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soy diary


Almost home

Yesterday afternoon, my neighbor Nora, whose purse I found in the middle of Saturday night, brought me beautiful roses. She was going home for the holidays. I feel that I ever received more flowers from women than men. After work, I dropped by Alejandro's party around the corner with freshly baked amazing brownies with peanut butter bits. He had so many cute fun sweet guys at the party I stayed longer than I had planned. And of course they were all gay. This afternoon my friends Orly and Jed, then my running friends Asteria and Sid stopped by. I was so nice to see them before leaving town. I opened the New York Times Arts section and realized that I fed the entire Ned Rothenberg's Double Band on Tuesday evening before their gig. In the evening it became pretty quiet. I think many people already left for Christmas. We finished the last day of work of the year, and I'll be getting ready to go home.
on december 24, 2004 @ 02:27 am [link]

Brrrrrr...!!

It's only about 10 degrees out now. It was quite brutal all day, and on this insanely cold day I had four visiters from Japan this afternoon.; my father's friends were visiting New York for a few days, and they stopped by to say hello. My father must've been bragging about me so much they already knew much about me. It was a nice surprise visit, and they even left me a big tip although I only served them teas.

Good day to stay in the kitchen. Good day to bake. Thumbprint cookies sold very well. My favorite recipe. Daisuke is back, and Akiyo is also back.

In the evening Tal bursts in and says, "Did you know who it was sitting here on Saturday?" "Some musicians playing at Tonic." "Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth! I was going to faint!" He came in to get his veggie curry on Saturday. I didn't really know who they were, but one of them came a few times in the past, which turned out to be another Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke. I have to take a picture next time. I fed Sonic Youth! David will be jealous.
on december 21, 2004 @ 12:55 am [link]



Yesterday afternoon Paul came by and I was able to sit down with him and have lunch with this head half-shaven, goatee-growing, scarf-wearing, rings-and-other-jewelries-adoring, rock'n roller with black nail polish. He's such a great guy, with always a big smile on his entire face, and everyone in the neighborhood seems to know him. Many people points at his picture on the wall and says, 'Paul! I know him!' But if you don't know him, not to despair, there's always one person you know on the wall. Me.

I went downstairs to get my book from the store in the middle of the night. In front of the store, it seems that a purse is hanging from a bicycle, which I thought was my neighbor Nora's. A purse. Like a shoulder bag. I was puzzled. I looked around. Nora is nowhere in sight. I waited a few more seconds, thinking she'll be bursting from the building any minute. No. I had to take it before someone else takes it. I looked in the bag and found a check book. It was Nora's. I thought it's kind of late to go knocking on her door, especially if she still hasn't come down, she hasn't noticed it was missing anyway. Or is she not in the right frame of mind right now? I decided to leave a note in her mailbox.

You don't know how happy I am that my weekend is here. Just a few more days of work before my vacation.
on december 19, 2004 @ 12:38 am [link]

time for red bean soup

It was 20 degrees outside. I went on a run along the river as usual. Especially along the water it gets really windy and cold. I increased speed to warm up. When I got back home half hour later, the ends of my hair was covered with ice of my sweat. Then I knew it was really cold. Winter is here.

More staffing headache. Daisuke is off this week for dry and cracked hands; his doctor told him he should stay away from water. Akiko's friend Minae, a little Korean girl, took the job but when I was sending her out for a delivery, we found out she couldn't ride the bicycle. Akiko took some deliveries for her and got lost. Always eventful at SOY. Tonight was pretty quiet. I was able to almost catch up with all the cooking. It's cold out, and it's a great time for baking and stewing. I will be also doing hot red bean soup with mochi rice cake, my favorite dessert.
on december 16, 2004 @ 12:13 am [link]

on music

Musically interesting weekend: Saturday night, my Japanese boys, Ikko, Kazu, and Ippo dragged me out to see their favorite 'Unclefucker,' the blue grass hard rock band at Delancey. They played blue grass tunes in hard core rock style. It was quite a surreal experience between the music, sexy dancers, and three Japanese guys going crazy and hopping around in front of the stage. I said to myself, only in the Lower East Side. Sunday night I saw Doveman and Flashpapr at Tonic. Beautiful sad music. It was more like my taste than the night before. Last customers of the night gave me a nice tip tonight, I think it was partially for the music. They asked me what I was playing as they were leaving. I was playing Gotan Project.
on december 14, 2004 @ 12:48 am [link]

more agitation

I did recover the missing milk jar cap the next day, but that half of onion was never found. Akiyo called me this morning and left message that she was just about to get on a flight to Japan for a family emergency. She'll be gone for a week. My cat Coco is increasingly annoyed by, instead of getting used to, the fact that I have to squirt this banana scented liquid into her mouth twice a day. Now she won't forgive me for half an hour. She goes to hide under the couch and not come out. I'm supposed to give her the medicine for another day. It is just as hard for me, kitty. I hope she knows.

I'll be leaving for Japan in two weeks. Laura from across the street came to pick up her lunch and when I told her I'm going to Japan, she exclaimed that she's so jealous and gave me a nice tip. My presently most frequent lunch customer Steven is moving to Arizona in four weeks. New Year is coming in only three weeks and a change. I started discussing my renovation plan with Karel the contractor. I like to keep evolving growing changing for the better.
on december 11, 2004 @ 01:21 am [link]

where is the rabbit hole?

