sharks and scenes at the yard house

On Thursday night I met up with my friend John. We used to work together in DC back in the 90s and got back in touch after a long time last year.

I decided to walk to the restaurant where we were meeting because it's only a little over a mile from my house. By the time I got there I was nearly frozen because it was 0 degrees outside. The restaurant was packed so I texted John:

me: where are you
J: I'm standing almost right in front of you
me: I can't see, my eyeballs are frozen

While we waited for our table we stood at the bar (seriously, my ass was so cold I couldn't bend at the hips to sit down) and talked family and work. When we were seated we got into the fun subjects. John read my book and is replicating many of the adventures I had (he recently jumped out of a plane and is going to go on a great white shark trip next year).

We had a tuna sashimi appetizer and it was so good I ordered the tuna sashimi salad for dinner which the waitress said was "weird". Then John and I started talking about recent great white shark research and shark week. He's been traveling so much in other countries that he still hasn't seen any of the shows he recorded. I told him about my favorites (I got a DVD with the 6 great white episodes at target of all places - I didn't actually watch shark week on a tv) and he kept saying "don't spoil them!" (as if I was revealing a huge plot twist on downton abbey instead of a research finding about great white predation).

The tables at the restaurant were very close to each other, and John and I were seated between two couples. At some point I realized that both of the couples were staring at John and I. We were both like "what?????" and one of the guys was like "what are you talking about?" and I was like "sharks" and then the waiter came up and we all had a brief but interesting conversation about great whites and the waiter got in trouble because he was late bringing another table their drinks.

Luckily John drove me home because by the time we left the restaurant the side walks (and roads) were really treacherous.

And I didn't want John to have the only bragging rights for adventures so I signed up for a surf camp in Costa Rica when I got home. It's staffed with professional surfers and you get 4 days of coaching. I was hoping to go over the holidays this year but their first opening was at the end of January so I'm going then. I've been doing some training on my balance board the past few weeks, Monday is kick off for pilates. Surf's up soon!