My Cheto Birthday!

My 49th birthday was very cheto. Hernan once again came through with something different.

The day started off very slow. I seem to have caught a little summer cold. Weird. I think it is from sleeping with the air-con, even though when I sleep, I put the air-con in the living room on and turn the one in the bedroom off so the air is not blowing directly on me. Still, I've had the sniffles and have been sneezing a lot since Friday. Big sneezes, like shake the room sneezes. Yesterday I went out to see if I could find something at Farmacity and I sneezed about 7 times in a row, really loud. My sneeze echoed down the street. It was kind of embarassing.

So anyway, I think whatever this is, and the changing temperatures, have kind of worn me out again. I woke up late and sat on the computer reading and replying to e-mails, catching up on prop 8 news, etc. For some reason my computer keeps changing the time every Sunday. I think it has something to do with daylight savings time. It keeps falling back an hour. I didn't realize it today, like I didn't realize it last Sunday and I thought I must have gotten up really early. Instead when my computer said it was 9:30 it was 10:30. Fortunately, Hernan changed the plan today.

He was supposed to come by around 12:30 and we were going to have lunch. But his brother-in-law had an accident and he went to meet his sister at the hospital (everything is ok). So we made plans to meet for dinner instead.

That gave me time to go to the gym and the supermarket and then spend the afternoon killing time. I found a new word game on Facebook that is very addictive. Facebook is also addictive. I took a nap and then Hernan called and woke me up. I was really out of it.

I lazed around in the afternoon, called my parents and some friends skyped me. At about 8:30, Hernan came by. We hopped in a cab and went to a restaurant that is not too far from here (we could have walked).

I like riding in taxis with Hernan because he gets the drivers to talk. The few times I've tried, I was unsuccessful, so I don't know what his secret is.

Hernan was telling me that there was something called "night of the museum" in which all of the museums were open at night and were free. The taxi driver immediately chimed in. He was saying that they get really crowded and there are long lines and that people don't usually go to the museum when they have to pay. From what I was understanding (which wasn't much) he was talking about how expensive it was for a family to visit a museum. Hernan told me later that he was saying that people are not able to do as much these days as they used to, so they have to take advantage of freebies.

He took me to a place not far from my apartment at Santa Fe and Parana called Milion. I never would have found this place on my own.

The building was amazing. It is a big old house, mansion, from the 19th century. We went in through a long entrance and entered the garden. From there, we went up a grand marble staircase that led into the house. One of the rooms was a bar. There was funky, cheto, electronic music playing, and lots of hip people sitting around the bar. Cool art hung on the walls of this amazingly lavish building. We went up to the third floor and explored the different rooms before we returned to the first floor and took a table outside on the patio overlooking the garden.

It was very nice atmosphere, but the food was only so-so. I had a matambrita de cerdo with salsa, black beans and mashed carrots. It was a piece of thinly sliced pork with a nice salsa on top and a few sides. The pork was tough though. Hernan had some kind of fish, but to me it was too fishy.

There was some former TV star from the 80's sitting outside on the patio next to us. He had an entourage of young pretty boys and one older woman with a little fluffy dog who had a diamond brooch on her head (on the dog's head, not the woman's). There was also a black cat that made an appearance, but when the cat was outside someone carried the dog inside - they took turns. The entourage table was very busy and people kept coming out and making the kissing rounds. They'd come out through the big glass doors from the bar and go to this table and go around and kiss everyone. My chair kept getting bumped into and cigarette smoke and perfume irritated my nose that was very sensitive from this cold. So actually, even though the building was nice, and the atmosphere was cool, I'd have to give it a lukewarm rating because it was not pleasant to sit outside and smell smoke and perfume and have my chair constantly being bumped into while I was eating. It was also hard to talk because this table was quite loud and the service was mediocre. What was fun was watching the people coming and going and trying to listen to the conversation, though my Spanish seemed to have been turned off tonight (I was understanding very little).

It was an adventure and I always enjoy going to these different places that Hernan takes me to. I'll probably go back to Milion with friends who are coming to visit, but I know that it is a place to go for drinks and not really a great place to eat. Hernan also told me that the crowd changes depending on the day of the week, so for people watching it would be interesting to go back and see who is there on, say, a Wednesday night.

It was a cheto birthday and seems only fitting! This has been the year of living cheto for me - living in the Recoleta, having a maid, not working... Now that I have done it though, I think I prefer my simple middle-class life in SF where I do my own laundry, clean my own apartment and go to work every day!