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today was my 4th day working at the cafe. it was just my father and me, with occasional assists from my sister whenever she felt like stopping by. this is probably how it's going to be for the next 7 weeks once my mother leaves for taiwan on tuesday. my father came to pick me up at 10am (dropping off the bag of potting soil) because he forgot we don't open until 11am on saturdays.

it was a rainy day, so i figured it wouldn't be busy, and that was the case for much of the morning, until business began to pick up in the afternoon. it got so busy at one point (a large group of indian students here in town visiting local schools) that my mother saw it on the webcam and called my sister for reinforcement. i went to the beacon street star market briefly to buy some corn starch and boneless chicken thighs. it was right during a brief stretch of torrential downpour, raining so hard that the windshield wipers set to high was still no match for the blinding deluge.

busy time at the cafe can be a double-edged sword. you don't want it so hectic that it feels like your plate spinning as you try to fill out several different orders. but during times when they're no customers, time seems to slow down and it can get boring sitting around and waiting. that wasn't the case today, i barely had any time to sit down, even when there was no customers, we were preparing ingredients so when there was customers we'd be ready.

we finally closed by 4pm. my back hurt a little bit from standing all day, and i was tired too, maybe because i didn't have any breakfast or lunch (other than a piece of garlic bread, some orange juice, and some burnt edamame beans).

my father and i went back to my parents' house. my mother wasn't in the mood for cooking and said we'd get thai chicken rice for dinner. i ordered online around 5:45pm, we went to go pick up the order 10 minutes later. second time around was just as good. instead of sweet chili sauce, they gave me a spicy ginger sauce this today, which was okay, but still not as good as the fish sauce hot sauce blend that comes with the roasted chicken.

my mother ordered a cheap set of crochet hooks after seeing the tulip-brand ones the chinese upstairs tenant feifei used to make her beautiful crochet flowers. we looked up tulip online (apparently it's a japanese brand), they cost upwards of $100+, probably the most expensive crochet hooks you can buy. later on my own i bought my mother another set of clover brand crochet hooks (also japanese), which were still expensive but only just 1/2 the price of the tulip brand set. my mother said she'll be only making crochet flowers from here on out.

my father gave me a ride home afterwards. i used the bathroom and took a shower, plus did two loads of laundry (haven't washed my clothes in over a month), including my bedsheets. i finished the evening watch bumblebee (2018), the only reason was to see hailee steinfeld. i was also pleasantly surprised by how much 80's music there was in the film.