Oh, wow.

Last night, I visited Nirvana.

Okay, I know-- I'm Christian; but go with me for a minute. Heather took a few of us out for dessert last evening, as a graduation/going away present. She didn't tell us where we were going-- said she wanted to surprise us.

We ended up at a place called Ethel's Chocolate Lounge (the link is to an outlet in Chicago, but there's also one up here in Evanston). It's all painted in shades of pink, which doesn't do it for me; but it worked there, in a candy box sort of way. And they had comfy chairs and loveseats grouped together to sit on, in addition to standard table/chair arrangements, which was nice.

And then, the server brought out maybe half a dozen plates and bowls full of goodies-- fresh or dried fruit, marshmallows, various cookies, pound cake... I don't know what all, to surround this little fondue pot full of dark chocolate (they also do milk chocolate, but we were going for the gusto). So we all pulled out our little fondue forks and dived in.

I had a lovely bowl of the reddest, juiciest strawberries I've seen yet this season parked in front of me, so that's where I started. Selected a likely candidate, swirled it around in the smooth, warm chocolate, and took a bite.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I should not have had dinner, and I didn't want breakfast this morning, and it was . . . well, the only fit description I have comes from my classmate Jenni's usage:

"Foodgasmic."

Sharing that bit of chocoholic ecstacy with those 3 women, while we talked and laughed and shared together (including a moment of blessing in the parking lot afterward, for which I am incredibly grateful), was the finest time I've spent in quite a while-- and precisely the bit of grace I needed after the last few days around here.

Thanks, ladies. For everything.