Shane and I had dinner with one of our pastors on Monday night, and as we laid all of our hopes/longings/sorrows out on a table filled with piping hot bowls of pho, she reminded us that we shouldn’t let our dreams for the future get in the way of reveling in the present.  Damn, she’s good.  I get so wrapped in wishing and wanting that I forget how good things can be right now.  We’re young and active and healthy.  We live in an amazing city with all kinds of amazing people.  We have good jobs and a home we love.  And we have boatloads of freedom.  We can jet off for a weekend getaway when the mood strikes us, we can spend an entire Saturday lounging in our pajamas after a long and tiring week, and we can turn tickets to a 7 pm comedy show into an epic night out on the town.  Last night was such a night – we had tickets to see Louis CK at the Paramount and decided to meet up after work for a pre-show bite at Kushibar.  We’ve been wanting to check this place out for awhile, and the big bowls of tonkotsu ramen did not disappoint.  We’ll come back next time with bigger appetites – I wish I’d had room for the fried octopus balls (as in fried balls of octopus meat – don’t be gross)!
We had some time to kill post-dinner, so we popped into Shorty’s on a whim to play some pinball. Â This place is pretty divey, but once you get past the sticky floors and the musty odor of whiskey-soaked dudes, it’s a fun joint. Â Oh, and I crushed Shane at pinball, for the record.
We made our way from Belltown to the Paramount and could hardly contain our excitement as we settled into our seats. Â Shane has been a big fan of Louis CK for years, and I’ve recently come to see past the occasional (err…frequent) crudeness and get a good laugh out of his stand-up. Â I had pretty high expectations heading into this – it was our first comedy show and I’d heard from a couple of people that this tour was hilarious. Â And wowsers – he hit my high expectations out of the ballpark. Â My cheeks hurt from laughing by the time he left the stage. Â And then he came out for an encore and I howled some more. Â Thanks, Louis – we needed that.
I assumed we’d jump on lightrail and head home after the show was over, but Shane had another whim up his sleeve as he pulled out his phone to look up downtown dessert places. Â We walked down 4th Avenue, taking in the decorations and the lights and the clear, crisp night.
We landed at Purple wine bar and after four seconds of perusing the menu, I settled on the creme brulee. Â Shane ordered a stinky blue cheese plate and a glass of port, and we sat there for awhile, still chuckling over our favorite Louis jokes and remarking what a fun, random night it had been (the Shorty’s crowd and the Purple crowd are typically not one and the same).
Much love to my man and my city – we should all get together more often.