Thursday, June 23, 2011.
Dining With Annual Friends.
Mary Leigh's roommate at Tulane is Melinda, a classmate when she attended McGehee. They have a lot else in common, and after a year of sharing a room they will continue to do so when classes resume in the fall.
We got to know Melinda's parents during the move-in last year, and we had a delightful dinner together at Katie's. Melinda's father Richard has what strikes me as a fascinating job. He's a statistician in the medical and drug industry. Statistics are infamous for being among the most boring of concerns, but I find the subject intriguing--especially when it reveals the counter-intuitive knowledge for which science is most useful. (Although these days it seems that the more and better facts one has at one's command, the less convincing one's case is to the general public. Global warming, for example, or the need to raise taxes.)
Something else interesting about Richard's work: his office is in New York City, where he spends most of his time. His wife Karen lives here. I cannot imagine the stress of that, but they say it works well enough. Mary Ann doesn't see a problem with it, either, as she edges closer to her ultimate plan of moving to Los Angeles.
We got into all that over dinner at Impastato's. Melinda, who is a vegetarian, had the most interesting plate on the table, if only because I never had it here before. Cheese ravioli, with the restaurant's good red sauce. ML's dinner equally uncomplicated: a small order of fettuccine Alfredo and pasta asciutta, then a large order of the same two things. I can't argue with that. Mr. Joe's fettuccine is always the high point of any meal here.
Nothing new around the rest of the table. We went through many soft-shell crabs and fresh redfish fillets with artichokes, mushrooms, crabmeat and shrimp. Just another night at Impastato's.
Richard can sing. I thought he and I might get up on the little stage in the bar for a duet, but a big party was seated at the table right in front of it, and I would have felt that I was disturbing them. So we just let Roy Picou keep warbling. He was on an Elvis kick tonight.
I scored another first-since-breaking-my-ankle point today. I drove myself into town to do the radio show, and hobbled on my cane the whole two blocks from the garage to the radio studio. It left me a little achy at the end of the day. But no pain, no gain.
Impastato's. Metairie: 3400 16th St. 504-455-1545.
