I was just thinking it had been an awful long time since I wrote anything nice about Bako. It's not for lack of trying, trust me. It's just always such a needle-in-a-haystack proposition. But then last night the boyfriend came up with one, so here goes.
I thought it would be nice to go out to dinner to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The boyfriend is nominally Jewish; he even went to school in Israel for several years. At this point I think you could safely refer to him as "lapsed", although he does still speak to the dogs in Hebrew and they seem to quite enjoy it.
The only reason I even knew it was Rosh Hashanah is I've been working on a project for a client in LA who's ultra Orthodox and he was in quite a panic yesterday that we get the project wrapped up by sundown. I've had some wacky deadlines in my career, but that was a first.
So when the boyfriend arrived home from work, I wished him a hearty "Shana Tova!" and asked him where we should go for dinner. "What's involved in a typical Rosh Hashanah dinner?" I asked. He explained and... we decided on Teriyaki.
On the way to the restaurant he said he had to make a quick stop. We had to stop and buy him his lottery ticket. Every week he plays exactly one single, solitary lottery ticket. He's been playing the same numbers for years and he's convinced the one week he doesn't play them will be the week they finally come up.
We stopped at a nearby convenience store and he ran in while I waited in the car. When he returned, he said...
"You know, say what you will about Bakersfield but they do have the nicest convenience store clerks I've ever seen."
And you know what? He's right. With the exception of Miss Thang Tracy at the corner gas station, all the convenience store clerks I've encountered here have been exceedingly nice. And since there's roughly one convenience store for every 5 people in this town, that makes for a lot of nice people.
So.... Bakersfield: Nice Convenience Store Clerks.
