i didn't mind waking up anyway. ever since i made the transition to the master bedroom, it's become a lot easier to get up in the mornings because the room gets very bright when the sun comes up. i didn't have this problem before when i slept in the guest bedroom, as it's always dark regardless of the season. i used the bathroom then took a shower, taking my time. i left the house at 8:50am, rode the bike down to market basket to get some things for the cafe. my mother called me while i was there, said she needed cilantro right away because she was making an dish for my aunt who was picking up it later this morning. so i raced to the cafe to drop off the supplies before returning home.
i could've just stayed at the cafe since i was supposed to be working anyway, but i wanted to get home and use the bathroom, as i had an unsatisfying poop. the tremors from the nearby construction work was so bad, i could see objects jumping on my table, like an earthquake. would this 100+ year old house fall to pieces too? my roommate was still home, as i waited for her to finally leave around 10:05am. i then used the bathroom again, but once more i was happy with the results, as i felt pressure to finish so i could go to work. after a quick rinse in the shower (i was already sweat-soaked from the ride earlier this morning), i returned to the cafe. this time i brought a bag of cherries i bought yesterday and some leftover mandarin oranges.
my aunt and uncle were there picking up the food my aunt had ordered. matthew seemed to be impressed with our new 12v car fridge, didn't realize such a device existed.
around lunchtime it got busy, and it didn't stop until about 1:30pm. xiaojuan made a cameo appearance during that time, but irish good-byed us when she saw we were really busy and had no time to chitchat with her. my mother made some rice noodle soup with a pork and daikon broth she'd been slow simmering all morning.
i left by 4pm when it looked like it business was done for the day. it was 90 degrees outside, but wasn't too bad. daytime temperature all next week will be in the 70's, so this hot weather will finally break. only later when i checked the webcam did i see that around 5pm there was about an hour where it got busy again. the front of the cafe was filled with customers as i helplessly watched my parents scramble to fulfill their orders. by then it was too late for me to get to the cafe and help out.
instead of going home, i stopped by marathon sports to check out their shoe selection. i saw a bunch of hokas, and the only other shoes i recognized were some nikes and saucony. all other brands were foreign to me. i asked them if they carried size 5.5, they said they did in some models. i didn't bother checking the price, figured it was all retail.
from there i went by the community garden. i wasn't going to stop but i saw ann there. i haven't seen her since late june, a month ago. i checked out her garden, she was especially proud of the bitter melon trellis another fellow gardener named andy helped her build. ann told me she does "moxa" (moxibustion) in her garden in the early morning, and showed me one of the incense sticks she uses. i also got two cuban oregano leaves from her, to replace the one she gave me last month that germinated new roots but i left it outside too long and it drowned. as for my own plot, i didn't bother watering as it was going to rain tomorrow. i just harvested a few more tomatoes.
just as i was about to leave, i ran into david, whom i haven't seen in months, to the point where i was wondering if he'd fallen ill, especially considering how his plot isn't doing as well as in seasons past. he was railing against rats in the garden, which have taken some of his tomatoes. his cucumbers have all succumbed to bacterial wilt, and his squash vines don't seem to be doing too well either. i pointed out the vine borer eggs and squash bug eggs, which freaked him out so much, he needlessly started pulling off healthy leaves. i personally think his garden isn't doing very well this season is because he's watering too much, causing fungal disease and root rot.
i finally left around 5pm, after i couldn't take anymore mosquitoes biting my bare legs. riding home, i saw spotted ann again hunched over something on the curb. i went to investigate, and it was a cache of cooking spices. in fact, the girl moving out was actually standing next to all the kitchen stuff she'd just put out. ann and i picked through everything like vultures. she took some fancy popping popcorn, while i grabbed a metal plant stand and several jars and bottles of spices. not garbage spice either, but fancy ones from christine and formaggio.
i put the plant stand on my back porch when i got home, and then suspended the two cuban oregano leaves in jars of water to induce them to root. i figured lauryn wouldn't be back until 6pm, which gave me enough time to take a quick shower and change out of my sweat-soaked clothes. i also turned on the AC to reduce the humidity. thankfully the nearby house construction had already stopped (or enough neighbors complained) and there were no more tremors.
i watched the china-haiti world cup game, which had aired earlier this morning, so i already knew the score, 1-0 in a win for china. i was curious to see how china won their only point despite a red card violation that reduced their players to just 10. the answer was a penalty kick by wang shuang. i posted on wechat if any of my chinese contacts were actually watching the world cup. amber replied with a flat, "no."
lauryn came home exactly at 6pm. she picked up some mail and dropped them on the coffee table, including a USPS priority mail package. could it be my taiwanese passport? the embassy hasn't contacted me yet even though it's been almost 6 weeks, while they already contacted my parents, and it's only been 4 weeks for them. it could only be my US passport, but i wasn't expect that until september at the earliest. when i opened the envelope, sure enough, it was my new US passport. i sort of regret taking a passport photo that made me look like a criminal with long hair and beard. i noticed the new passport has a page that's essentially a thick plastic laminated card with all my personal info on it. i requested the thicker 50-page passport for heavy duty travelers, but i doubt i'd ever fill it.
lauryn cooked something with a pan but it took her just a few minutes, so there was no mess in the kitchen. my upstairs neighbor jeff texted me, said he left some hard cider on my back porch. he also invited lauryn and i to dinner upstairs next week. i told her she was moving out on wednesday, and he said we could just have dinner instead.
i didn't have dinner until almost 10pm, heated up a burrito in the microwave. instruction said 2 minutes, but with my lower wattage oven, the center was still a little bit cold, but i ate it anyway.
i discovered some cough drops i kept in my front backpack pocket had melted from the recent heat (room temperature in my place is 80 degrees). i threw them away and had to wash out the front pocket. heat is no joke!
as for my tooth, it didn't hurt all day. i even tested trying to eat on the right side, but i could feel the molar moving, so i returned to eating on my left. even though it doesn't hurt, there's still a discomfort. i can't wait until monday, when hopefully the implant doctor will have the honor of extracting said molar.