not getting younger
Yesterday was my birthday. Flowers arrived, and cakes arrived. I had a great evening surrounded by my friends in front of a ginormous bottle of sake. Only bad news was that our delivery bike was missing from sidewalk at the end of the night. It was a beautiful remnant of summer kind of day today. I had a comfortable long run of 12 miles along the river. I got a chinese haircut in chinatown in the afternoon. When I went to my massage appointment, my therapist Shoko said I look like a high school athlete in a volleyball team. It doesn't feel bad to look young, though. Elliot has been asking me what I'm going to be for Halloween already. It's that time of the year again. Orly was asking me about the Thanksgiving. I'm sure someone would soon ask me if I'm having the festivus party this year. I can answer this one quickly. Yes, you can count on me.
on september 23, 2007 @ 09:32 pm [link]
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soy diary
A letter from Seattle
I received a sweet little card from Seattle this afternoon, which totally perplexed me. I don't have a friend in Seattle, do I? It was beautifully hand-written note, with a little drawing of a flower and everything. "I was thinking of you today, so I thought about writing to you.." Who is this? At the end there was a clue: "Say hi to Erin for me." Erin's mom? I met Erin's mom only once and I didn't even know her name was Kate. It was so sweet of her but I kept wondering why. I showed the card to Kathy and she said, "People are sweet and friendly out there. That's probably why. I heard that waiters would sit down at your table and talk to you in mid-west. And that's like everybody." So later Erin walked in and I told her I just got a card from her mom. "Yeah. That's mom." So does that confirm NYC is not a terribly friendly city, unlike I always thought it was. But people talk to me all the time. At the supermarket if I'm standing next to an old lady at the checkout they tell me about their recent trip to a doctor. The big Dominican lady at the veggie shop in Essex Market demands a kiss on her chubby cheek for a hello, and a good-bye. This morning the girl at the Chinese supermarket asked me again how to say 'meat' in Japanese. Then at the fish market in Chinatown the guy asked me how to say "you're welcome" in Japanese. I said, "Doh itashi mashite" and he chuckled that it sounded so difficult. Unfortunately we don't have any short version of that, I said. But getting a card from a friend's mom was unprecedented. She's been swimming in the lake every morning, and just got two teaching gigs, she wrote. It was really sweet. I want to start writing to people for no reason.
on september 20, 2007 @ 11:51 pm [link]
I received a sweet little card from Seattle this afternoon, which totally perplexed me. I don't have a friend in Seattle, do I? It was beautifully hand-written note, with a little drawing of a flower and everything. "I was thinking of you today, so I thought about writing to you.." Who is this? At the end there was a clue: "Say hi to Erin for me." Erin's mom? I met Erin's mom only once and I didn't even know her name was Kate. It was so sweet of her but I kept wondering why. I showed the card to Kathy and she said, "People are sweet and friendly out there. That's probably why. I heard that waiters would sit down at your table and talk to you in mid-west. And that's like everybody." So later Erin walked in and I told her I just got a card from her mom. "Yeah. That's mom." So does that confirm NYC is not a terribly friendly city, unlike I always thought it was. But people talk to me all the time. At the supermarket if I'm standing next to an old lady at the checkout they tell me about their recent trip to a doctor. The big Dominican lady at the veggie shop in Essex Market demands a kiss on her chubby cheek for a hello, and a good-bye. This morning the girl at the Chinese supermarket asked me again how to say 'meat' in Japanese. Then at the fish market in Chinatown the guy asked me how to say "you're welcome" in Japanese. I said, "Doh itashi mashite" and he chuckled that it sounded so difficult. Unfortunately we don't have any short version of that, I said. But getting a card from a friend's mom was unprecedented. She's been swimming in the lake every morning, and just got two teaching gigs, she wrote. It was really sweet. I want to start writing to people for no reason.
on september 20, 2007 @ 11:51 pm [link]
work-in-progress
Last year when I came back from Cuba I really wanted to write about the incredible trip. I came home with massive amount of notes but the whole story fell into the unfinished project box. This year I really wanted write about the trip again, and I kept writing, in details, kept writing and writing on the beach in Bahamas on the way back. By the time the plane landed in Newark, I had finished only through the morning of day 2. Then of course I'm getting caught in work, marathon training which is at its peak weeks, and whole round of hiring and firing and hiring again. So I've made a very little progress since I came back. And the story is so uncompleted. Hundreds of great photos tell a little about it.
