Lunch with Manic at Brio

I got out of the house today. By myself. And it wasn't even for a root canal! No, I got out of the house and went to a nice Italian restaurant with fellow blogger, Stephanie from Manic Mommy! We had such a great time. Well, I had a great time anyway. I think Manic had a great time. Or maybe she was just pretending. Or maybe it was the wine. Hmm....

We took like an hour and a half to order because Manic was busy grilling me we were busy chatting. Manic is very easy to talk to and our poor wait person had to come back to our table eight times before we were ready to order. (It only took thirty seconds to order our wine, however.)

So there we are drinking our wine, talking, and taking pictures of everything because we're dorks that's what bloggers do, when the waiter delivered my lobster bisque and Manic's salad (she was much better than I and ordered something healthy). He looked at us and warned us not to steal the salt and pepper shakers. Clearly, Manic and I look like the criminal type so I completely understand his warning. We made jokes about sticking the salt and pepper shakers in our purses. I don't think he was amused as he stationed an armed guard to watch over our table. I think we should have taken a picture of him, huh Manic? Next time...

I wasn't apprehensive about meeting Manic because she seems totally normal from reading her blog and hey, we were meeting in a public place. No, I wasn't apprehensive until her salad came. It came along with a huge butcher knife (because it was lettuce after all and everyone knows how hard it is to cut through lettuce.)

Wine. A giant steak knife. It's all good.

Here's a picture of my yummy, low cal, fat free pasta. Only 2 points.

Aren't you all thrilled to know what I ate for lunch?

But here's what I had for dessert...

What??? My lunch was only 2 points, remember? It's ok that I ate nine desserts.

This is what Manic had for dessert.

Just kidding. We shared that.


Oh my gosh - we have the total same hair color!!! And note - the pepper mill is still on the table and not in our purses.

Then Manic asked me to sign her copy of an article about me in the Trib. LOL! Me! Giving an autograph! Me! ROFL!!! It cracked me up! Thanks for making my day asking me for an autograph, Stephanie!

What a fun lunch it was! Stephanie is so bubbly and fun, energetic and funny, interesting and hmmm, what's the word I'm looking for - positive, enthusiastic, effervescent. That's it - effervescent. I, on the other hand, was about to fall asleep. Oh wait - that sounds terrible. I wasn't about to fall asleep because Manic was boring. Not even close! No, that was the lady sitting behind Manic. Her companion talked and talked and talked and she sat there with this glazed look on her eyes. I was just falling asleep because I'm running on 3 hours of sleep and wine.

So thanks for meeting me for lunch, Ms. Manic!!! It was a real treat and we'll definitely have to do it again! Not like how some people say, "We'll have to do this again sometime" and they really mean, "Well, that was a horrid and unusual kind of torture that I'll never repeat!" I mean it like, "That was a lot of fun and we're going to do this again until we've eaten at every restaurant between her house and mine!" :)