Welcome to Ethiopia

when people ask me, "hey graham, did you have fun last night?"....i answer with an enthusiastic "YES!"

there were many goodtimesgreatfun all night long.  the special occasion was that our friend lindsay was turning 25 and for the quarter century party, the wanted to go to an ethiopian restaurant.  i dont know why, ask her, i was just along for the ride.  i pretty much never say no when someone proposes an event that involves food and friends.  unless it was that one time that my "FRIENDS" wanted me to go to rehab for FOOD addicts.  it was miserable and that little debacle led to me having 3 less friends.  ill never love you again WILL STEPHENS, DARIUS, and DA FRESH!!!1111onetwothreelessfriendsIHATEYOU

so luke, eva and i leave school to meet up with the millions of people that will be at this professional dinner.  apparently while we are driving, the taxi driver was diving really close beside us in the other lane while staring and smiling at me (i mean, who would blame him, right? guys? right?) i wasnt looking so i didnt know but eva was in the back seat being awkward, staring back, and wiping off any left over food that was left on her face by her childlike (and also dinosaur-like) hands and eating habits.  

luke and i didnt notice this creepy guy until he honked his horn.  i turn to look at him and hes smiling HARD, and giving me the thumbs up.  of course my instinct was to give him the thumbs up as well but my facial expression was one of utter confusion.  then, luke did the smart thing and slowed down so that he wasnt driving right beside us anymore.  all in all, this was a very weird occurrence that we still dont fully understand.  

my (99% correct) explanation is this:  

the taxi driver saw that it was the one and only graham bennett in the passenger seat of a particularly sporty toyota rav-4.  upon gazing my nubile flesh (specifically my zaftig neck), he was unable to control his giant smile of awe and abundant satisfaction of seeing me in real life.  (most people only see me via internets....which is fitting since i have the president of the internets)

so yeah, thats what happened.

we continue along our journey and picked up gini.  (she was LOOKIN' GREAT! and made us all look like slobs)

on our way to the ethiopian restaurant, i was asking the car if they even knew what kind of food would be at an ethiopian restaurants because i had no idea.  they were unable to fully answer my question so i was left for my own imagination which was later trumped by the reality this ethiopian restaurant provided.

once everyone was there, the restaurant was FULL of us alone.  it was great.  four of us (luke, gini, lindsay, and i) decided to order four different dishes and share it family style!

we get our food and there were no utensils.  there were just rolls of this flat, sponge like bread that you would tear off and bit and use that to pick up the various foods.  our choices was chicken, lamb, spicy beef, and spinach.  it was INCREDIBLE.  

on top of the great food, there were great jokes and conversations.  we were at that restaurant for such a long time.  while the night was dying down, people were getting up to pay.  luke, however, decided to start dancing "African style" and his dancing prompted one of the ladies that worked in the restaurant to dance with him.  after seeing this, i knew i couldnt pass up the opportunity to complete life goal number 32.  which was to dance in a restaurant of a different culture with the people that worked there.  DONE.

so my white ass hopped in the mix and naturally my sexy body mesmerized the other ethiopian woman in the kitchen to throw off her apron and PARTY PARTY.  

sadly, no one else joined us so there were 2 white guys, 2 ethiopian women, and 30 confused people standing and watching.  clearing not everyone knows how to party (gini and eryn have been to africa so THEY should have been dancing!)

anyways, after the restaurant, luke, eva, gini, heidi, and i went to the dance club.  this dance club however is a little different.  instead of a bar to drink alcohol, there are 218 flavors of gelato that serve in these crazy things called "bowls" or "cones".  it was such a wild experience.

i was really confused because every time i went to the DJ to request a song, he would just look at me and say, "oh, uhhh well its jut a cd playing, you are in a gelato shop."

it was strange but whatever, it didnt stop me from dancing and eating gelato.  before choosing the perfect mix of gelato, you were allowed to walk around and take tastes of the various delicious flavors.  

i had (and hated):

aloe vera

garlic

balsamic vinaigrette

wasabi

and after i had fun trying the disgusting flavors i ended up with: creamsicle and raspberry cheesecake.  I WAS IN HEAVEN.  the fat district of heaven that is. 

after the NEWER and BETTER version of gluttonfest, we hit the road and were on our way home.  

on our drive home, eva decided it would be a great idea to perfectly articulate the story of the weird taxi driver experience that we had earlier to gini and heidi.  heres how that disaster happened:

eva: "OMG!!! earlier there was this prius........that was painted yellow!!!...........like a taxi; and he was all like blah blah"

after i heard her say that....mainly the part about the "prius that was painted yellow like a taxi", i really thought that she didnt think it was a taxi but rather some creep who decided one day to make his car look like a taxi, so i interrupted her (rightfully) and yelled:

me: "EVA! it WAS a taxi!"

since im her friend, i wouldnt allow this to go unnoticed so the clownings began!  the whole car loved it (minus eva who was hating life at the moment) but it was pew pew pew all the way home.

eva later came up to me that night and said, "graham, you were right in clowning me because my choice of words were far from acceptable in the matter of storytelling.  also, do i have any food on my face?"

sidenote:

luke wants to mountain dew feist.