t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


another reason never to drink
while waiting for laurie to come pick me up outside of au bon pain, i saw a crazy drunk guy walking down the street in my direction. i quickly pretended to write in my journal, giving an aura of "i'm busy leave me alone" to any passerbys. of course the usual passerby isn't piss drunk and muttering incoherently under his breath, looking to make conservation with whoever that comes by. i peered above my writing to see him walk by me. sigh of relief! oh no, he's making an u-turn back to me! "what'ya writ'n?" he mumbles. "just stuff," i replied. "hmmm...mmmm...the hell!...hmmm!" he returned. i gave him an "oh, how interesting?" smile and he left. crazy ass disaster narrowly avoided.

some thoughts on memories
also while waiting for laurie i saw mr.lapine in au bon pain. mr.lapine was my fifth grade elementary school teacher. that was 16 years. holy cow, 16 years. didn't exactly pass in a blink of an eye, but nevertheless, it went by quickly. it's hard for me to visualize the passing of time. all my memories are stacked one on top of the other in archealogical style. i can just as easily remember something i did yesterday versus something that happened 20 years ago. the only difference is perhaps older memories have less details. but that's not true for all memories. there are some that i recall quite vividly, and those are usually the ones that are very traumatic or very happy times in my life. so imagine if i lived everyday like that, one of emotional extremes. if i'm not euphorically happy, then i'm catastrophically sad or horrified. would that mean i'd remember every day just as clearly as my most memorable memories?

dim sum trio
so laurie arrived and i hopped into her car. to my surprise, someone else jumped into the backseat just as i had climbed in! laurie had invited her coworker sinali (i hope i'm getting her name right!) to come join us for dim sum. it's kind of weird, to think we were both waiting outside au bon pain for laurie but neither one of us knew that. in the car, laurie told me she got herself a new kitten (actually a 5 month old male cat). she went to the boston shelter but didn't see any cats she wanted ("isn't that horrible? i'm shopping around for cats!" laurie said) but had to go to the salem shelter to finally find a cat she wanted ("is it a witch's cat?" i asked? <groaning from laurie> "does everyone ask you that?" "yes!" she exclaimed). so we got to china pearl, and we ate $30 worth of dim sum which is about right for 3 people, but it's been a while since i ordered so much dim sum. the restaurant was surprisingly empty for a sunday morning (10am), but by the time we left, it started to crowded again, but not as crowded as previous sundays. dim sum conversation naturally included what we did for thanksgiving and our experience with taiwan (everyone at the table had been to taiwan before). i asked laurie if she was weirded out by my clean-shaved look, and she said yes a little bit, and i told her how i always felt betrayed when somebody cuts their hair or shaves without first warning me, so i knew how she felt. when i went to go pay, the cash register girl stamped my china pearl discount voucher card three times. now i'm confused as to how this system works. do i get stamped once for every visit, or stamped however many times we eat divided by $10 increments? or maybe she was trying to tell me something. whatever it is, i have just three more visits to make before i fill the card and get that sweet $10 discount on my next dim sum. afterwards, laurie dropped off sinali at harvard square (she had to go work) and i got a ride to the cafe, where i'd be going to some open houses.

open houses, seeing whatever's left
we saw just a few, whatever's left of what we haven't already seen. some interesting places, but nothing i want to buy yet. with a month left in the year, house ownership doesn't seem to be in the cards for 2001.

crime drama in action on the mean streets of cambridge
on our way to an open house, we witnessed two police officers chase down a criminal suspect. it was pretty exciting, we were stopped at the lights and we saw this guy run across the intersection. seconds later, this fat cop comes running behind him. his partner, a much more athletically fit officer, came charging behind him. "over there!" the fat cop yelled, as his partner ran in a direction so as to intersect the suspect. all that time, police cruisers start arriving at the scene. the light goes green. we turn. and around the corner, besides the white hen pantry, we see the two cops apprehending the suspect, some guido looking guy with a gold chain. they had him bent over the hood of the car in handcuffs. i bet that's what cops live for. the thrill of the chase, catching bad guys. i smiled to myself. so this is the town i want to live in!

minor gardening, night of the living bulbs
when i came home it was already starting to get dark, but i had some bulbs to plant so i went out into the backyard, found a patch of land, and cleared it for my bulbs. i didn't have any digging tools other than the hoe, so i had to dig the holes for the bulbs with my bare hands. something very earthy about getting my hands dirty, actually scooping out handfuls of dark, aromatic soil that's kind of fun. bulbs are weird. they're a lesson in patience, a lesson in trusting how nature works. they seem like inanimate objects, but you bury them in the ground and wait until spring/summer, and suddenly they sprout and beautiful flowers appear.


late season
tulip
(blue aimable)

late season
tulip
(blue aimable)

anemone
(de caen blue)

watching
bulbs grow

one more thing...
as we speak, john miller is informing me via aim that he is no longer on the market. holy matrimony, batman!