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Valentine’s Day

By February 14, 2013Acceptance

It was Valentine’s Day a bunch of years ago. It’s funny how years blend together. These are the facts I am certain of. I was working for DoubleFusion, Jackie and I were not married yet, I was supposed to be a flight to the NBA All-Star game in Vegas (at least I think). That would put it roughly at 2007, I am guessing.

My flight got cancelled because of a huge storm that walloped the east coast, basically grounding all flights out of the Tri-state area.

Anyway, I was supposed to be flying, which ironically I am doing as I type this (32K feet somewhere between Nevada and California). So I had in advance made plans with Jackie to either do something before or after—I don’t recall, but I was gonna do something nice because I wasn’t going to be there on the actual day.

I asked David if he would be so kind as to be Jackie’s date and to take her somewhere nice just so she wouldn’t be bummed out. He agreed (probably because I told him I would pay for the meal).

Side note: I am not a giant fan of Valentine’s Day. I don’t want to go bursting anyone’s bubble who may like it, but let’s just leave it at that. Tim does NOT like Valentine’s Day… never has, never will…

So now my flight is grounded, they pretty much told me, “You can pretty much forget NBA All-Stars, we’re gonna be so backed up with re-bookings you wouldn’t get there ’til after the game.” Which bummed me out because that would have been my first All-Star game. (I did end up going the following year in New Orleans.)

David, being the master planner he was, made no reservations or attempts to find a place to eat that evening—the most reservation-happy day of the year next to New Year’s Eve. (I am not really sure that is factual, but if there were two days where you are SOL on last minute reservations, I would guess it would be those two days.)

It became a threesome without a reservation. We walked to out to go in the UES to a place called UVA where I had hoped that my generous tipping in visits past would have some impact on my ability to get a table. As luck would have it, it did! (FACT: Tip your bartenders and servers wisely if you intend on going back often.)

They literally made us a table in the downstairs room, and we sat down to eat.

At this point, I hadn’t really explored their menu as deeply as I wanted, and they were introducing a new gnocchi dish to the menu that night. I stuck with what I knew should be good, thinking about my cooking days and busy nights and lack of interest in the specials since I made the exact same money if I served ten plates or ten thousand plates. I digress.

I order the duck.

DP orders whatever he orders, probably something very plain. UVA, by the way, is a very good wine bar and Italian joint on the UES, highly recommend them. But after Stanton left to open his own restaurants, they hired this dickwad of a bartender who pretty much pissed me off one night many years ago that I didn’t return for months. When I do visit, I go on days he is not there or am sure to go directly to a table. (More on that at some point in the future.)

Jackie orders the special. A truffle-infused homemade gnocchi. Now for the “Eye-Talians,” will you, gnocchi is an art form. I’ve made it a total of two times, Fool me once… isn’t that the saying? It’s one of the more difficult pastas to make. I was successful in making something that tasted like mashed potatoes or watered-down pirogues.

So we have a few apps, and overall we’re just having this really nice dinner. My disappointment of not being able to make the All-Star game is subsiding, and our little triumvirate is getting along nicely.

Cassandra, the server, was keeping us properly hydrated, and then arrived the mains. The duck was as expected; David’s meal was plain. But Jackie had ordered something that was smelling and looking divine. We all started eating. David devoured his dish in about four minutes flat in the most disgusting David-fashion possible, which included awful slurping noises.

I could tell Jackie’s dish was good, and she asked us if we would like a bite. It was then that the A-type behavior between me and David took over and a feeding frenzy ensued. I stabbed a gnocchi, he grabbed two. I stabbed two, and he stabbed three. They were delicious! We were sharks who had tasted blood, and it was on. Less than a minute later, we were dipping bread scooping up the sauce.

And then Jackie said, “Gee, thanks guys…” Her voice startled me. It was as if we forgot she was there, while DP and I battled to get as much of the delicious gnocchi and completely lost site that Jackie had all of one bite before offering to share. We had eaten her Valentine’s Day dinner.

I offered to order another plate, but at that point, it was too late. She gave the look she could give, which basically summed up it up: You guys are both assholes, you are both in trouble.

We hung our heads in shame and finished the bottle of wine. By desert it had worn out, probably because Jackie had wine for dinner. We had a nice dessert of which David and I kept our spoons away from.

I am pretty sure that is the last Valentine’s Day I celebrated. It’s not the reason for my disdain. That is actually one of the better ones since we could always look back and laugh. It would always start with Jackie saying something like, “Remember that time you guys ate my Valentine’s Day dinner?” and then she would snarf (the noise she made when laughed).

So that’s how I spent today roughly six years ago today.