South of the Border Prep for X!ine

So I met up for drinks last night with Christine, blogger of X!ine's world, before she ended her three-month stint in New York City. A former Corporate (and Native) New Yorker turned wedding photographer living in Mexico, we somehow got connected through our blogs and decided to meet a few months ago while she was apartment-sitting in Harlem. It was surreal to meet her in person after months of reading about her life. It was like we sort of already knew each other, and we had to admit that it almost felt like meeting for a first date through eharmony or match.com - not that either of us have profiles on those sites. Ha!

Christine was running a little late coming back from downtown and I was exhausted from the long day in Central Park so we agreed on a spot near my apartment per my suggestion. I had never actually been inside this particular local hangout before and little did I know the ramifications of cultural disparities associated with my choice. The comical phenonema of our evening have been included below:

1) We received Coronas with no limes and cold papas fritas and no ketchup.
2) When we asked the waitress if she could calentar the fries, she replied, "La cocina esta cerrado ... closed," but we were finally able to convince her to put the fries in the microwave.
3 The music was so loud we felt like we were in a night club; actually I don't think the music is even that loud in Tenjune.
4) It took about 10 minutes to heat up the fries, during which time, we continued to watch plates of steaming hot food delivered around us.
5) The owner later confirmed that the kitchen was still open and tried to compensate with two free beers.
6) Our microwaved fries returned; however, there was only one bottle of ketchup in the entire place so we had to wait for the waitress to bring the one bottle from another table.

As I am adding the bulleted list detailing our evening to my blog, I'm realizing that it may not sound as funny as it seemed to us last night. But we had a good laugh, and today Christine texted me, "The bar sucked but it was great to get to hang out! Looking forward to reading about your life."

I'm looking forward to reading about hers, too.