2009 was a ridiculously great year for me.  It was rocky at times, too.  Over the next 31 days, I’m blogging my best of 2009!  So here we go!

December 5: Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

I don’t think there was necessarily anything super duper special about any 2009 night out, so I’m just picking one that was extra fun.  One of E’s old roommates brought his fiance up to NYC for a weekend and we went out for dinner.  The fiance is an avid belly dancer, so she picked out a Lebanese restaurant called Al Diwan.  This place was AWESOME.  We got there around 8 or so for dinner.  We ordered some beers and some food.  Holy cow, it was insanely delicious.  Then, the belly dancing started.  She was really good and really fun, some people got up to dance with her and it was just generally kind of cool.  Meanwhile, the joint is getting darker and darker, and they kept lowering these shades over the windows gradually throughout the night.  After the belly dancing, we drank more beers and got a fresh fruit hookah.  That is a really cool thing – instead of flavored tobacco, they place a piece of fresh fruit over the tobacco and everything tastes like – in our case – orange.  Now the place is dark, the shades are all the way down, and there are a number of extremely large man in suits gathered around the front door.  Time for more beers.  Then…the live music started.  Ok, I don’t know Arabic or anything about middle eastern music, but they like it fast and loud.  We stuck around for some of the music, then called it a night.  No idea what the somewhat shady atmosphere ever lead to, but I would go (and have gone) back for more delicious food and cool dancing.  What made this night so special was just being able to connect with some old friends.  It was really enjoyable to enjoy the company of two super smart individuals (I really hate hanging out with stupid people) and the conversation was effortless and interesting.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon!

Ok, I lied – I’m adding one more thing to this post.  Occasionally, when E and I go out, he’ll suggest we get off the subway early and walk the rest of the way home.  We’re not a romantic couple, so these nights of spending time together (with no computers, phones, blackberries, tv’s, dogs, books, Wii, PS3s, etc in the way) are really really important to me.  Any night we do this is a special night :).