Cheesecake, ukuleles and paperweights

So last night, my friend Christin and I decided to go into the city and have a bit of shopping fun. We bought dresses and kind of bummed around, in general lazy fashion. After that we felt dinner was in order, so we headed to the Cheesecake Factory. This is a lovely place to order and eat more food than a normal human needs in one day. Yes, it is wasteful. Yes, it is bad for you. And how many Americans does that stop? ... I don't know, but it certainly didn't stop us. Don't worry, I will make up for it with a heaping helping of catholic guilt and then will proceed to volunteer somewhere. I promise.

As Christin and I ate diligently, talk turned to our respective boyfriends. They are both lovely and caring men, but can be a bit... shall we say... clueless, at times. We were swapping stories of frustration when suddenly Christin trumped any strange gift and clueless boyfriend story that I had ever heard. This is how it began...

Christin: He got me a paperweight.
Me: What?
C: On vacation, he brought me back a paperweight.

This was met by a disbelieving stare, which turned to laughter. Being the wonderful girlfriend she is, she defended her man.

C: It's a nice fucking paperweight!! ... ...Even though I brought him a ukulele and a t-shirt.
M: What?! First of all, it's a paperweight, what was he thinking? Second of all, a ukulele?"
C: ... well I figured he could play it since he plays viola...

At this point we both burst into laughter. It couldn't be helped. You must admit, with gifts like paperweights and ukuleles they are perfect for each other.

But why am I telling you all this? Not to let you know about bad gifts for your significant other, or that when it comes to food I can be rather cowish, but solely so I could post this picture:



That was dessert. It was... fantastic. And I couldn't even finish the whole thing.

There was once a miscommunication between one of my friends and his family about the exact type of establishment that The Cheesecake Factory is. It is not a "factory" per se where they demonstrate the making of cheesecake. While many (myself included) find this a bit disappointing, as long as their cheesecake is served looking like that, I will keep coming back.