March 19, 2010 | 5:20 pm

F This Week

Posted by Mihal Levy

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Just like Sesame Street, this week has been brought to me by the letter “F”.  “F” has been the recurrent theme for this week and a long week it has been…both good and bad.  I learned a lot however about family, falafel, food poisoning and friendships (not necessarily in that order). 

First “F” of the week - food poisoning.  Food poisoning is not fun, even if you thought it was a great choice while you were eating it, even falafel (another “f”).  I learned that just because a restaurant has been around for years, does not necessarily mean that it is sanitary.  The changing health grades from “C” to “B” to “A” should have been another dead giveaway.  Apparently the higher grade did not mean anything either, since they are most likely running with a “C” mentality only disguising it better before the L.A. County health inspection or bribing the inspector.  Either way, it did not make for a fun two days for me.

Next up for the “F” week was family fun.  Unlike food poisoning, this was a good part of my week.  Good meaning the quality time I spent with my immediate family outdoors enjoying the simple pleasures.  Much like food poisoning, however, there are always certain extended family members to balance out the calm and serene simple pleasures and add just the right amount of drama.  (Like Yin and Yang - must have both to balance things out.)  A good friend of mine apparently had the F- Family part in her stars this week as well without an invitation to a cousin’s holiday dinner.  And to her I say, “Gina (name has been changed to hide her identity from her evil cousin), would you even want to be invited in the first place?”  But it made for a great topic of conversation over Focaccia and Fettucine (Ok, Tartalle…just tried to stretch the f theme a little bit more) when we dined together.  (No food poisoning involved, thankfully.)

Which brings me to my final “f”- friendships.  Although we can’t choose our family, we can choose our friends…I am thankful for the ones that I have chosen and for the ones who offer to bring soup after a food poisoning hangover.  So the moral of this F week is - 1) avoid deep fried delicacies from unsanitary establishments 2) embrace your immediate family and forgive your extended ones and lastly 3) blood is thicker than water, but what does that have to do with the price of tea…or falafel.