things that happened today

Heat was in this morning, and quickly left with dark clouds in the afternoon. It was such a tease with taste of summer. When I came back with my weekly laundry ritual, my friend Cecilia was just about call my name "EZUKO!" (that's how she says it) under my window. It was so nice to see her, looking so cute and happy, although her marriage is failing and she just quit her job. I was expecting a quiet evening for the holiday weekend, but we had pre-theater rush, then after the gig musicians' crowd. This is when the fatal mishap happend as I went back and forth trying to get things moving. I officially became the one who spilt curry on She was really nice about it, but I couldn't charge her curry & croquette on the bill. Miho Hatori's back. I was probably upset than she was to ruin the pretty lavendar coat of our local Japanese celebrity. Of all these years working in restaurants, I've never ruined anyone's clothes (or body or makeup or computer or cellphone or ipod) until tonight. So I couldn't ask her to take a picture with me on my new digital camera, which I'll be taking more picture of my cat Coco, like other owners of pet and digital camera would.
on may 29, 2005 @ 01:37 am [link]

he'll be missed

Daisuke finished his last duty at SOY last night. He's going back to Japan in two weeks. So I took him out for a drink around the corner after work. We talked about dogs and cats over beer. It was really fun to work with this bubbly guy; yesterday he walked in and went, 'I was watching my favorite show ER and couldn't stop crying!!' He also had goofy range of vocabulary like 'I looked like a 'ochimusha' (or fallen samurai), talking about his bad hair day. After two glasses of beer, I was buzzed enough to go home and start cauking the cracks in my bathroom. Sometimes I write these things trying to be funny, but above was all so true I think it's kind of funny. Now SOY is run by all girls' crew, which Diana puts it 'like starting a revolution.' On the news this morning: we're having a coldest May in thirty-something years. But I love the temperature which is the best for running. Slightly dump weather is also just perfect. We're having another busy month at SOY and thing's are pretty damn good.
on may 25, 2005 @ 01:01 am [link]

Tell them we are the Best

We've been nominated to best vegetarian food in Best of City Search. Please go ahead and vote for us, or nominate us in other categories like, 'Best View,' 'Best Outdoor Dining,' 'Best French Fries,' or 'Best Cuban Food.' I dare you.
on may 22, 2005 @ 01:36 am [link]

Shopping at the Plaza

I was at the Plaza this morning for the auction sale. It actually not an auction since everything is tagged and priced already. The beautiful building felt already quite empty and quiet. Chairs stacked up. Towels and linens piled up. Most of the guest rooms only contained a bare bed. Sometimes a lamp, or a chair. I walked through their massive kitchen, now deserted except for a few flies enjoying decaying smell. It was a huge factory; entire basement was a kitchen. All the equipments there were way too big for my little kitchen. But of course I found some useful things and other things I have no idea what to do with. Like that little silver sugar bowl. I just thought it was cute. I resisted to maid's uniforms, but did get a bath towel with the Plaza logo. And maid's iron for $10. And some nice wine glasses. I'm sure they'll sell out everything soon after they open the door to public on Friday, even that very useless directories and TV channel guides. The Plaza is gone, but you can still own a tea cup with their logo on it.
on may 19, 2005 @ 12:22 am [link]

Royal dog

I thought of the story about Royal dog Hachiko, who kept waiting for his master at a train station, since my neighbor's dog Winston faithfully keep coming to my door at closing at 11 pm every night, hoping to get a piece of croquette leftover. Then I had a revelation: Dogs are stupid. "It's not like I don't feed him or anything." His master Elliott says. But how many times he'd shout into Winston's ears, "No food for a dog!" every night Winston would sit there in front of my door, wagging his tail, and refuse to accept the fact that there's no more leftover since croquettes are only cooked to the order now. Well, Hachiko's story is cute and touching, but he was another stupid dog, who couldn't undone some information. Cats are forgetful and I like that. I'm pretty sure that my cat has totally forgotten about the backyard, birds, and insects she once chased around. The rooftop, fire escapes and stairs she used to run up and down. And of course the stupidest thing she's done that's so typical of stupid cats: climbing a big tree and realizing that it doesn't look easy to get down. She was stuck up in a tree once over night because she couldn't figure the way down. But she forgot about lots of stuff and happy runs back and forth in the apartment. Occasional appearance by a big brown waterbug would be an exciting treat. She won't mourn about not getting out to the roof anymore. By the way I didn't know that Hachiko was stuffed after his death, as in above picture. What a crazy thing Japanese do!

