tonight luke and i met up with my oldest (not chronologically) friend liz (from junior high) and took a long train out to woodside queens for some thai food with liz’s friend henry, who lives in the neighborhood and was thrilled to have visitors.

henry greeted us on the sidewalk with an enthusiastic, “Welcome to the provinces.” as we made our way to a smallish restaurant on 61st street between 39th and roosevelt. unfortunately, i can’t remember the name! khom something.

the food was very good, and presented beautifully. the menu was a little confusing but had such an unusual variety of dishes, like frog legs, and pig’s feet, things you don’t see often on manhattan thai menus. the appetizers, as at all good eateries, were the best part of the meal. the thai crepe, with shrimp and coconut, was just perfectly balanced between crispy and soft. and liz’s entree, fried rice with shrimp and pineapple, was unusual and had a delicious perfume — i’d definitely order it again. my crispy catfish salad was okay — the catfish was fried to such a crisp that it literally was erased, and only the crispy batter seemed to remain. the pad thai was very good and luke’s mock duck curry had quite a kick to it.

but hands down, the best part of the meal was the conversation. we talked politics, and especially romantic relationships that crossed the political aisle. Arnold Schwartzenegger and Maria Shriver, James Carville and Mary Matalin. apparently, of the four of us, three of us have long histories of dating republicans, obviously unsuccessfully since we are either not dating right now, or are married to a diehard democrat. (i literally married the first democrat i’ve ever dated!) but i hadn’t ever been with other people who understood the weird attraction and ultimately, the repulsion, of dating across the aisle. at some point, you have an epiphany when you realize that despite all the things that might attract you to the person, you don’t like him as a human being. We all nodded our heads in agreement about that “a-ha!” moment.

it was so good to be able to share and realize that someone knew exactly what i went through. i felt like i was in a 12-step program for recovering republican-daters. luke, who’s never dated a republican, could only say, You guys are masochists. and it is true. what else could explain it?

so, the lesson i learned from my trip to the provinces is, even manhattanites can find something in common with the provincials from the outer boroughs, even if only by finding another group of people to call “other.”