March 16th, Beef extravaganza

I didn't even realize it was the 16th till about 5 minutes ago and mind you it's 10.45pm!! Hmmm either the year is in acceleration mode or I wasn't with it today or both! Just checked my facebook account the umpteenth time and I still haven't received the one message i've been waiting for for the last 10days! What does a sister do? Huh, I guess leave it alone whatever happens will happen. I still remember the saying everything happens for a reason, I think that is so true although in the moment when things are not going exactly the way you thought they would it's kinda frustrating, oh well life goes on.

So I've finally realized I honestly wanna hang out with "gentlemen" as opposed to the crowd I was with last night, oh boy, reminded me of college days, I'm way passed that. I ended up at an "African" restaurant in Baltimore for the world's best roast beef aka nyama choma, what the Kenyans call it. I'm not gonna mention the name of the place for obvious reasons but any Kenyan on the east coast reading this would know exactly where I'm talking about. I had told my Tanzanian friend that I was going there and he warned me that place was filthy but the beef was great, he told me about the crowds it pulls and how I wouldn't be disappointed with the beef. Fine. Initially we were supposed to leave at 2pm but as African time has it we ended up leaving at 5.30pm, got there at 6.20pm, not bad for someone that hadn't eaten all day in anticipation for the world's greatest meat, right? right!

When we walked in, we were hit with the stench from the beef, reminded me of butcheries back home somewhere in Africa but I thought to myself, I can live with that, after all the end product will be great. My host decides to give me a tour of the place, first he introduces me to the owner of the place who was wearing a plastic apron with oil and some blood stains on it, how appetizing.... he was at the bar talking to some people. He seemed like a very nice guy, people person. My host shows me the men's bathroom and said it was unisex, what ever he meant by that bse later it didn't make any sense, then he took me outside where a group of people were sitting and then he showed me the grills where the meat was cooking, yum! And that was the end of the tour, so we went to the pool tables and started shooting. Gosh wasn't I starved, last meal I had eaten was breakfast at 10.30am. 7pm, no meat, 8pm, no meat, evidently "It takes a while bse there are alot of people" says my host hmm 9pm finally the meat comes, drum roll... undercooked! It was pink, hard and the only spice I could really taste was salt... if that's a spice plus the aroma of roasted meat... I ate away bse I was like a hungry lion. I only had like 4 pieces, nice size but not enough to fill me up. All in all it wasn't the best I had eaten in my life and all the hype wasn't worth it! I still think the meat is usually good, it's just the one time I happened to go there that it backfired somehow.

I went to the men's bathroom since I wast told it was unisex, there were no guys in there with exposed "parts" thank God actually there was nobody but interesting enough there was no lock 0n the door, hello are we in the US? Oh well whoever walks in on me will have a free show! The bathroom was so filthy that I felt like I had to get fully sanitized with a huge sprayer of disinfectant from head to toe. OK is there any more meat or what, anything to eat?? I hinted to my host that I was still hungry and he said he was hungry too but, are you ready for this? THERE WAS NO MORE MEAT!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! I thought to myself, this kinda stuff goes in Africa, or at least it used to. You know you have the greatest reputation for meat in town, people drive for 2, 3, 4 hrs just to come and eat your signature meat and before 10 o'clock you are out of meat? What? Well I continued to shoot pool then lo and be hold, I had to go to the bathroom again, first of all there was no way I could hold it till I went back home and there was no other option. I think one of the worst things in life is a disgusting bathroom. So I finally gather the energy to go to the men's unisex toilet and just as I was about to enter, a guy tell me hey that's men's, I respond as a matter of factly, "it's women's too, I was told it's unisex" then he offers to show me to the women's bathroom, so I think he is pulling my leg bse my beloved host didn't mention a women's, drum roll, there was a women's bathroom and thank God, it had just been redone! Nice and clean, sparking! Finally something clean around here! I storm back to my host and ask him why he "lied" and he says oh the women's bathroom, its over there and he points to it... dah! You are telling me after I already went to the men's, thanks. And I'm thinking to myself, does he even know what the word"unisex" means??

To cut the long story short, we left at past midnight, almost 1am. I was hungry, tired and I just wanted to go home to my bed. We went to the car but my host was still inside with the car keys so we froze for a couple of minutes until one of the guys went inside to get the keys. Then we sat and sat and sat waiting for my host, zero, so I called his cell phone, no answer, called again, no answer, then he comes running with a piece of paper, "Sorry I had to get directions" I thought to myself, you've been coming here for years, didn't need directions on our way here but need directions to go back home?? Oh well, whatever I just wanted to go home. Thank God they couldn't follow the directions, we kept driving in circles, they were trying to find a club! Without my knowledge! all along I thought we were going home and I kept wondering why it was so hard for them to get on I95 North! I kept insisting 95 is over there, it's over there don't miss the exit and he says we are not looking for 95! What? Cant you even inform me that we were heading to a club, well of course not bse he knew I would immediately dismiss the idea due to numerous initial atempts to convince me to go to one. Our agreement was we were strictly going for beef, end of story reason being i'm really not into clubs or partying till dusk. So we end up heading home and by the time we got to good old Delaware I was deaf, from loud reggae music, freezing bse at some point some one's window had to be down, hungry and disgusted! I thought to myself, I'm never getting in someones car for stuff like this! If I ever agree to go that is, I will drive so that I have my freedom and convenience! Oh did I mention the driver was drinking while driving... yeah, how immature! Putting his life and ours in harms way! I said a prayer to God that pse let us arrive safely and in one piece and we did. Everyday I learn more about myself and its a funny experience when after almost 3 decades I thought I knew me!