Whirled peas

So, what the heck has been goin’ on?!

Friday: Adieu, Sachet! and Nausicaa


First of all, Sachet’s going-away cum birthday party on Friday night was a blast! A whole flash-mob’s worth of folks showed up, and there was food, fun, frolic(1), badminton, betterminton, sweetness, bittersweetness, and… well, don't just take my word for it: take a look at the photos. (You can click view as slide show in the upper-middle right; I left them uncaptioned.)

Sachet is still with us at this moment, physically at least, since her flight to the Grand Nord Blanc is a redeye; mentally, I think she’s in the stratosphere anyway. I know we all wish her the best luck in Montreal and in her program. Bon Voyage, Sachet!

Coming home from the party emotionally spent, Otis and I parked ourselves in front of the spectrator and watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, the anime from a few years ago. Otis was in eco-feminist heaven, what with the strong female leads, and the woman-animal connections, and the environmental themes, and the animal communication going on. All that, plus funky aeroplanes and Patrick Stewart as a master swordsman = way cool!

Saturday: Men and work

Yesterday morning began with a walk to Wallingford and out and around and back, and then continued with my walking back down to Cedars in the U district to attend a meeting of the League of Unordinary Gentlemen with Johnbai and da boyz. Some falafel(2) and good conversation later, and I was a new man.

A new man that Stella was apparently bound to break, by introducing me to a Rug Doctor steam carpet cleaner! But I conquered the beast and gave Otis’s massage room and my office a thorough passable going over(3). We were so overjoyed that the three of us celebrated with dinner at Jalisco’s.

The postprandial programme was supposed to comprise the Fremont Outdoor Movies, but we headed over there and no one from the gang was about, so we came back to the RD so Otis could get some work done and I could be the opposite of productive.

Sunday: Call me the wanderer

This morning, I walked to the Wallingford Tully’s to both work and goof off, hoping to be joined in my Sunday morning indolence while Otis worked her way through her appointments, but although I received communications from many, none came out to play. I got my work done and took a walk through the U-district before coming home, eating pizza on the street and verifying the existence of an establishment that Johnbai discovered. Too bad it was closed(4).





I returned home for a short respite, only to turn around and walk back down The Ave with Otis to go see Sunshine. Neither the beautiful blue eyes of Cillian Murphy nor the brash charm of Chris Evans could save this muddled mess of a hard sci-fi / psychological / horror / spiritual-actualization story. I hate to be Bummerman Junior, but the technical implausibilties alone made the movie unengageable, much less the apparently random motivations of the humans. This Aliens-wannabe is worth missing.

We took the bad taste out of our mouths(5) with some delicious food at Veggie Veggie Thai, a worthwhile addition to any list of vegetarian restaurants.

And that’s what the heck has been going’ on!

Endnotes:

(1) The frolic was so profound that someone walked away with the Mexican blanket that lives in my Little Black Car (which was driven by Sachet herself), Anyone have it?
(2) The food was just splendid, but I have to say that the service there is just aggressive – sort of militant attention. That damn water glass is going to be filled and that late taken away no matter what!
(3)If you ever want to dye anything red, try Tangerine flavored Emergen-C. I had spilled some on my office carpet, and that stuff resisted even the steam cleaner.
(4)This place has nutty hours:

(5) Actually, Otis enjoyed it more than I did, although she did say that the last third didn't seem to fit with the beginning.