Sushi with a Side of Dread

Today was supposed to be a fun day. I've been busy this week and last weekend on various work projects, but today I had set aside to meet my British friend Ellen for a manicure/pedicure, girlie gossip and a sushi lunch to follow.

I slept in, drank coffee in my PJ's watching The View and then got dressed and joined Ellen at a neighborhood nail salon. After the requisite soaking, scraping and painting, we headed off to the Japanese joint next door for the lunch special.

As we sat there chatting, I started getting that horrible, sinking feeling. You know the one, like your house is on fire. Or you just realized that your mother-in-law's birthday was a week ago and you've completely spaced out on it. In the midst of my miso soup and tuna maki, I really felt like something was terribly wrong.

After lunch, I checked voicemail and called a client. No problems. Called the husband. No worries. House and pets still intact upon arrival home. Hmm. . .

So, after thinking that perhaps I'm just developing some psychotic tendencies, I went on with my day. We met up with our friend, Mindy, for dinner at Hoanh Long in Lincoln Village. It's a Vietnamese place and quite possibly some of the best food I've ever had. Soooo good. Really fresh and delicious. Clearly nothing to dread in a plate of sweet and savory papaya salad with shrimp.

Then we went to the movies. Cue reason for day-long dread. We saw "30 Days of Night" which has got to be one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. My heart was beating like mad for almost a full two hours. The film stars some of the craziest, feral vampires you have ever seen violently laying waste to the light-deprived citizens of Barrow, Alaska, during their annual month-long dark-fest. I was still scared walking to the car and couldn't go to bed until Craze came with me. And I kept waking up all night expecting to see the pale, blood-smeared vampire leader with his '50s Brylcreem hair style looking down on me (though to be truthful, in one scene of the film, we learned it wasn't Brylcreem but blood that gave his hair that special sheen and holding power). Thankfully though, neither he nor his hairdo made an appearance bedside.

And my dread? It finally dissipated with the morning sunlight shining through my window.