It does sound like a line out of Alias. Hey, since they may be out of bad girls on that show, they should cast Kate! Oh, she could be the buddy, I suppose, but bad girls are more fun.

Well, after much discussion about where we would go for dinner, I finally made an executive decision and deemed our dinner location to be Royal Dragon, a kosher chinese restaurant (at some point yesterday, NoiseDesign and I had a discussion about why there are so many kosher chinese restaurants, and I opined that it was because there is little to no dairy in chinese cooking, so it's "easy" to be kosher and not alter the menu too much. Clean your kitchen the kosher way, get kosher meats, eliminate pork and shellfish from the menu, voila!) Hil later confirmed this and said that the first two kosher restaurants are always pizza and chinese food.

I picked up Nilly and Hil at the Whole Foods, where Nilly was buying Kosher, Vegan, Cruelty Free Chocolate for her sister. She had asked Hil about it, and Hil said "well, if it's anywhere in the city, it's at Whole Foods". I was a bit confused as to how chocolate could be "cruelty free" (as I think of it as relating to the treatment of the yummy animals we eat), but apparently, they mean not being cruel to their farmers. Fair trade and such (as I discovered later). So, we trolled merrily through the city to the Beltway, passing Howard University, and I played tour guide and explained the history of Howard. In doing so, I mentioned segregation, and Nilly looked at me and said "why?". I paused, no one had ever said that to me before. People just sort of accepted it as a part of history, and I had never had to articulate why segregation happened. It was a bit of a mindfuck for a second. I thought about it, managed to mumble something about slavery and the perception of inferiority, but I've sort of been ruminating on that. But, that's another post.

So, we get to Royal Dragon, in a shopping center. We passed it once, had to loop around the block and come back. There's also a large kosher grocery store. Hil was impressed, it is apparently much larger than the one in Silver Spring. We arrived, and they had set up our table for 15, so we sat down, Nilly and Hil went to the restroom. Everyone who came in looked right past me and said "Where's Nilly?" I chose not to take it personally.

So, Nilly came out of the restroom, and we all sat down. We had to ask them to add another table (SOMEone didn't RSVP. :) You know who you are. I don't, I tossed the piece of paper where I was keeping track last night) It was a lovely evening. Food was good, Nilly got lots of fun presents, such as a lovely tocque from Anne W. (which included many pictures of Nilly in said hat. And Fredpete's Hubs in the hat and my sunglasses, and me and Hubs in the hats) and a coloring book, and MFNLaw had the brilliant idea to buy Nilly a photo album for her trip photos. She also included a hebrew/english dictionary (fun moment, Nilly was excited about the dictionary because she wanted to look up "cilantro" because she said that people were so passionate about it, she wanted to know what it was. It wasn't in there. boo!, but yay cilantro)

We finally left at around 9, I think they were closing, and stood next to the table for a while. Then we moved outside and stood on the sidewalk for a while, and finally left. meara was coming in from North Carolina, and her plane was late, so she missed dinner. She met up with us at Hil's apartment, and we all hung out for a while just talking. Nilly had saved her last picture for meara and she let me be in it :)

A wonderful evening. Nilly is lovely, a delight. I know that everyone said it already, but it was nice to see for myself.

In doing so, I mentioned segregation, and Nilly looked at me and said "why?". I paused, no one had ever said that to me before. People just sort of accepted it as a part of history, and I had never had to articulate why segregation happened. It was a bit of a mindfuck for a second.

Whoa. That's...something.

boo!, but yay cilantro)

Huh. In between the "boo" and the "cilantro," you seem to have typed some gibberish.

Ha! The Cilantro thing came up at the Kosher Chinese place in Brookline. Did she look under Coriander?

She did, but coriander is also not in the dictionary.

Dinner was fun. We stayed and talked and laughed until they had locked the doors. Nilly is very huggy and got a number of fantastic gifts, which i will leave it to the givers to post about. I'm SO GLAD I went.

What sort of impression do our gatherings generally make on the non-Buffista significant others who attend?

Patrick says to remind him of drama people from high school and college, but he hung out with the drama people, so he's happy.

Glad to hear that meara got in on the Nillyaction! Sounds like a lovely time for you all!

Dinner was super fun! thank you to Vortex for executive decisioning a plan that worked out quite well. Anne & I got to the shopping center where the restaurant is a little early and wandered around a fairly large used bookstore while we waited for the appointed hour to arrive. The first thing I picked up when in the store was a 50 States Activity book. Thank you Universe for finding a PERFECT little gift for me to give to Nilly.

Who is the bum-diddliest, most shiniest, and Nilliest of Nillys!

Thank you to everybody who helped bring her to us!!!

Also, it was so nice to finally meet a bunch of my almost localistas. Everyone is so nice! I still feel all glowy.

ETA serial comma

t glum

I didn't bring Nilly a gift. I was going to bring her a little bottle of lotion from the store where I work, but couldn't decide which she'd like, then ran out of time. Poop.

t /glum

Is Nilly on her way back? DC is her last stop, right? If she hasn't left yet, when is she going?

Frank, she's heading out this afternoon. At the end of last night's F2F, she and CaBil were making plans to visit the Air & Space Museum this morning.