"I find your lack of cheer...disturbing."

The tree is up! It's not even half decorated, but I guess there's really no rush. Tree trimming is actually kind of tedious on your own (even with appropriate musical accompaniment) so I'm just as happy to break it into quarter- or half-hour chunks over the next couple days. The prep work all went much fleeter and more smoothly than feared. In short order, monshu and I had assembled the sturdy new metal stand it took him six(!) stores to find and I'd hacked off a half dozen branches and several inches of trunk. It looks a little wonky, but its stability is unquestionable.

We went up a size this year. All the tabletop trees at Gethsemane were barely two foot and squat as shitting toads, so a helpful elf led me to the three shortest full-sizers on the lot. (Their pricing is so broken that I paid only $5 more for four times as much tree.) I grabbed the fullest of them and carried it home in my arms, then left it on the deck for two days while I summoned up the will. It's our first balsam fir and of course the smell is incredible.

This evening is our staff Holiday Party but I'm giving it a miss. One of my most treatured colleagues was vacillating about going and pointed out to me that since they're closing down the whole building this time, EVERYBODY will be arriving at once to a space which doesn't have the best flow under the most ideal conditions. I'm also feeling less than affectionate toward the institution again for a mix of reasons.

I mean, I'm thrilled for utopian_camorra for finding a job (a) in his area (b) in town; we all know how rare is these days. But it was, in the words of the aforementioned colleague, "wonderful and crushing news". Not only is he one of the most well-informed and politically-savvy people here, he's also one of the kindest and most supportive. I think back to how he intervened in my difficulties with his old department back in September. Then I ponder how none of the other principles involved has reached out to me since then (throwing considerable doubt on the sincerity of their motives in asking me to take a quarter off while they "get their shit together") and I feel very unhappy.

Yesterday another coworker called me "one of the most socially well-adjusted people in this institution". And the shame of it is I think she may be right. The context was that the bad habits of her colleagues are not making her attempts to overcome her own social dysfunctions any easier. I'm running into the same problem, getting a lot more reinforcement of my bad qualities than modelling of and encouragement to develop better ones. Why go someplace where I'll be reminded of that when I could be hitting the town with monshu, Nuphy, and Mr Cleveland instead?

Partita di ritorno

As much as I enjoy the company, perhaps doubling tonight's party to a quartet was not the best idea. Eataly is chaotic enough without a couple of gabby old codgers vying for your attention. But, hey, we got homemade fruitcake, spiced nuts, and Hungarian spice liqueur out of it, so I'm calling it a win. (None of those from the store obviously; Mr Cleveland brought a gift bag.) I'm not sure monshu would agree, however much he likes the new amaro we brought home.

We're still planning a return trip (not least of all so we can try some of the main dishes; Nuphy fixated on the pasta corner and none of us had the energy to oppose him), but in a while once they've the barely-trained staff have had a chance to find their feet. I can sympathise with their struggles to parse chunky foreign product names. It's harder to understand how they haven't found the time to familiarise themselves with their immediate environs. (At one point, I asked a server where I could recycle an empty bottle. The nearest bin he could recall was downstairs. Actually there was one ten feet from his service point. Not to mention the faux pas of not simply saying, "Oh, I can take that for you.") And it's absolutely unforgivable to have someone serving at a wine bar who doesn't know how to pour wine. (She gave the Old Man a sampling of a spumante he didn't ask for, and when he ordered the Barbera she poured it into the same glass.)

No complaints about our dinner server. We didn't see him much, but they were pretty slammed and he had a birthday party. Dinner was a different matter. My pizza (mozzarella-arugula-prosciutto) was good, but not terrifically better than a dozen other joints with a wood-burning oven. Nuphy's lasagne was good (i.e. not ruined with assloads of cheese) but so dry that he actually poured the rest of the dipping oil over it. The real loser was monshu, who ordered a variation of the caplaz ad zuca I had a week ago that was amateurishly bland. The "sage-butter sauce" had little sage, no lemon, and wasn't browned. So, really, it was just melted butter poured over his ravioli. Yick.

I had a Dogfish Head stout that I liked very much and a citron-flavoured soda that we all found too sweet and not very citrusy. On the way out, I tried their fior di latte gelato and thought it too sugary. The antipasti we had while waiting for a table were good though: seasoned mushrooms, marinated shrimp, and a roasted cauliflower dish I might actually have liked had it not been shot through with capers. Cleveland also had a conversation with someone from the bakery, who explained that they're struggling to keep up with demand while training a staff of mostly-new bakers, so it will be a while before they offer anything like the polenta bread he loves so much. So, like I said, worth a return trip once they break in their staff a bit.