Better yet, oatmeal cookies, y'all just rookies to me.
Slidin' up and down the court but I don't think you can D.

De La Soul, "Oooh"
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The Fab Four for the evening in question consisted of one Kim, one Matt, one Wil, and one Me. I began the day packing all my stuff into Betty and bringing my knife set and cutting board, along with the prepped chicken, the beef broth, the curry spices, the andouille sausage, the uncooked orzo, the St. Supery, the five different kinds of cheese I would be needing, a vine of tomatoes, and a very, very large artichoke.

I was running a little late, but I had plenty of time, so I decided that the 101-405 would be the best course of action. Looking back on it, perhaps a little Pasadena to the 710 action would have been better. Oh well.

Somewhere around Van Nuys I realize I forgot the salt and pepper. Tolerable.

Somewhere around Culver City I realize I forgot my army of wooden spatulas. Regrettable.

Somewhere around Redondo Beach I realize I forgot my 10qt All-Clad. Unforgiveable.

I arrived at about quarter to one, but since I was diligent enough to do my prep work ahead of time, I was given ample opportunity to scour through Wil's girlfriend's apartment's cabinet's contents. I end up cooking the curry chicken (somewhere in Long Beach, as I'm making my non-blonde veloute, I realize I forgot the vanilla. Laughable) in a very large casserole ramekin, which would function also as a serving dish, and I cook the orzotto in a small frying pan and an aluminum pot, serving ultimately in a very large mixing bowl.

From the prepped chicken, I didn't have time to properly make the chicken stock in which I would cook the orzo, and I ended up adding too much of the gruyere, so there was a bit of a saltiness I didn't like. In my opinion, none of the dishes worked out the way I liked, but hey, isn't life grand that way.

The gathering began, rudely enough, with me engrossed in my fantasy football draft. For those of you who care, I was able to draft Priest Holmes, Randy Moss, and Rich Gannon with my first three picks in the 12-team league. For those of you who don't care, I was able to draft Tyra Banks, Elizabeth Hurley, and Nicole Kidman in my fantasy pillowfight league.

After about four bottles of wine, the Fearless Four were ready for dessert. I suggested the Madison, so about ten minutes later, we climbed into Betty and headed downtown. We discovered, though, that they were closed on Sundays (I knew this in the back of my mind when we did our Easter plans. For some reason, I chose not to remember it.) but right across the street was a similarly elegant Italian restaurant called L'Opera. We parked and headed in for some sugar-style activities.

I sat down to the menu, and I felt quite proud of the fact that I could still pronounce trockenbeerenauslese (known in the industry as simply, TBA). But because I have no idea which TBA to choose, I turn to our sommelier.

In an instant, I'm transported across the street and back in time. I arrived very late and I think it was the first time we'd all had dinner with Jamie. In fact, I recall she didn't know Liz's name, because she heard Matty J as "Matt and Jane". I also recall a sommelier named Chris who looked like a cross between our Caltech friend Tom "Tom Collins" Collier and NBC Friend Matthew "Chandler Bing" Perry. I remember, also, that I didn't know the primary grape in Sancerre was a Sauvignon Blanc. These are the things that have haunted me in my old age.

Let's return to the opera. I love that instant when you recognize someone, because it's that feeling of familiarity that really wraps your evening like a shawl. It's not necessarily important, but it definitely brings together an outfit. Seeing Chris at L'Opera was just like that.

(By the way, he quizzed me again. The other grape of the Loire valley is a chenin blanc. This is for the next time you run into him.) He offered for us three glasses of dessert wine to sample, none of which, by the way, were on the menu. My former favorite dessert wine, a TBA by Kracher, has now been replaced with a Vouvray that tastes like sunset on a warm day in Mexico. This wine had the ability to teleport your soul. Absolutely captivating.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun talking about high school, and I'm very fortunate that all of my closest friends are easily accessible. Some snippets from the various conversations:

Kim, to Matt: "I didn't know you had a crush on me!"
Matt, to me: "I didn't know you had a crush on my sister!"
Me, to everyone: "She was the fourth most attractive woman at the table, behind Kim, Jenni, and Wil's mom."

On the way back home, I almost get carjacked by a drug dealer. Long Beach is very hit or miss, I think.