Wednesday, May 10, 2006
I recently finished reading The Commitment by Dan Savage and even though it was the most poorly edited book I've read in recent memory, I still enjoyed it very much and recommend it highly to others. Mr. Savage quite clearly and reasonably describes why marriage doesn't always succeed or offer rational solutions, mirroring ideas I've had myself of marriage since the early 1990s. Patrick read the book after I did, and we both found rather uncanny similarities between Dan and Terry's relationship and ours. I flew to Honolulu. (Patrick could not go because of school.) After I arrived and picked up my rental car, I drove to Chris and Nate's. Weather was warm and mostly sunny. Nate took me to an end-of-year party for the library staff where Chris works where Chris was already celebrating with his co-workers and a few students. Hilarity ensued when Steff (Steph?) happened to notice (or claim) that Chris's ears pull back when he tells a lie, so we all tried to get him to lie again so we could see it, but he was laughing so hard (or maybe it was embarrassment at having been caught) that we couldn't get him to lie again. Afterwards we dropped off some final paperwork at University of Hawaii for Chris ("I'm done!"), shopped for groceries, came home and took a nap. Met their friends Alex and Paul at Panya Bistro (808-946-6388, Ala Moana Shopping Center, 2nd Level, mauka side, Honolulu, Hawaii), a well-decorated earth cuisine restaurant where the food was good but the service was mostly awful. When we arrived, they claimed they didn't have the reservation that Chris and Nate had made earlier, and we had interrupted one of the 3 teenaged waitresses who was busy sitting in a chair behind the counter and text-messaging someone on her phone. The menu was truly con-fusion, or, to be generous, "world cuisine." If you wanted, you could order your meal as: Japanese green tea, Vietnamese spring rolls, Russian borscht, French creme brulee, and Italian Illy coffee. (!?) Our table ordered spring rolls and potstickers as appetizers, Chris (to my left) had an oriental chicken salad, Paul (continuing clockwise) had szechewan beef stew noodles, Alex had laksa, Nate had dan dan, and I had an oriental chicken salad. All the food was delicious. The teenage waitresses paid very little attention to our table, and though the bartender was more attentive and more in the spirit of creating a rapport with our table, he neglected to bring us dessert menus after promising them. We had a good time talking and eating nonetheless. Even with our nap, we were too tired to do much else, and by then it was past midnight for me. (Notes for today added on January 28, 2007—I can't remember what some of these notes mean anymore: SFO airport sign still claims that Canadian flights are "domestic," Hawaiian versus Delta, Dan Savage and excrement, dark blue blanket on Hawaiian Airlines left lint all over my shirt and shorts, I forgot to bring earplugs again, Sesame Street at the KCC staff party.)