Squid!

I just had calamari for the first time tonight.

I also just learned what calamari is.

Surprisingly, I didn't hate it. In fact, I kind of liked it. It was a little chewy, but the fried outside tasted just like onion rings, so I focused on that flavor, and I was able to enjoy it.

I was glad to note my taste for squid wasn't ruined by my 5th grade science class, when we had to dissect a squid. Because the dissection unit ruined my taste for some other things.

I haven't been able to enjoy mushrooms since.

I got to try calamari because we had a work dinner tonight, to finish off an afternoon of goal-making and prioritizing. Our office mini-retreat for the year. We started with Chipotle for lunch, had 5 hours discussing the next 11 months, and then went to Old Ebbitt Grill for dinner.

At dinner, out waiter told us that Old Ebbitt Grill is the old restaurant in DC, and the 3rd busiest restaurant IN THE NATION. Crazy. Good thing I made our reservation 2 weeks ago...

Their menu is seasonal, and everything is super fresh. Which I could taste. My salmon seemed almost too fresh, in fact.

Actually, I would never be able to tell how fresh fish is, so I'm just assuming he was telling us the truth.

Either way, dinner was delicious. And the deliciousness started with calamari and crab artichoke dip and fresh bread. And a diet coke. For me. Others got glasses of wine - of which I hear Old Ebbitt has a very nice and extensive selection. Which is another plus - for the drinking crowd.

It was fun eating at such an old and popular restaurant, with the White House just around the corner, and the Washington Monument just outside the window.

But the most exciting part of dinner for me was the calamari. It made me feel all refined and interesting. I started daydreaming about the life I would start living, now that I eat calamari. That daydream involved sunbathing on a yacht and a Summer home in the Hamptons (which would of course incite all sorts of melodrama in my life, if the real Hamptons are anything like they are on the edgy new drama, Revenge!).

I couldn't help but feel more high-class and impressive.

Because how often does the common person just snack on squid?