day 3: rojie vs beau mec’s version

Rojie’s Version

I finally got to sleep in, mostly because I was fucking drunk the night before. Haha… no hangover though, so I count that as a win.

We went to a local Ethiopian restaurant for brunch. Beau Mec thought it was meh, but I loved it. I’ll take injera over bread any day. Anyway, my eyes always end up being bigger than my stomach, so I over-ordered per usual. He ended up finishing my leftovers and my juice. I hate wasting food and luckily, he was able to finish everything, including my drink.

We went back to MoA (Mall of America), when he decided he wanted MOAR juice. I don’t know how much sugar this man can drink. I would rather eat my calories than drink them. But nevertheless, we got a small drink and shared it. And by sharing, I mean I had a couple of sips and told him the rest was his.

Walking next to him is like walking next to a monkey. He was bouncing from side to side. Maybe he had too much sugar?

We wandered the mall, around and around till I got thirsty. I could see him lusting after the boba drinks so I asked him if he wanted to sit down, drink boba, and figure out the dinner situation since my cousins bailed on us.

We headed back to the hotel to rest and figure out the food situation. We resigned to making reservations at the hotel restaurant but it wasn’t until 2030 and by then I was already hungry.

I wanted cheese. People think I’m exaggerating when I tell them about my obsession with cheese. But I am hella serious… I was raised on the dairy, across four states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and Texas), at this point, I probably bleed cheese.

I told Beau Mec that we were going to make a cheese run. He was game. Thank goodness. As soon as we got to the store, we made a beeline for the dairy section and picked out a few cheese that would pair well with salami and a baguette, and when I wandered into the bread aisle… I nearly died and went to heaven (yes, I am being dramatic). I found goat’s milk sourdough fucking bread. I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to show him what I found. I was ecstatic… sometimes, it’s the little things, ya know?

We checked out, hauled everything back to our room, and by then it was time for dinner.

The restaurant was quaint, a little romantic dare I say. And when he looked at me from across the table, I immediately thought, uh oh. I knew that look. That’s when I realized he was starting to like me. Like… like me, like me. That was NOT part of the plan. I personally thought I was being annoying throughout this trip, but apparently I wasn’t annoying enough. The end game was for him to hook up with Yummy, dammit. This was not the way it was supposed to go.

Naturally, I needed comfort food after realizing what was happening… and we ordered more cheese on top of the cheese we bought. I got French onion soup plus a charcuterie board to go (I have no shame whatsoever). The waiter was cool cause he hooked us up with bread, nuts, and fruits. The look on Beau Mec’s face when we got more freebies was hilarious. Because clearly, I needed to have a cheese overdose for my mini crisis.

By the time we finished eating and made our way back to the hotel, I was beyond full. I needed to exercise or move my body, so I dragged him to go walking with me. He didn’t have a sweater or jacket, and since I had an extra, I handed over the oversized U of M hoodie I bought over the weekend. We walked in the dark, talked about our families, our jobs, what we were like growing up, what we were passionate about, and what our dreams for the future were.

By the end of walk, my feet were freezing (I wore sandals and didn’t pack any socks) so I borrowed a pair of his.

Back at the hotel, my stomach settled and I was ready to partake in eating more cheese. Yes. I know.

He insisted we finish watching “Friends” since I fell asleep last night, and then we watched a Muhammed Ali, since he’s a boxer himself. Sure. Why not? As long as there’s yummy cheese in front of me, I am agreeable.

After reaching my peak cheese saturation for the day, I brushed my teeth, washed, my face, and quickly fell asleep. My brain was tired and my body was tuckered the fuck out.

Beau Mec’s Version

We slept in relatively late, and eventually got up and went to go eat Ethiopian food. I don’t think it was really authentic Ethiopian food, but it was definitely Ethiopian-style and seemed really popular: the place was packed and we had to sit down at the bar for a few minutes before they could get us a table. We got some mango juice and shared a meat combination plate on top of some injera bread. There were three different type of meat dishes on the plate, and we’d just scoop some up with the bread and eat it. It was a little messy, but it definitely tasted good. Rojie was too full to drink her mango juice, so I drank both of ours.

After that we were headed off to the Mall of America. It’s a pretty big mall, but not that much bigger than some I’ve seen in Japan. A lot of different stores there. I dragged Rojie over to an orange julius booth because I wanted one. We shared a small one, it was pretty good. As we walked through the mall, I kept myself entertained by switching up which side of her I was walking on and trying to stay in her blind spot so she’d get confused and look around for me. I think I succeeded 3 or 4 times, and that was the only somewhat evil thing I did all weekend, but you have to make allowances for a man when he’s been taken shopping.

We went around to a lot of places and looked at a lot of things but she couldn’t really find anything she liked. Eventually she pointed out a bubble tea place to me (she knows I like bubble tea) and we sat down and shared a milk tea with black tapioca pearls. We’d planned to meet up with her cousins again for dinner, but they had some things come up and couldn’t meet with us, so we suddenly had more free time than we’d expected. Since we now had to find something different to do for dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent probably an hour talking and looking up different restaurants in the Minneapolis area to find something that sounded good.

We were both craving cheese, and eventually we settled on a little French restaurant attached to the hotel that was supposed to be pretty good. We made reservations for 8:30, but we wanted to eat some cheese with a movie when we came back, so first we went shopping to find something good. We went to the grocery store and browsed around their cheese section for about 15 minutes, carefully choosing what we would eat. At last we settled on some gouda, vlaskaas, and passendale. Rojie went to look for a baguette and I picked out some sopressata to go with the cheese and was looking at some crackers when all of a sudden Rojie came back around the corner. She was practically floating and had an strange, happy look on her face. I asked her what was up, and she didn’t say anything but just grabbed my arm, dragged me over to where the bread was, and pointed. Goat’s Milk Sourdough. I understood immediately. This was a momentous discovery, and it’s probably the happiest I’ve ever seen her. Of course, we had to get it.

We took our cheese and foodstuffs back to the hotel room and headed off to our destination. The hotel our restaurant was located in had really nice decor, and the wait staff was very nice and courteous. We didn’t want to eat too much before the waiting cheese, so she ordered some french onion soup and I ordered a simple meal of salad, salmon carpaccio, sea scallops, and a tart (it all came together as a set). Then we just shared it all between ourselves. We ordered a little cheese to go from their cheese selection: havarti with horseradish, brie, and humboldt fog. The waiter threw in some fruits and nuts and a baguette for free.

We took it all back to the hotel, but we were a little full from our meal and since it was the last day, we didn’t feel like we should just watch the movie and go to bed so early, so we decided to go for a walk. It was a pretty cool night outside, so she lent me a hoodie she’d originally bought for her brother. It smelled like a girl but it fit me all right and it kept me warm during the walk. We just sort of set out from the hotel and walked wherever we could, not knowing where we were going. We walked across sidewalks and grasses, past brightly lit streets, abandoned construction sites, and darkened apartment complexes. All told, we probably walked for an hour and half, talking about life and little things. Probably one of my favourite times of the trip. I like the night and I like walking in the night, and it’s even better when you have someone to walk with and talk with.

After we got back, I gave her a pair of socks because her feet were cold and then we settled down to enjoy the cheese and movie. The grapes were good. The humboldt fog was…incredible. We finally watched through Friend, and I wanted to watch another one but I wasn’t sure if she would last through a complicated story so I suggested a boxing documentary, Facing Ali. She wasn’t too interested in it but she sat through it gamely. After that, it was time for bed. I don’t know why but I had a really good sleep that night, maybe because I slept wearing that hoodie and didn’t get cold.