on september 17, 2007 @ 11:45 pm [link]
Last year when I came back from Cuba I really wanted to write about the incredible trip. I came home with massive amount of notes but the whole story fell into the unfinished project box. This year I really wanted write about the trip again, and I kept writing, in details, kept writing and writing on the beach in Bahamas on the way back. By the time the plane landed in Newark, I had finished only through the morning of day 2. Then of course I'm getting caught in work, marathon training which is at its peak weeks, and whole round of hiring and firing and hiring again. So I've made a very little progress since I came back. And the story is so uncompleted. Hundreds of great photos tell a little about it.
on september 17, 2007 @ 11:45 pm [link]
A great fall day but...
My elderly cat Coco had another terrifying trip to the vet this morning. She shivered on my lap in the waiting room; they always know where they are at, when you bring them to the vet. They know that something unpleasant is going to happen to them. It was fairly quick exam today, just another blood test. But she's doing very well now. She's taking her medicine. She's eating regular cat food. She wakes me up in the morning. She cuddles with me on the couch. She was extra affectionate tonight like saying, please, please don't make me go there again. I'm just a cuddly cute kitty.
Another great new little dish today: chilled silken tofu with roasted red peppers and fresh ginger. Texture, color, and fresh clean combination of taste was so perfectly right. It came out just as I imagined and I was so proud of it. I got lots of compliments tonight.
on september 14, 2007 @ 01:31 am [link]
My elderly cat Coco had another terrifying trip to the vet this morning. She shivered on my lap in the waiting room; they always know where they are at, when you bring them to the vet. They know that something unpleasant is going to happen to them. It was fairly quick exam today, just another blood test. But she's doing very well now. She's taking her medicine. She's eating regular cat food. She wakes me up in the morning. She cuddles with me on the couch. She was extra affectionate tonight like saying, please, please don't make me go there again. I'm just a cuddly cute kitty.
Another great new little dish today: chilled silken tofu with roasted red peppers and fresh ginger. Texture, color, and fresh clean combination of taste was so perfectly right. It came out just as I imagined and I was so proud of it. I got lots of compliments tonight.
on september 14, 2007 @ 01:31 am [link]
Just stop and think
Three days after I came back from the forbidden vacation in Havana, relative calm finally arrived at SOY this afternoon. Last two days were pretty crazy, both lunch and dinner, and we've been understaffed as usual, and haven't been able to fulfil every customers needs. Yesterday felt like a day I kept running into red light. It seemed like every traffic I was running into seemed to turn red just before I got there. It's interesting how we can find reasons meanings interpretations to probably only accidental phenomenon around us- like when I returned from my trip I found the clock in my kitchen 'stopped.' Only a few days in Havana felt like eternity. Coming back to this comfortable western civilization, I felt that we should be so much happier than they are. We have absolutely everything and they have almost nothing. But people seem so much happier there, despite of political and economical opression. What's wrong with us? It made me think of the meaning of freedom, and the source of happiness. It was a priceless vacation.
on september 7, 2007 @ 06:41 pm [link]
Three days after I came back from the forbidden vacation in Havana, relative calm finally arrived at SOY this afternoon. Last two days were pretty crazy, both lunch and dinner, and we've been understaffed as usual, and haven't been able to fulfil every customers needs. Yesterday felt like a day I kept running into red light. It seemed like every traffic I was running into seemed to turn red just before I got there. It's interesting how we can find reasons meanings interpretations to probably only accidental phenomenon around us- like when I returned from my trip I found the clock in my kitchen 'stopped.' Only a few days in Havana felt like eternity. Coming back to this comfortable western civilization, I felt that we should be so much happier than they are. We have absolutely everything and they have almost nothing. But people seem so much happier there, despite of political and economical opression. What's wrong with us? It made me think of the meaning of freedom, and the source of happiness. It was a priceless vacation.
on september 7, 2007 @ 06:41 pm [link]