Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Big Night Out

Got invited to awesome vintner's wine dinner at the local Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute which featured italian wine importers and a master sommelier and lots of tasty food. and now finally I know a little something about italian wine and know i like things from Abruzzi. It was like a dinner served by college students except fois gras and peppercorn aioli instead of shitty boil in bag rice and beans in a can.

The best part of it was hanging out with my several of my new colleagues from the federal defender. A lot of the investigators and paralegals have law degrees and everyone is a big happy family and extraordinarily smart and this sort of incandescently brilliant death penalty attorney sitting to my left talked about being in the same Harvard law class and friends with Miguel Estrada, an arch-conservative genius type that the even the democrats managed to keep off the federal bench. Apparently he thought she might be conservative too but then realized that she was a civil libertarian freedom fighter but I think they were still pals. by the way, i think the main difference between arch conservatives and arch civil libertarians is their relationship with authority and money. you-should-leave-me-alone-because-of my-authority-and-money versus you-should-leave-me-alone-just-cuz. what is left over sounds alike a lot of the time.

So there was a lot of great italian wine and chat and I think i did okay because i got invited to go swimming at one of their houses on friday and to a Race for the Cure party on sunday. yay!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

tex -

ah.. the prose, the prose. it's as though i could hear you sitting right next to me gossiping about everything. my daredeveil exteraordinaire.

katie

Anonymous said...

"Its part of the rhytym of the neighborhood..." you really are a renaissance woman. and once you understand the rhythm of a place, you can begin to play along. I can't wait to hear the beautiful music you make with Portland as your muse.

katekatenegotiate said...

you could seriously make 20 friends in mongolia in a week. AND be at a mongolian race for the cure on saturday. i swear to god. you are so full of life and that makes me happy. keep on, keepin on.

Scott said...

the luminous descriptions make my neck hairs tickle and eyes well up with the wonder of it all. It's as if you stepped into a truly great novel and everyday begins a new chapter full of sensory places and interesting characters. Not only are you a defender of the public, but a champion for the written word. Marvelous stuff!