ethemeopian

my sister was in town yesterday & we met after work along with my bloodbrother stavros for drinks at the merc, only to find out boom2 is on a leave of absence (bummer! must find out more), then headed off to an ethiopian restaurant, ghenet, in the mad downpour! the restaurant dubbed itself "where angels eat", why? i do not know. we went for a smogasboard to get a taste of all they offer & while the food was good, very similar to indian in consistency & flavour, we were not great fans of the bread you were to scoop everything up in. there were no utensils at the place, much like authentic kamayan restaurants in the philippines & i found that enjoyable (not mel though). the vegetable dishes were good except there were too many bean combinations (as my tummy can attest to) & the meat dishes were tasty & spicy. still though, i would have preferred rice to the spongey bread they gave us. we needed a long walk after eating, so we went down thru chinatown & ended up at an old kareoke bar winnies for a drink. mel didn't enjoy it, though stavros & i were entertained by the chinese music. i saw something at the corner of my eye & it was a pretty gray cat that gave us a bit of a fright. the barkeep then poured out some snacks for us & it looked like something the cat would enjoy. thereafter we went to the antique garage, which i thought was more her speed. it is a very cute place but man the drinks were expensive! quan tuo met us after training there & had a drink. stavros had to go home for he had his usual early day ahead. quan tuo & i took mel to the temple so she can get a look at the place. it's my first family member who shrugged at the idea of visiting temple (in the affirmative) & it was post training so it was humid & no longer as smelly. that was mel's concern. we gave her the 2 cent tour while i used the bathroom. she met quite a bit of the senior brothers & admired how pretty the place was. then quan tuo & i drove her back to her hotel. i had a good buzz after 4 drinks (mix of beer & j&g). it is funny how different my sister & i are. her concern or shall i say fixation of "cleanliness" is very strange. her olfactory was kickin' while she was in nyc. a good nose is something we inherited for sure. i guess i accept the city smells, such as they are. her world is much more controlled. we had a good time & it was good to have her visit & to have stavros out (late) for the evening.

there were buckets of rain poured in what seemed like a relatively short amount of time (the time between merc & ghenet) & it was accompanied by thunder! i thought of course of young machiavelli & i hoped that he was ok & not tearing my walk-in closet apart too too much, or crushed by the mirror. as it turned out, quan tuo did lock them in the bedroom as i asked & instead of my walk-in closet, mac tried to insert himself into the built in wall shell that housed my precious papers. we arrived home to such destruction - papers, poster, photos, books - ripped to shreds! he must have been so scared to have shredded everything. i was a bit upset, i keep notes & letters & many of them were destroyed. the posters were all rolled up together & they too were shredded, including this beautiful photo i got in s'pore & this wallsize photo of the ocean, along with some eccentricities. i pride myself on being a minimalist & although quan tuo tried to alleviate the situation by saying (& i paraphrase): at least we get to clean a new corner of our place with every thunderstorm, i was not in the mood to clean up the mess, to feel nostalgia for things i have had for a while, nor was i amused by his being cavalier about it. plus he didn't offer to help. grrr. so i went to bed soon after, reminding myself that these are just things & that memories are still intact in this busy mind & swelling heart of mine. mac did destroy one of my snoopy books though & that really upset me. ah well. at least both boys are ok, not hurt. we'll see what happens at the next summer thunderstorm.