au milieu des autres

so last night was uber weird.  cool, too.  but weird.  i kind of had no plans and hadn't seen my little in a long time, so i called her and we made plans for that evening.  she was at her sister's house instead of her own house.  they are in the same neighborhood, but i dont know exactly where her sister lives.  so i was kind of walking aimlessly on the street until she found me.  she is so fearless in her neighborhood - as well she should be - but i am always on high guard.  i 1) clearly do not fit in around there and 2) may look like an easy target?  i'm not sure.  anyway, i picked her up and we took the bus first to copley and then got on the green line to go out to brookline (which is kind of a suburb of boston, but a very fancy one).  she showed me that she was wearing the earrings and necklace that i gave her for christmas.  apparently she wears them every day.  i was totally impressed.  i had mostly forgotten about the gift, but was also touched that she liked them so much.  she asked me if the earrings were expensive (and i must thank k for them since she gave them to me to give to my little) and i said "don't worry about it."  apparently she is allergic to certain types of silver and those don't make her earrings swell (so i think she thinks they're expensive....).

anyway, we went to this cafe in coolidge corner for game night.  the store where i buy all my board games hosts a game night every tuesday night.  i've always wanted to go but never had anyone to go with and so i dragged my little (of course i didnt tell HER i was dragging her, i told her we were going to have LOTS of fun - and we did!).  last night was family night and most tuesdays are advanced nights.  first we played this game called bag-o-loot, which was an easy card game.  it was fun.  she and i played alone because all the tables were full.  then we started this neat game of connect four that is really in a circle.  that was also pretty cool.  then the main dude asked if we'd like to play bag-o-loot with some other people and we said sure.  oh, there was a puzzle game, too that we started playing.

we went to the tables and played bag-o-loot with some other people.  when we got there i said hi to this guy who was standing by the games.  i introduced him to my little and asked if he had been there before.  he said no and pointed to some guy he was with.  i assumed the guy i was talking to was my age.  and the other guy was maybe in his 20s.  but then we played bag-o-loot with the other guy and i started thinking maybe he was... i couldnt tell if he was a teenager or if there was something wrong with him.  i had no idea.  so then it made me question how old the other guy was.  then i started to feel really old.  later, my little said she thought the guy i had talked to was a big brother.  so i think that is the case, BUT i introduced my little as "this is my little sister" and he didnt pick up and say "oh, i'm a big brother, too."  also, later in the evening he commented that i couldnt "steal from family" (when i captured some of my little's cards).

i had promised to get my little something to eat, so we went across the street to naked pizza.  it was actually a GREAT learning opportunity.  all of the signs say "no additives - natural ingredients!" and she asked what that meant.  i explained that most food has things added to them.  then we talked about how she felt most often after eating.  i asked if she felt tired and she said yes.  i explained that, most likely, its because her food has stuff in it that our bodies don't like and thats why it makes us feel tired.  i told her that she would probably feel really good after eating this pizza.  which, i just remembered i have some left!  great.  lunch is served.  anyway, i still need to teach her some manners about eating.  she was trying to stuff the food in her mouth, but it was too hot so it was falling out and it was... egh.  gross.

it was way past 9pm by this point, so we hopped on the t.  at copley, i hailed a cab and we took it to her house and i explained i would run her upstairs and be right back.  no way i was walking home at that time of night.  i got in the cab and the cabbie started asking me questions.  we chatted, which was nice, and it turns out he's algerian.  he also explained that he speaks french and i said i did, too.  so then, AFTER i had paid, i sat in the cab for at least 10 minutes talking to the guy.  in french.  and he gave me his email so i can send him an email to practice my written french.  he told me some story about a french woman who lives in brookline and was dying and gave him some money because he was nice to her and her nephew had fought for the french in the french-algerian war.  this woman's lawyer didnt like that she gave him some money, (i think over $100k), so he took the money out of the guys account.  the cabbie has now hired a lawyer to look into it to get the money back.  the whole point is that this woman's old friend back in france's name is danielle.  the whole thing was one of those situations where i'm like "why do i ALWAYS have WEIRD stories like this??"  who else sits in a cab for 10 minutes talking to their cab driver in french??  maybe this is normal, but i suspect not.

[french song by calogero translated to "in the middle of others"]