In search of sustenance

As many of you know, the quest for food is a constant thing with me. Tonight was no different; V and I made plans to meet up after work and go somewhere. That was literally the plan; we'd just drive around until we saw somewhere new and exciting we wanted to go. She had found, in her voyaging around our little part of the big city, a shopping mall and she thought there'd be something cool there to eat. So off we went (after catching "American Idol," of course). The shopping center didn't appeal to us and I was craving desperately a margarita after all of the tech problems at work. So I suggested a hip Mexican restaurant I'd seen, but never gone to.

Anyway, this being me, I got us lost and we never did find the hip Mexican restaurant, so alas, never did get my margarita. But, but, before you weep for me, quite accidentally, we stumbled on our favorite BCS hangout! Yes! Just minutes from our places (V lives across the street from me). Six months living here and I never knew. So of course, even though I knew I wouldn't get my margarita, we decided to have dinner there. After all, who's going to say no to the World's Second Best Burrito?

While we both enjoyed our burritos, we agreed that it wasn't quite the same as the ones in BCS. Was it because the servers weren't as friendly and made us wait despite there not being a line? The ingredients were exactly the same, yet the taste was different. The decor was nearly the same as was the overall funky, earthy feel of the place. But, despite all of that it wasn't and we were both disappointed.

As we left, we realized that we were longing for the liveliness of our grad school days, the days of good conversation after a long day at school while unelegantly (and voraciously) consuming a burrito wrapped in foil; the days when you had to fight to get a table and stand for 15-20 minutes in line before it was your turn to rattle off the list of ingredients you wanted. So perhaps, while the tangibles remained the same, the value of the intangibles was higher than we'd thought it to be.

There's a magic in nostalgia, perhaps one never quite appreciated until you realize it's next to impossible to recapture it. That's the danger -- believing more strongly in the memory of what was rather than accepting the reality of what is.

Even so, we'll both probably find our way back there. Even with the disappointment, it is still the World's Second Best Burrito place.