It was a strange day. This afternoon, I was making a salad for a customer. Lettuce, tomato, green pepper, mushroom.. then I needed to cut a new red onion. I took it out from the refrigerator, cut it in half, and cut a few slices from one half. I brought to the front for the customer, rang it up, and when I got back to the kitchen, a half of the onion was gone. I swear. It disappeared. I was on all fours and looked all over the floor in my small kitchen. I looked in the garbage to make sure I didn't throw it away by accident. No. It was never found. One of my helf Daisuke also disappeared. He never showed up, which is very strange. I thought only spanish guys do that sort of thing. I hope nothing happened to him. At the end of the night, I took out a jag of milk to bring it home from the refrigerator. I brought it to the table near the door, as I was leaving, and went back behind the counter because I forgot to take the lock for the gate. When I got back to the jag of milk, the red cap was missing. I looked everywhere and it was nowhere to be found. I swear. I wondered if there's a rabbit hole somewhere in my restaurant that sucks things down to the wonderland.

I went home and had to torture my cat further with her medication. I'm supposed to give her this drop which smells like bananas twice a day, which she hates with passion. She shakes her head, struggles and tries to kick my hands off her, but after I somehow manage to squirt the drop into her mouth, she forgives me. Hope she knows that I really don't enjoy doing it, either.
on december 8, 2004 @ 01:00 am [link]

weather was bad, and so was our day

It was a traumatic day for both of us, but especially for my cat Coco. Without a warning, she was locked into a tiny carrier, thrown into the bicycle basket, traveled in the cold morning air, and emerged terrified at a veterinarian's office a few minutes later. She shivered clutching on my shoulder for half an hour while we waited. Although this was the first time at this vet, she knew where she was. Each time she knows. The horrible place. A veterinarian's office. Last time she was at a vet, he looked into her mouth, and said. "These are getting loose." Then he grabbed a wrench, and plied one of her fangs out. Without a warning neither to her or me. I found his behavior too violent, and took her to a different doctor. He was a very gentle, nice person. His dog's name was even Coco. A little dachshund who greeted us in the waiting room. He took her in for dental work, and a few hours later she lost five more teeth. (Last year she had three extractions.) In the waiting room at the vet, the chart on the wall said that 15 year old cat is about 76 years old in human age. So Coco is almost 76 years old. That's not so bad. She may have another 25 years and live to be 100. The cat I grew up with back home lived to be over 100 in human years. Then I felt really sad thinking about the day Coco will leave. She came home tonight in misty rain, still sedated and weak. When I held her, I felt she was smaller than before.
on december 7, 2004 @ 01:29 am [link]

headache

The kitchen faucet was busted last night, after less than three years of use. I ran to the plumbing supply store in Chinatown in the morning, and showed the man behind the counter the corroded part. "No, you can't replace this. You have to buy the whole thing." He said. "American, $60, or $20 for import." I assumed the American was better quality. "Yes. With American, this won't happen." He pointed the worn nut. So I decided on the shiny American faucet from Central Brass co. of Cleveland Ohio. No cheap imports! I asked him if he can recommend a plumber to install it. My day won't start without a faucet. He called someone and said, "he's coming off the bridge right now. Can you wait for a few minutes?" Then two minutes later, there was the little Chinese plumber who speaks no English. He agreed to do it for me. I ran back to the store, and 10 minutes later, he showed up accompanied by his 'interpreter' he picked up on the way. The faucet was installed in just 15 minutes, and is working wonderfully. The Chinese plumber spoke two words in English, 'garbage' and 'thank you.' I was grateful with his prompt service.

That was only a part of my headache last night. Besides the monthly bleeding problem that's common to healthy women of my age, my hemorrhoids had made mild comeback. Is that because of spicy Korean food I had last sunday? (That's what my doctor said. No spicy food!) Then there was this early Christmas present for my kitty, the self-cleaning litter box. Although I don't think anyone who won't clean after their cats or dogs should be allowed to have any pets, I thought this would be a treat for both of us, always clean littler box! After 80 hours of work week, it's nice to have one less thing to forget. (I have a 'to forget' list rather than 'to do' list.) However, after setting up this monster last night, she won't go near it. She immediately chose to jump onto the new scratching post, but not on this monstrous device. Really, its enormous body holds tiny area to hold the litter. What's cute at least is it comes with a carpeted paw cleaning ramp. But my cat didn't make use of this invention all night. All morning. I was getting worried. Early afternoon, finally there was a trace- a clump was stuck in the cleaning rake. I congratulated my cat on her potty work. big grin
on december 3, 2004 @ 05:03 pm [link]

decadence

There's this decadent ice cream at Rite Aid, which is fortunately open 24 hours. It's Starbucks brand coffee ice cream. "White Chocolate Latte" especially is dangerous. Luscious. Highly addictive and high in calories. Unbelievable.

Buttery thumbprint cookies I baked are also very dangerous. If I don't sell them fast enough, I'll be eating them all.

And I'll have to run a few more miles to compensate for that.
on december 2, 2004 @ 01:43 am [link]

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