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Tue | March 28, 2006

chinatown

I went to Chinatown this afternoon. I went randomly looking for Jing Fong because I missed meeting up with some people there on Sunday. I didn't look at a map and figured I would just wander around Chinatown, and maybe run into it, maybe not.

After about a half hour, during which I also looked for a cell phone lanyard and got grapes for a dollar a pound and two pints of strawberries for $1.25, I went into a dim sum place that had yellow cloth covered chairs. The bakery in front was crowded and the dim sum area in the back was empty except for a few friends of the workers. There was no one to admire the pretty cone tiered chandeliers on the ceiling. It was 2:44. A Cantonese woman quickly unloaded three dishes on me. Two were $3; one was $2.50. It would be a fast profit if they had any customers. I thought about how I wanted to buy my mom some tea but I didn't know where to get it.

The men at the next table seemed to be having a good enough time. Two were waiters and the other two were friends. Yet their existence was evidently miserable. That's the way with Asians. Stay pleasant, keep the good will flowing. I suppose it's okay to keep a good attitude but you can't let people walk all over you. I still don't know how to prevent it but at least I understand that's what I need to do.

After I walked out the side door of the restaurant and through an outdoor hall, I ran into Jing Fong.

On the way back I bought a lanyard for my cell phone-- a pave hello kitty face on a pink string. "Five dollars," he said. I probably could have bargained it down to four. I could have just said, "three." And then we would have agreed on four. But I didn't. I didn't want to win. I feel bad for the people who sit there all day and that is their existence. I gave the guy five singles. I happened to have a lot of singles, too, which is good for bargaining so you can make a quick exchange.

There were two dollars left in my wallet. I somehow spent eighty dollars on food in two and a half days. None of it was dining in a restaurant either. So dinner tonight is grapes, strawberries, and a cupcake.

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