of tea (thanks alexis!), throat lozenges (thanks ricola!), and homemade veggie soup (thanks carey!) somehow carried me through. lots of reading material and a late-night heartfelt chat miraculously brought me into a slumberous dreamland, shivering even in three layers of clothing and two down comforters.

therefore, it comes with some relief that i can still sort of work, since my fingers are not (surprisingly!) afflicted with some horrible symptom. but yeah, i can only take house-calls now. i invite you to come by see me croak, and in exchange for a potential contagion i will love you forever and ever.

pretty fair deal, no?

ok, so enough with the painful self-indulgence. on a lighter note, here are some photographs of food, which always manage to perk me up. it's also a brief synopsis of the past week.



tuesday, i was running around all over tarnation doing sourcing, research, and interview for some upcoming dig pieces. during one delicious break in the day, i tucked into a vietnamese lunch at pho pasteur at the harvard square garage. i had way too many convenient meals here back in the day, but it's still reliably tasty. because they take credit cards for minimum $10 orders, i splurged on (admittedly gummy/sticky) fresh summer rolls (the yummy peanut sauce gets a megaboost from extra dollops of chili sauce) and a small bowl of (#15?) beef pho. naturally, there was much subsequent nose-blowing.

wednesday evening post-work was night 1 of 2 of 80108's representation at shecky's girls night out.



some semblance of what 2000 women smashed in the cyclorama look like. (pix by joe baz)

luckily, meals were expensed to offset the pain of 10 extra hours. on wednesday after we packed up, joe (our marketing guru) and i went to pops restaurant, literally right across the street from the bca in south end.


his decontructed salad with big leafy romaine, a strip of bacon, and a mean slab of cheese.


my lovely rhode island clam stuffies! tasty and savoury, if not a tad salty from the bits of chorizo. extra points for cute presentation. although the bread wasnt earth-shattering, i especially enjoyed the butter housed in a mini-porcelain dome.


great minds think alike, i suppose. we both got the crispy-skin salmon, which is the most decadent thing to come out the sea (short of toro). the sesame rice was perfectly seasoned, and the slices of (caramelized?) miso-soaked turnip were astoundingly good. the salmon skin was so crispy (like bacon) that one had to use a knife to get through it, but the fish itself was well-prepared. along with a glass of sparkly pinot noir, i was impressed that i was stuffed after all was said and done.

the service was pretty good (our waiter was especially attentive at making sure everything was okay) and although we felt sort of guilty being one of the last ones out (the kitchen closes at 10:30pm) they didn't seem to (outwardly) mind at all. dinner for two came to around $70; with tax and tip, total was $87. on my own, i could imagine coming in for a drink and/or a hearty appetizer, but despite that it's on the more 'affordable' end of south end eats, it's still definitely indulgent.

okay, thursday: lather, rinse, repeat!



shecky's gone wild: two random interested people, me, and ryan rose weaver (rogue boston freelancer and 80108's invincible editor). at this point i think i did feel a little fatigue setting in, but there wasn't much i could do except keep going.

afterwards, four of us youngin's collapsed at nearby franklin cafe, a cozy, comfy south end hangout. not dirt cheap either, but probably one of least pretentious places out there, and great for late-night bites with friends. highly recommended.


i tried taking a photo just as an experiment, but yeah, this place is dark. here is my lamb shank, visible through a mega night-goggle high-contrast tweaking. the brandy-soaked apricots are insanely potent, kind of like the soaked plum at the bottom of a bottle of umeshu. the dish on the whole is super tasty and filling, but you need to watch out for large swaths of fatty lamb skin. don't worry, it makes it all the more delicious.


so i did the embarrassing and did some flash-work at the table. forgive me. but here you can see the feast laid out in all its glory: if anything, the bread/hummus starter is unbelievable. we shared a seared shrimp appetizer between us, and if you can dare to believe me, those brussel sprouts were mean tasty. buttery, crispy nuggets of vitamin-packed greens.

so after all this, i think my immune system packed up and said farewell.

i hope we will reunite sometime soon.