Some nights, the best you can do is reconnect with an old college bud & try new food.

Can you find me in this pic? That was my French class at the University of Puerto Rico, 1997. Je ne me rapelle pas … mais, j’aime Français!

If you haven’t done that in a while, I highly recommend it.

My old college & law school bud, Javier, joined our family for dinner tonight at his restaurant recommendation: Muzarella. We hadn’t tried it before, but my husband Adam’s cousin, Adalberto, also a  puertorrican local, vouched for it and joined us with his family.

Being the foodie that he is, my hubby looked up Muzzarella on the local-approved app, SAL. It’s appropriately named; the word means both salt and “go out” (to eat.) The ratings on the SAL app were great, and so was our hunger, but the in-laws wanted to stop & buy the kids some toys. We held our hunger, dashed thru Toys R Us, grabbed the toys that fit in the grandparents budget (money lesson for the kids, check!) And finally, we were off to dinner.

Muzarella’s parking lot was full, which is always a good sign that we found a good place. The table was ready in a flash for a Saturday night, and we quickly got our menus and drinks.

Thankfully, we had plenty to catch up on because the food took quite a long time, and two appetizers were late. Delicious, Argentinian-style risotto stuffed “croquetas” & beef empanadas, but late.

We didn’t mind too much because the conversation flowed from our college days (that French class was unforgettable) to what’s new (yes, that was me singing the Jungle number in our church’s Really Really Big Christmas show); to “whoa, you lost over 100lbs.?”

Javier shared his struggle with some personal issues & the last straw that made him get serious about getting healthy and improving his life. It sounds like 2016 will be his year!

Reconnections with friends are good for the soul. I didn’t remember that Javier knew about the serious car accident my hubby and I had been in when we were dating. I didn’t know the details of his three hospitalizations and how a God-sent personal trainer became a friend & helped change his life.

Remembering those miracles that we were all blessed to have lived through, made me grateful to God all over again because we’re all still here, thriving and starting a new year filled with hope for the future.

Here’s to not just hoping but making sure our new 2016 calendar is filled with more reconnections with old friends, more gratitude and maybe more discoveries of #local restaurants where we can make new memories.