Last night had a later dinner with Diane out at Trocadero where we enjoyed seats in the breeze by the fountain outside and did our level best to turn sad into happy. She had lost her friend Robin to cancer last week and had another thing bringing her down, and so joked that she looked so down and "off" that everyone would think that I was a boyfriend who was breaking up with her. I proceded to dramatically gesture and break up with her in various ways throughout the night, which kept making her laugh, which was much better. Her sister had missed her plane from North Carolina and so, since I was going to keep her company until she arrived, we had much more time together than she thought she'd get. After going back to my place we played on Match.com together for a while and laughed about that bizarre convention (which I'd talked her into trying) and then we watched the bulk of Before Sunrise, which I've been trying to get her to watch forever. Then her sister, who had ended up flying into Chicago Midway and jumping into a rental car to Milwaukee with three guys she'd met on the plane – the kind of hair-raising thing Diane's younger sister apparently does all the time, just to keep Diane's heart racing – we headed off to the airport to grab her, and so I met Sarah for the first time.
Tonight capped off my fun at home with dinner out with Julie on Brady Street at Coco Bella Trattoria, an Italian place with an interesting wine list through which we were guided by Phillip, one of Julie's former colleagues in Marquette's improv comedy group, the Studio 013 Refugees. We tried a Spanish red that was strangely sweet and fruity on the tip of the tongue before becoming much more a full-bodied wine further back on the tongue, from Almanza, I think, but I've lost the name. Drat, now I realize I also cannot remember the name of the stronger pinot noir/zinfindel mix Andrew and I went for later. Whatever. I'll look it up later and edit this entry. Who's Andrew? Well.
