Monday, December 7, 2009

Rain Over Me

It's finally started, winter rain. Being that Southern California is a desert, this rain is much needed and welcome. Hopefully it will rain for a week.

I'm one of those people who like rain. I like the sound it makes on the streets, the feel of it tapping me on the head, the smell of it cleaning the world, the sight of it falling from on high.

I like rainy nights, when the world comes to a stand still. There's no movement outside, and the only sounds are you and the pit-pat of rain against the roofing tiles. It makes me feel so alone, yet at peace.

I especially like the days after rain fall, when the skies are so clear and the earth smells so pure. The night after rainfall, when the clouds clear out, let what stars we can see shine through even more.

Today was somewhat eventful. I woke up and went to work, driving a half hour to join a crowd standing outside of the courthouse waiting for foreclosure auctions. I bid on house, got beat, and promptly went off to find my friend Nan(see post Quit baggin on my blog! for pictures of Nan). I probably would have bid more had it not been so cold, but I was less focused on the auction and more on how long before the feeling in my toes went away entirely due to the cold.

The day before, Nan and I had agreed to get our haircut today. Nan wanted to try out a new salon and I(foolishly) agreed to go with him. Apparently, his friend uses this salon, and recommended it to him.

Mistake 1: Letting Nan choose the where even though he's never been to much less tried the where.

We found the place and walked in. Immediately, I noticed the place was dead. Not a single customer, though there were 5-6 stylists in the house. I was quickly beset by a stylist and was seated in a barber's chair. Nan took a bit longer, after making a call to his friend and asking which stylist he should ask for. I just told the man holding the sharp scissors to my head to "go nuts."

Mistake 2: Letting the stylist do what he wanted without specifying the service.

I usually go to a barbershop that services quantity over quality, meaning you were in and out in 5 minutes or less. Today was a different experience. The man removed tiny little patches of hair at a time, with those scissors that would only thin out rather than trim off locks of hair entirely. The end result was that the haircut took about 1.5 hours from me walking in to the lighter me walking out.

Mistake 3: Not asking the price getting a quote before they started working on my hair.

The haircut cost me $25USD. I suppose it took so long because they wanted to drag out the service so it seemed more worth the quarter-Benjamin it cost. I was not amused. This haircut cost me 5 times as much and 10 times as long as my usual haircut at my usual barber shop, ironically not more than 200 meters away.

And it looks pretty much the goddamn same as my usual haircut. Which probably took some skill, seeing as they had to remove the exact amount of growth from every strand of hair on my head since my last haircut. With a pair of thinning-out type scissors. Not as easy as it looks.

After some haranguing on my part to Nan, we drove up the street to the Big-5 Sporting Goods, where I purchased my Christmas gift to myself, to be picked up in ten days. Another short drive up the street and we arrived at Nan's dentist's office. Right smack next to the Deja Vu Showgirls strip club.

While Nan was getting up close and personal with some faceless drill-wielding maniac, I sat in the reception wondering whether or not to go next door and get up close and personal with-...well, you know. I was really tempted, as it has been some time since I last darkened the doorstep of such a venue.

But I had already spent all my ready cash during the last stop, so that decision was made for me. No titty for me.

After returning from his life-or-death experience no worse for wear(ma mou't if num'!), Nan and I returned to his abode where he cooked the well know Japanese pizza dish, okonomiyaki.



Opinion of the result varied, though the sauce tasted great.


In other news:

Tomorrow marks the 1 week mark before my first final.
Getting set for finals mode. Will game my heart out tonight.

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