Grouch

Yesterday I had $7 noodles and beef brisket at a greasy hole in the wall where I had to share a table with strangers, there were no napkins to be had, and I was crammed up against the window.

Today I had a $50 lunch of seared corvina with a saffron sauce and a French cheesecake with mangos and ice cream at the Four Seasons, where the waitstaff brought a low table for my handbag (for my handbag!), which was never so honored in its life, where my napkin was replaced with a flourish before dessert, and which featured a view of the sparkling harbor.

So which do you think I enjoyed better?

Well, actually, I liked both. The Four Seasons had impeccable service (I was gently admonished for not saying earlier that I wanted another cushion for my back) and a beautiful view, but the food was mediocre (either that or I have a very unsophisticated palate that can't appreciate it). Plus, I was in fine form today, and it nettled me to be reading yet another menu on which half the entries were incomprehensible. "Dacquoise"? What is that? And is anyone but a French foodie or a French person going to know?

I liked the food at the hole in the wall better, and there was a fine sense of local eatery about the place, but my skin crawled a bit when I accidentally leaned against the wall.

And therein lies the dilemma. I like the low-brow, but I want it to be as clean and shiny and pretty as the high-brow.

I had a sort of grouchy day without really realizing it. Work actually was interesting (I was researching some political and economic conditions of a country for an offering). It was the interacting with people I had problems with, and by problems, I don't really mean problems, but more the realization that I have been socializing too much and need to set my butt at home or wander alone for a couple days to recharge. (It's an introvert thing.)

I really felt this when I went to a Mighty Big Firm dinner at some new chi chi Thai place, and for whatever reason, this guy was annoying me with all his talk of the shitloads of money he couldn't even spend all of when he was an editor at one of the law journals at Crimson. This spurred me to rail about the unnecessary excesses and horrific waste at Crimson and at law firms, which led to declarations that I'd rather have no free lunches and have less work as an associate, because the firms, they wine and dine you, and then they chew you up and spit you out. And this, to a summer coordinator! And I only had one glass of champagne (Veuve Cliquot, by the way)!

I don't know, I was in a mood. I should have left a lot earlier. I ended up being the only woman left with seven male associates/parter, and then I couldn't take it a moment longer and bolted. One of the criticisms that a previous Mighty Big Firm-Hong Kong summer associate had with the office was the gender imbalance -- only 2 women out of 19 lawyers, and Mighty Big Firm didn't seem in any hurry to try to balance that. It really makes a huge difference.

Ugh, I'm just in an icky mood.

But before I go, 2 funny coincidences: first, at lunch, I discovered that an associate at Magic Circle firm graduated from an L.A. high school the same year I did, and knew one of the girls I worked with on the high school paper! And second, at dinner, I found out that one of the associates at Mighty Big Firm, who'd gone to Crimson, lived in the same dorm room I had my first year -- a year before I got there! Cool, eh?