Petrossian

Day 71 (Monday) of the T-90 Project:

I'd made plans with Winette to go see the play "39 Steps." I saw a Tweet about free tickets so I jumped at an opportunity to snag them. I called a number, a man on the receiving end sounded thrilled and there I had two tickets to a formerly-on-currently-off-Broadway show. I'd never heard of the play before, but I Googled it and what I found sounded entertaining.

Mondays come around and regardless of the plans I've made, I usually regret them. I could have a date with Leonardo DiCaprio and I'd still sulk at having to go look pretty for someone on a Monday. I treat Monday like a Puritan treated the Sabbath. I don't want to exercise, I don't want to socialize, I don't want to eat or cook, I just want to go home and lounge on my couch.

Winette's e-mail about being hungover and needing a detox night came as a welcome surprise, though now I was stumped as to what to do for T-90. I'd just experienced the worst day of work in the history of days of work and I was in no mood to go on an adventure. Instead I went home and contemplated a fun new meal I could order delivery. I ended up going old school.

Years ago my Korean ex-boyfriend Swimster (who some of you may remember) turned me onto his native cuisine. I'd never considered kimchi or bibimbap (let alone heard of it) and after dating him for a couple of years I was hooked. We'd frequent Mill Korean up by Columbia University and all the waiters would recognize me and my struggle with "gohm-sohm-bee-dah," or my version of the Korean "thank you."

I couldn't find Mill on Seamless Web or Delivery.com (Fashionista swears by the latter) but when I called and inquired about delivery, the woman who answered said yes. The food came quickly and along with my bibimbap came a generous serving of various kimchis. Sadly, however, the taste wasn't quite the same. It brought back a lot of fond memories of stinky breath and Chiclets (Korean restaurants notoriously offer these with the check because of all the garlic used in their meal preparation), but the flavors I thought I missed just weren't there. The scallion pancake is sitting in my fridge (one bite and I was grossed out) and will go uneaten along with some of the remaining kimchi (which didn't taste all that fresh from the get go). That will be my first and last time getting Mill Korean delivery. The bibimbap was just so-so. I swear they just plain forgot to put the egg on top.

Day 70:

It's been a challenge to keep up with T-90 on the wagon and in my final stages of resting and training for the marathon. All I want to do is pop into all these restaurants for a glass of wine and an appetizer and I can't (although my friend's wedding this weekend in Sarasota, Fla., will definitely be the exception).

This week I've turned to simple experiences. A few years ago when I started this blog a man e-mailed me working for Petrossian and asked if I wanted to advertise with them. The fancy restaurant and cafe sit right across from my gym, yet I'd always been intimidated to walk in. Tuesday I said that's it, I'm doing it, in sweaty T-shirt, running shoes and all. I walked in, bought a baguette, two of their hot chocolate stirring sticks and a small bag of shortbread. I'm on a kick with eating baguettes in the morning (the best so far from Silver Moon Bakery) with my Irish Kellygold butter. This one from Petrossian was a little tough. It was more like a ficelle and had probably been sitting there all day, while Silver Moon definitely had an afternoon batch of bread.

The sticks of fudge that were supposed to make hot chocolate were fun in theory, but when I added the stick to my mug of hot milk, nothing happened. Some of it ended up melting, but it was more like milk with chunks at the bottom than a nice smooth hot chocolate. Disappointing. The shortbread were tasty though a bit chalky and not worth the trip back.

Day 69:

I'm about to turn into a pumpkin, but before I do, today was an exciting day. I'd been wandering around various running stores looking for my marathon outfit all week. I'm very particular about what I wear on race day and I wanted to find something that MaineMan and I could both wear (without looking ridiculous). I hopped into SBR and there it was -- a bright red running shirt with my name on it. I tried it on and that was it.

"You know this is men's, right?" Said the cashier as he rang me up.

"Umm, yes, thanks." I said, sort of irritated. I know I like my shirts big and not fitted, but I didn't need to be reminded that I was buying something supposedly for men only.

"If you had a woman's shirt in red, I'd be buying it," I added. "I'm particular about my marathon shirts."

"Aaah, I see, bright colors won't go unnoticed," he said with a smile.

"That's right!" Thank god, he finally gets it.

Now I'm calling MaineMan to inform him, the uniform for race day is red (my favorite color) on top, black on bottom. Giddyup!

Thank god tomorrow's Thursday...