Oh my god! I haven’t written in so long, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to write about dinner last night. My friend Paula suggested we go out to dinner at Bobby Flay’s restaurant called Mesa Grill. Besides getting to see her (which was wonderful) the dinner was fabulous. Our waiter was very helpful and polite, but also had a good sense of humor. When he suggested an appetizer that had cheese in it I said that I can’t have dairy. Later on he came back and said that while he was putting in my order he remembered what I said about the dairy and wanted to know if I wanted my meals made without any butter or cream, etc… I thought that was very thoughtful. We stayed for a very long time after we paid the check and no one was rude or tried to rush us out of there. Here’s what we ordered and our informal reviews:

Appetizers:
Me: FRY BREAD TAQUITOS – wonderful but not my taste, I wouldn’t get them again but Paula liked them.
Paula: CORNMEAL CRUSTED OYSTERS – holy cow!!!! I hate oysters but these were AMAZING! I couldn’t believe that I was actually eating them. They were very good. Anyone who goes to this restaurant must have these.

Entrees:
Me: SPICE CRUSTED NEW YORK STRIP STEAK – God the steak was good. I never eat steak and it was great! But the whole meal could have been terrible if I still had the buttermilk mashed potatoes. They came as a side to the steak and they were amazing. I could have eaten a whole plate of just those potatoes.
Paula: NEW MEXICAN SPICE RUBBED PORK TENDERLOIN – this was very good as well. Paula loved it. I just couldn’t get over my potatoes.

Desserts: Yes we made enough room for dessert.
Me: WARM CHOCOLATE DULCE de LECHE CAKE – I don’t know what to say about this dessert, it was so rich I could only eat a few bites. I wish I had saved more room. It was warm and melt and heavenly.
Paula: TOASTED PECAN AND SMOKED VANILLA FLAN – this paled in comparison to the dulce de leche.

I NEED to go back. I think everyone should go there if they are in the City.

What is your Duck Type?

It is 4:53 now and the power has been out since 4:20. I am home in Port Chester. Jeff is at 33rd Street in NYC and Cory is somewhere. I�ve been trying to get in touch with him to find out if he�s ok but I can�t get through to him. Jeff was somehow able to call me soon after it happened. I thought it was just our house, but he said that it was in NYC and in NJ too. He has the radio at work, but couldn�t find any station with information on the power outage.

Just a few minutes ago I called the local Police and they said that it was a state-wide power outage and that they had no idea what caused it. So should I state the obvious? I feel just like I did when I was stuck in the city on 9-11. Completely cutoff from all information. Not knowing what the best thing to do next is� I feel some need to protect myself, but from what.

I have no working radio anywhere, my parents are on their way home from their vacation in maine and I hope that they are not stranded on a road somewhere. I went outside to see if anyone was talking about it and I heard some teenagers talking about how all of the streetlights are off and so all the cars are jammed up. Then they started talking about how some people must be looting.

I want to make sure that I have all my senses in case something terrible has happened and I need to drive or think clearly. At least I know that Jeff has a radio and is with a bunch of other people. I am mostly worried about Cory. Just tried to text message him again. I hate that all I can think of is that there was some terrorist attack on some main power plant or that something awful has happened. I think that I would be a lot less anxious if I could just get in touch with my brother.

I just got through to my parents house but its just ringing.

Take a look at this picture and ask yourself, Has Erica’s curse come true!? Who’s having a bad reaction to the GREAT Mexican food we ate! Unclean! We are distancing ourselves from him. Naw! we love him.

Vicki brought Keng, and Keng brought his camera and we got some good pictures of the group. I’m there with my big skirt and my fiesta shirt. I had a great time. Thanks guys for coming.

Our neighbors seem great (except for the ones we had to call the cops on) but that was more of a father/son screaming match than anything else.

Everything is Spanish around us. It’s great to be able to hear it and eat it (there are quite a few Peruvian and Ecuadorian restaurants in the area). All of our neighbors are Hispanic (except for the ones we had to call the cops on) and there is an Italian Social Club at the end of our block where the old dudes sit out on the street and talk. It’s great.

I’ll have more pictures of my apartment up soon. Have a great week.