Do you do brunch?

I've been in a bit of a funk all week, feeling anti-social and under the weather. I think part of it is due to a mild tummy ailment but part of it simply stems from this time of year. I'm not really fond of cold weather and it never helps that my birthday forces questions like, "Am I really where I want to be in life at this age?"

In any case, Mattress and Beetle had asked to take me out to dinner last night since they couldn't celebrate my birthday with me last weekend. I was still in my haze yesterday evening and feeling sort of blah after yesterday's workplace announcement. In all honesty, as the time rolled around for us to meet, I felt like I would have preferred sitting at home and making a dent in my netflix queue.

But I rallied like a good panda, and I'm so glad I did. We went to a new restaurant (at Blanca's recommendation, apparently) and enjoyed a very fun and delicious meal. Upon entering, Mattress decided that the restaurant would make a good brunch destination and proceeded to ask every single staff member, "Do you do brunch?" multiple times.

Fortunately, the staff was very friendly and they all entertained his inquiries. "Sorry, no, but we hope to soon." "Um, no, we don't have eggs florentine for you tonight."

And the meal was quite lovely. We each had a salad and an entree, but the star of the show was the savory bread pudding we shared. Full of flavor and cheese and other good stuff, the hunk of carb was pretty sensational and it made us all very happy.

After dinner, we retired to watch Lost before I headed home to bed. As I walked home from Mattress and Beetle's, I thought to myself that I'm a very lucky panda to have such good friends with whom I love to spend time. And I was glad to have spent some quality time with them because it was the perfect antidote to my recent dour mood, even if my tummy remains slightly queasy today.