A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

When you are single, Saturday night is THE night! Unless you are a realist. Saturday night is when all the hot young bachelors and bachelorettes go out to dance, drink excessively, and make regrettable life decisions.
And, by that standard, I was never hot and young.

Instead, I took a long nap. Didn't go out.
Did a bit of reading long after two.

Years ago, going out on Saturday night meant bright lights, far too much coffee, avoiding crowds, and, occasionally, very long conversations.
All of my regrettable life decisions involved food.


Even in recent years that has been the case. The sheer excitement of a bacon-wrapped hotdog after two A.M. is hard to match, and even though it doesn't answer when you speak, it is, at that hour, intellectually thrilling.
So round, so firm, so fully packed!


If, like me, you add chiles en escabeche, and then take the item home to enjoy slowly in private, with a sploodge of Sriracha hotsauce, the regrettability of that life decision may be soon. Maybe even the next morning. Especially if, shortly afterwards, you have two (big) helpings of ice cream.

The last time I did that was two years ago.

A sensible female companion would have prevented that. She'd be fast asleep at that hour, and there would have been neither a need nor an urge to go out at all. Instead, one would quietly leave her comforting, fuzzy, flannel pajama garbed side -- having enjoyed the warmth of a warmly radiant somnolescent lump beside one for a few hours while dozing -- and pad into another room for a cigarillo, short whiskey, and a bit of a read.

The sellers of bacon wrapped dogs are rarer now.

I thought I smelled one earlier.

It was just smoke.



There have been times when I have gotten up long past midnight to cook something yummy in the kitchen.




So what did I read last night? Hyper Police, a manga by Tachikawa Minoru.
Batanen, a wherewolf mercenary, has a crush on a cute catgirl with a sword, who is totally oblivious to his feelings. Together they battle baddies.
She loves warm milk and dried anchovies.

Small snacks with liquor: 酒小菜。
A term I had not heard before.




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