celebrating with ceviche and sangria

have been meaning to try lima's ceviche bar

http://www.limastaste.com/

ever since i walked by it in october when meeting up with a friend for dinner in the west village. finally had a chance to go with VK last night. she made reservations at 7pm and usually i get off work at 6pm so it should have been plenty of time.

yesterday was also the scheduled date for my "chat" or salary negotiation with my boss at the PR firm. yep, i've decided to go full-time there starting march. it just seemed like such a cool work environment, interesting job with a lot of mobility and possible travel (to places i like, e.g. china and california), and great opportunity overall. the talk was initially supposed to be on monday but luckily *because i had not prepared enough mentally* it was postponed til wednesday. which was nice since i had a chance to bone up on "tips for salary negotiation" and mean incomes for practicioners in the industry.

the boss wanted to have our talk in the morning, but i did not want to wind up sitting in the same office as her all day long if the talk turned out to be too awkward. so we started talking around 5:30 and didn't finish until 6:30p.m. . . there was actually very little negotiation and it was in fact more a discussion of my position and the company and how i would fit in. in the end, i ended up with a salary i was happy with on the condition that there was room for upward mobility and monetary compensation for it.

i bolted out the door at 6:30 and busted my butt over to ave of the americas and 34th to catch the train down to W4th. i eventually got to the restaurant around 7:15 p.m. VK and i decided to order the ceviche mixto (a mix of shrimp, white fish, mussels and baby octopus in a zesty marinade), ceviche caliente (shrimp and scallops in a bold, slighty spicy sauce over friend yuca), papa rellena (a mound of deep fried mashed potato stuffed with beef, raisins and olives), and cow heart anticucho (which was yes, cow heart). aided with a pitcher of sangria that packed quite a punch and over a surprisingly delicious dinner, we exchanged gifts and caught up in the drama in each other's lives.

by the end of dinner, VK and i were both feeling a little loopy. we meandered back to the subway and chatted up til she had to get off at 14th. . ahh. . good girlfriends really are a blessing!