all the things they said

I will now attempt to sum up my winter holiday via memorable quotations from each day (roughly a month late)


"Is that a fiber optic Santa head?"
sunday

• 2 flights and 10.5 hours later, I arrived at LAX
• made udon and maki zushi for friends...really good to see everyone
• my grandmother's fiber optic santa was unexpected star of the show

"They say I'll look more like a black man"
monday

• lunch with tom
• small-town charm...saw a ton of people i knew, including david who, in explaining his upcoming jaw surgery's affect on his facial features, said the above quote.
  
• i'm horrible at maintaining small talk, but moving to japan gave me some great material
  

"He wants to know if we'll come to a party at Dan Aykroyd's house"
tuesday

• visited indie
• ordered thai food with laura while sitting in unfortunate LA traffic
  
• turned down party at dan aykroyd's for our old haunt the dresden--saw jan,the man who works for skechers and offered me a pair, had a photo shoot before we left, all the regulars were there. including the 60+ woman who wears a bleached blonde wig, comes with a 20-something male "assistant," and always makes you wonder if she'll get through her song: "step right in, sit right down."

Dan. Jan.

"We did well"
wednesday

• xmas eve
• mike schmer came to glendora, bless him
• we ate lunch at Maria's, which cost $8 total, to which mike said the above quote
• went shopping at active where my brothers work; ended up buying them things they "had to have"

"I feel sorry for all the kids who got bikes for Christmas"
thursday

• xmas day--did the traditional pass out gifts and open them under the majestic christmas tree
  
• it was raining all day, so my dad quite naturally thought of the boys and girls who got new wheels
  

"Gudasai"
friday

• cousin alex arrived!!!!
  
• we ate at maria's (again) and the waitress asked me what "gudasai" meant. i told her "kudasai" means please and she insisted the word was "gudasai" and it means "strawberry." she said "ok, what's the word for strawberry?" and I said "ichigo" and she said "what can i get you girls to drink?"

"I brought my own ice skates"
saturday

• went ice skating with alex, justin and mike. mike brought his own skates. what a loser
  

"Just like the sun, I never take a day off. L.A. city, ye-yeah!"
sunday

• jet rag shopping with pat and alex yesssssss
• lunch at blu-jam cafe, which was the best meal i've had in a long time
  
• a man on bicycle rode by us and shouted the above
  

“So did you have to get used to sleeping in a tube?”
monday

• went back to indie to have lunch at loteria with people, was asked the above question by an unnamed staff member. i think he was referencing japanese capsule hotels, which are used by businessmen and have small, tube-like sleeping quarters.
• LA traffic 4-630pm=bummered

“Careful, Tom. Your Glendora is showing”
tuesday

• a FEAST with family minus pat at CPK
• looked out the window of the restaurant to see two women holding hands, tom said "lesbooooooossssss" and i said the above quote
  
• got a massage, which was soooooooo great (thanks mom)
  
• watched There Will Be Blood with tom in new home theater

"The captain says there will be 20 minutes more of turbulence and it will be hard"
wednesday

• What did you all do for New Year’s? I know some friends had gigs and others had parties and still others intentionally made little to no plans at all. Here’s mine:

Start.
[4.5 hours into the flight, 20 minutes into the religion-inducing turbulence] After a 4-minute Japanese announcement, the English came:
“The captain says there will be 20 minutes more of turbulence and it will be hard. Please keep seatbelts fastened and stow your things under the seat. Our plane passed the International Dateline 15 minutes ago. Happy New Year.”
End.
I’m not easily shaken, but when I feel a hand is reaching from the clouds and shaking our 747 airplane about quite easily, the “what if” game is inevitable. I thought, “You know, I should leave some words in a document on my laptop, just in case it should survive.” Then I decided that a laptop would never survive a dive into the Pacific Ocean, but perhaps a waterproof laptop case is something someone should think about offering—maybe call it the Just In Case. All this thinking at high altitudes was taxing, so my ultimate course of action was to take a nap.

• 22.5 hours of travel total