Nights feels still too chilly for May. But I'm sure we'll have enough of summer very soon. Only two more weeks to Memorial Day.
on may 17, 2005 @ 01:08 am [link]

Mother's day

I even got flowers for Mother's Day- Ikko san brought me roses yesterday. It's good to be a mother on Mother's day! Tal walked in and asked, 'Who brought you flowers?' 'One of my boys.' 'But you don't have kids.' Well, I am the Japanese mama to them. The other day Komuro san got seriously scolded by me because he kept yelling that I had to come drink with him although I was busy in the kitchen. Mama is not always there to play with you.

This morning I finally began my racing season by running 5K in the Central Park. It was my favorite mother's day race. I was kind of nervous but did all right; 5th in the age group and brought home an award. So I treated myself this afternoon by going swimming at Waterside (a beautiful little swimming pool with skylight!), and hanging out at Home Depot picking up some more stuff, useful but I can probably live without.
on may 8, 2005 @ 11:53 pm [link]

Don't forget Mother's Day

Thanks to the internet, I was able to finally send out new cooking class schedule to hundreds of people tonight. Thanks to the internet, I was able to send flowers to my mother for mother's day, which she just confirmed receipt. You can too! Send your mom flowers if you're not going to see her. She said, "It's the first time I got flowers on Mother's day!" Yes, I know. I've never done that. And there's no way my brother is ever going to think about it. Men don't realize that women love receiving flowers. I got a lot more flowers from my girlfriends in my life.

Daisuke said this evening; "I've been listening to some old music." He got some Japanese CDs from 80s from his friends. These were music from my high school days. He's only 20 years old. It made me dizzy. Those old music. Yes, they are 20 year old. Like him. I felt old like old music. But good old music, which I'll be playing tomorrow.

on may 6, 2005 @ 01:01 am [link]

Didn't want to be late, of course

It's May; how time flies. Cherry blossoms went pretty quickly and now trees are covered with bright new greens everywhere. We had pretty busy April, and I'm looking forward to making a lot more niku jagas, curries, and spicy tuna bowls. My neighbor Diana started working for me this week. After Daisuke and Sho leave this month, we'll be all girl crew for a while.

I had a ill-fated trip to Ikea this afternoon. I recently joined Zipcar, which is quite well-designed service that you can rent cars in your neighborhood by the hour. So I rented a car for a few hours, and drove out to Elizabeth, NJ. But there was a fire engine blocking the only road to Ikea, and they told me to go to the mall and kill some time because there was some sort of emergency, some wire that you can get electricuted with in the roadway they need to clear up. From there I eneded up wasting whole hour by going to the mall, driving around to find a parking spot, walking in the building filled with all kinds of Jersey people to use a restroom, and driving back to Ikea. Finally then walked through Ikea, picked up shelves and other goodies. Back on the road, it was pretty smooth until of course I was back to Holland Tunnel. I wouldn't have been late if there weren't that congestion which seems to be always there at the tunnel. Maybe I wasn't late if I didn't stop for gas which I was supposed to if the tank was only 1/4 full, which it was when I got the car. The traffic was only inching toward the tunnel at the last 1/4 mile stretch. I was furious and upset. I'm Japanese and I don't like to be late. I didn't want to pay the 25 dollar penalty. You heard about the train crash in Japan, right? The driver was speeding because he was 90 seconds behind the schedule. I know it's ridiculous but we are punctual people and we don't like to be late. I panted and cursed but the traffic didn't move. I knew the best route to fly across town once I was back to Manhattan, but I was late for 10 minutes. Oh, well. I said it was better than crashing and killing 100 people. I'm often late these days to open up the restaurant, but otherwise I'm quite punctual. One time my friends Orly and Michelle came to cheer me for NYC marathon. I instructed them to wait for me in the Central Park, near 72nd Street transverse, and I'd be running by, say, at 2:10. It was a cold day, and Michelle was bitching as usual that it was so cold and I could be late, and she didn't want to wait around too long in the cold. It was just about 2:10 when they got to their spot, when I came by, saw them and waved. Orly turned to Michelle and said, "I told you she'll be on time. She's Japanese!"
on may 2, 2005 @ 01:31 am [link]