chicago '08

I just spent 3 days in nashville at a conference for my new job. the training sessions were long and boring, but I met some nice people, including a new co-worker from chicago, and saw some former colleagues from new haven. we were able to enjoy ourselves quite a bit, thanks in no small part to our generous food allowance. I was in charge of finding fun and expensive places to eat. well, formally I wasn't in charge, but I took over pretty quickly. finding good restaurants is one of the things I do best. I ended up leading a group of 8 women on a long and trecherous walk through a rather industrial part of nashville to get to a wonderful resaurant, flyte . I am always amazed when people follow me, particularly people who don't even know me. I was very nervous along the way, thinking 'what if it's not open?', 'what if it sucks?', 'what if they can't accommodate our group?', 'how did we end up with so many people?' en route, a couple of the women seriously considered calling for a taxi to take them to a different restaurant and doubted there could actually be a decent restaurant at the end of our sweaty 45-minute walk. thankfully, when we arrived we were immediately seated at a kitchen table with a wonderful view of the grill and the finishing station. the food was wonderful, if a little precious, and we had a great time. there were a few unadventerous, picky eaters among us, but even they enjoyed the handsome waiter eye candy and admited that the place was worth the walk.