If by chance their cheeks should meet

2005-01-02 - 8:36 p.m.

Like a dope, I went ahead and typed an entry in the white Diaryland box, and of course, I lost the whole thing. I told you all about what I did during my computerless holiday, but now that's all gone.

So...on Christmas morning my parents and I drove to my grandfather's house in Santa Rosa. My aunt was also there. She lives in Seattle, but I've yet to see her here. My grandfather isn't doing so well, mentally. I think he's been diagnosed with dementia. His doctor had him go in for a head CT, but I don't know exactly what she was looking for. We did the usual opening of Christmas gifts and then for Christmas dinner we had a ham dinner that my grandfather had bought down at the local deli complete with all the fixings in individual styrofoam containers.

The next morning we went back home and I called up Azuma who is home from Japan for Christmas. He told me to come on over, but it turned out he wasn't alone. I knew his Japanese girlfriend would be there, but I didn't know that two of his high school friends would be there too. One of them was my crush from senior year in high school who I haven't seen since graduation seven and a half years ago. He turned out to be a bit of a loser after all. The other one I've seen a few times since graduation. He was a big time loser back in high school but now he's a pretty cool guy. It's funny how that works out.

That evening we picked up my brother from the airport and the following morning we did Christmas. I got way too much stuff. Later we went to see "Polar Express" in 3D in the IMAX theater. That was really cute and much better than I'd expected. While my brother was around we really didn't do too much because it rained almost the whole time. Once it cleared up long enough for us to go for a walk near a creek in Roseville so my brother could take pictures with his brand new fancy-schmancy SLR digital camera. We also saw "Finding Neverland," which I'd seen before but didn't mind seeing again. In fact, I still wouldn't mind seeing it again, I really liked it. One night I took my family out to dinner at Outback using the gift certificate the management of the pharmacy department gave me for Christmas. But other than that, we pretty much hung around the house doing puzzles, playing games, drinking eggnog and whatnot.

We dropped my brother off at the airport Thursday morning. Afterwards I called Azuma again and we hung out some more. This time it was just him and his girlfriend and me. We went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant (they don't have much Mexican food in Japan and his girlfriend had never tried it) and then hung out at his place.

In the evening I went out with Legs, another one of my friends from high school. I hadn't seen her for three years but when we got together it was as if no time had passed at all. She recently graduated from law school in LA and passed the BAR this summer. She actually just got a job in Sacramento and is moving back there for a while. Just when I moved away! We laughed over our terrible timing and the way I was stuck in Sac with no friends around for so long and now she's back in Sac with no friends. It's sort of funny because when we actually thought about it, quite a few of our other high school friends still live pretty close to Sac. I told her she should meet up with them but she said she was unlikely to. I asked her why not, she met up with me after all, and she said, "Yeah, but you're different." I decided to take that as a definite compliment. We ended up going out to dinner and then seeing the movie "Phantom of the Opera." I think Legs liked the movie better than I did. It seemed to me that the people in the movie could either act or sing but not both. I never had any idea what Christine was feeling and I think it definitely would've helped the story if that actress had let us know.

The following afternoon I drove down to Stockton where I met Doodle, the Babe, Tigger, Flik, and Flik's boyfriend for lunch. It's always so good to see those girls! And I was glad to finally meet Flik's boyfriend. I've had concerns about him before along the lines of whether or not he was good for her, but he seemed like a really good guy. Meeting your girlfriend's four best friends at a sit-down meal can't be the easiest situation but he handled it just fine. The best part though was how happy she looked with him. After lunch we went to our old college campus to show him around and then we went to Target and bought Pictionary which we took to another more casual restaurant and played. He was fun playing that too. He's in his early 30's and he's from Germany with a definite German accent and a less than perfect grasp of the English language. I was on his team playing Pictionary (we purposefully put Flik on the other team) and at one point he was drawing "black cat." When I guessed it he yelled out jubilantly (scared me to death, actually) and reached out to shake my hand. It was so funny. Anyway, I liked him a lot. I really wish he and Flik lived closer (they're in New York) so I could hang out with them. Actually, I wish that of all my friends, but oh well.

That night was New Year's Eve. I spent it hanging out at home with my parents. We played games (I actually won at Scrabble) and read most of the night. We turned on the TV just in time to see the ball drop, hugged and kissed each other, and then went to bed.

On New Year's Day I flew back to Seattle. Duke picked me up from the airport. Poor guy had to manage my hugely heavy and unwieldy bag. It was so nice to have him there. I actually took the bus to the airport from Seattle in the first place and I could've taken it back home (it's hard to beat the $1.25 fare), but it was much nicer to have Duke there. He carried my bag down to my apartment and saw it in all it's messy glory and then we went out to dinner at a pho place.

I worked today. I've been confused all day today because it feels like Monday to me but it's only Sunday. I have tomorrow off, though. My plan is to jog in the morning. I hope my ankle is up for it this time. I may do some more cleaning or some shopping (I'd like to buy a file cabinet so I could really deal with all this paperwork that's accumulating) and then I'm meeting Duke for lunch and a walk in the park. And that's it for my plans at the moment.

I'd also like to mention that things have worked out well with the singer, even after my little freak out. We exchanged a couple of honest and heartfelt e-mails and now things are good.

Oh! I think I might take Duke salsa dancing for my birthday. Imagine that! I can't dance and I have nothing to wear (what should I wear to such a thing?) and it's at a bar but I don't drink so this should be great fun! I had the idea and then asked Duke as quickly as I could before I could change my mind. I was surprised when he said he thought it sounded like a good idea. Maybe he's just saying it and doesn't really think it, but I don't think he would do that. There is, at least, a free lesson before the actual dancing begins. At any rate, he's checking his schedule and if he's free, I'm going salsa dancing!