Random

Sometimes when things are slow at work, Joe and Joji will send two of us without customers out on the street to hand out lunch menus or business cards. Today Hana and I got the job. It was a bit cold, but feeling it better business not to cover the logo on our uniforms, we didn't wear coats. Some people on the street are very nice. Today quite a few of them said, "Aren't you cold? Go put on a coat!" Some even say "thank you" after accepting the card, which I find amusing since I'm the one bothering them. And then there are those who act like the don't see me at all. I like to at least say "No, thank you" when someone tries to give me stuff on the street. And then there was one today who, when I told him "Japanese Barbecue, Sir. Right across the street," asked "Are you Japanese?" I laughed and said, "No, I'm not, but I did live there." And then he said, "Well, I'm going to this Mexican restaurant now, but do you have Geisha [which he pronounced gee-sha] girls?" ><

After work they feed us. Today I ate with Hana (a fellow server), Lightning (one of the hosts, an interesting character), and Carlos (who works in the kitchen, doing drinks and desserts right now while we wait for our liquor license). Lightning and Hana were talking about Lightning's spirituality for a bit, then after Lightning left, it got a bit quiet. "You don't say much, do you, Carlos?" I asked. He said, "Huh? I talk." "Busy eating?" I teased. "Yeah," as he took more rice and meat. Then when Hana sat back down he asked me, "Do you have kids?" "Why do people always ask me that?" I said. "No, I don't." And he asked Hana the same. "How old do we look?" she asked. "19," he guessed. We laughed and corrected him, then asked how old he was. "19. I've got a kid, a daughter." Hana and I quickly recovered. I felt ashamed, but tried not to make a big deal of it. "What's her name?" Hana asked. "Haley." "Oh, like Eminem's daughter?" "Yeah, spelled the same." "How old is she? Do you have pictures?" And he proudly showed us pictures of his one month old daughter on his PDA. A cute baby with a chubby round face. Carlos never smiles at work, but you could see just a hint of it in the pictures. After he got up, Hana said, "Everyone lives such completely different lives." I get the feeling Carlos sees us as silly and immature, but then I'm willing to bet he's matured several months' worth in the past month.

Walking home I stopped at a newsstand to treat myself to Sour Patch Kids. The guy there said, "Do you work around here? How come you never come here? Everyone else comes here all the time. I see you often. How come you never come here? Come here all the time, eh? I'm your Indian brother." ><

Why?

Serena has been curled up napping in my lap for the past hour and a half. She looks sooooo sweet like this and is irresistibly cute the way she tumbles around in your lap and arms, trying to cuddle every part of her against every part of you all at once. So why is she such a troublemaker and nut when she's awake? :-P

Annoyed

This girl sits in front of me in Chem lecture. She brings her iBook to every class, and during the whole lecture she chats with friends and checks facebook. I find it so rude. Why does she even bother coming to lecture?

Speaking of lecture... I think it's a pretty good class. The professor is good, which is what a lecture course really depends on, I suppose. But somehow... I don't know. He's not teaching/explaining these recent chapters as thoroughly as he did early on. I understand he's feeling pressed for time... then he shouldn't have spent/wasted so much time on the easy chapters at the beginning of the term. I just hope I don't feel like I'm missing something next term if we don't manage to get through all the material this term.

Which just brings me to my classroom experience at Columbia in general. Recitation is absolutely useless, and have I mentioned how the lab course is the worst class I have ever taken? I just hope as the classes get harder they also get better.

On another note, I spend a lot of time at Brett's house... for a number of reasons. The most recent recurring reason has been the lack of hot water at our apartment. About a week and a half ago, there was no hot water, then a couple days later, after ConEd people were seen working in the street, we had hot water... only. (Either it was scalding or there was no pressure.) A couple days later it seemed better. Then a couple days ago we lost hot water again. I've been at Brett's the last couple days, thinking it would be fixed by the time I got back, but it doesn't seem like it.

Also the heat seems really arbitrary. It comes on only when it's cold enough for Darren to put on a hoodie. That's fairly cold for indoors. And when it is on, we can't turn it up or down from our apartment.

So you know what I'm thankful for?
The holiday.

DNA

Today we made... I mean, isolated DNA from chopped up onion. We got to keep our DNA. I gave mine to Brett. It was the best lab yet, but I sure am glad we have no more lab (except for the practical exam in two weeks).

In other news, I have an "audition" to teach SAT/GRE classes for Kaplan on Saturday.

And Brett's band is having a cd release party tomorrow, Thursday the 16th, at The Annex, 152 Orchard St (between Stanton and Rivington). They're on at 11pm. You can order a copy of the album online at InSound or download it on iTunes. It's called "Way Past Used," and it's about time it came out. To hear clips, check out their website and myspace.

Now serving lunch!

The restaurant has opened! We're only serving lunch now, while we wait for our liquor license, but man oh man everyone has been waiting so long for this. Strangely enough, I really like this job. I like the new restaurant (it's so pretty), I like the location, I like our customers, I like my coworkers, and I love the food! Sometimes I complain about going in, but once I get there, it's great! And I get to practice my Japanese lots! Once we have the grand opening, everyone in the city must come by and try.