Now we are 34.
To my delight, they all quite cheerfully accepted! This may or may not be because I attached this video to the invitation to tempt them away from their families:
(Dear Makers of the Temple Movie,
Please cast Tom Hiddleston as Satan in the next version. Benedict Cumberbatch would be fine as well. Basically, British baritones with good cheekbones = many happy viewings.
Swooningly yours,
Amanda)
So after a lovely day spent doing delightfully mundane things (Sleeping in! Working out! Grocery shopping! Oil painting!), my four favorite local ladies joined me at Vesta’s Dipping Grill for dinner at the ridiculous hour of 5:00 because now I am old. (I pause for a moment to think about the reaction Spaniards would have to our eating dinner at 5:00, but then I imagine they would just assume it’s lunchtime and shrug it off.)
Vesta is one of my favorite places to go to splurge on a dinner in Denver – delicious food, hipster vibe, and they take reservations. Awesome.
Here are mah peeps:
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| Tammy, Fara, Chuck, Rachel, myself, and Lisa |
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| A vegetarian chili amuse-bouche |
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| Bread with roasted garlic |
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| Roasted beet salad with pine nuts and camembert brulee |
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| Flatbread with assorted sauces selected by our waiter |
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| Tagliatelle with mushrooms, shallots, and butternut squash |
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| Venison kielbasa with assorted mustards (which we dove into because I remembered to take a photo) |
It looked delicious, trust me.
My fondness for these ladies was confirmed when they
1) ordered appetizers and
2) immediately passed their appetizers around for everyone else to try.
We did not share our main courses because…
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… we all ordered the exact same thing.
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| Ribeye steak with asparagus, spring peas, house-made bacon, cherry tomato risotto, and sweet corn soubise. Cherry tomato risotto! How could any one of us pass that up? |
We did each order a variety of sauces and were quick to pass them around the table for all to try.
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| My selection: Pineapple peddy marmalade, basil emulsion, and miso buerre blanc |
Great company, good conversation, and delicious food – it was everything I hoped it would be. In fact, the ladies went above and beyond and, to my surprise, brought gifts. Fara’s is perfectly literary; Lisa’s is delicious; Rachel’s, in proper sisterly fashion, references a joke from our high school days; and Tammy’s… well, Tammy’s is the one that makes me giggle every time I look at it.
See, Tammy and I both indulge in watching the glamorous and ridiculous (xoxo) Gossip Girl. Upon discovering our mutual lamentable taste, we bonded over the bad acting, the appalling writing, the fabulous clothes, and the villain who has perfected the art of smoldering – Chuck Bass. Ed Westwick really does a remarkable job at being such a deplorable hottie, and Tammy and I both want to see the new version of Romeo and Juliet 20% because we’re Shakespeare fans and 80% because Chuck Bass is Tybalt.
Hence her gift:
Master Class 
