first impressions

once again i find myself without a recipe and without a book review.  i know, i've been completely remiss in those areas.  last weekend's sunshine and warm temperatures foiled my baking project.  i love baking, and i love enjoying the fruits of my labor even more.  but after this rough winter in atlanta, i jump at any opportunity to shed my jacket and boots.

there's also not much to report on the reading front.  i've been slowly reading through celebration of discipline and wuthering heights, but i'm not coming up with much at the moment.  i will say though that celebration of discipline is tough.  it takes discipline to read that book about discipline which in turn makes you realize how much discipline you lack.

so here we are on another life topic.  this time: first impressions.

some friends and i visited pour, a new wine market and "tasting room" in brookhaven.  everything from the service to the other visitors to the "food" was just... bad.  there's no way to go around it.  pour is relatively new, and after saturday night's visit, i have to say that the place is just not ready to open.  admittedly, i have high standards and expectations when it comes to food, especially food served at restaurants.  but c'mon, atlanta has a solid food scene, and if you want to survive, you have to step it up.  a parchment paper cone of mixed nuts and 4-5 strawberries roughly chopped and plopped on a random paper plate don't exactly convey a sense of quality or, more importantly, heart.  you just don't feel welcome when you're forced to sit on wine crates because the place ran out of chairs, or when you discover that there's no toilet paper in the bathroom, or when you see that you've been overcharged on your bill.  and sadly, the list goes on.  first impression? terrible.  i will most likely never go back.

with people, on the other hand, i can be slightly more forgiving.  i've certainly met some people with first impressions right up there with pour.  sloppy, pretentious, awkward, and unwelcoming.  but the funny thing about some people is that they tend to grow on you.  for some reason, their sloppiness suddenly becomes endearing.  their pretentiousness and awkward conversation are merely nerves.  unwelcoming?  no!  they're just shy.  what's most interesting, at least in my life, is that these bad first impression friends are in many ways most dear to my heart.  perhaps it's because with them, time has slowly but steadily revealed a valuable pearl in the midst of a rough exterior and bland, colorless inside.  a diamond in the rough, if you will.

restaurants?  if they don't wow you, move on.  people?  give them a chance.  you'll be glad you did.