No Valentine's talk. Again, you're welcome.

Man, it feels like forever since I was here to post.

Well, may as well ease myself into it.

Last Friday (or maybe Thursday- the fact that I'm not sure is really getting me... no, yeah, it was Friday.) I was on lunch break, sauntering down Yonge St., when I came upon "Garlic Peper Szechuan Cuisine and Seafood".

I guess that's the name- I'm going by the take out menu right in front of me.

If I'm buying lunch I don't normally get something a little more exotic (to me) for a couple of reasons. There's the fact that if I'm going to be spending money I want to be sure I'll enjoy the food (experimenting with friends means I'll enjoy the experience regardless... so this is when I'm eating alone) and the other big one is that I try to be health conscious pretty much at all times.

That doesn't mean I'll necessarily eat healthy ALL the time, but I am pretty aware of what I'm eating, I know whether or not it's good for me. With chinese food- man, I've got no idea!

But I was in a good mood, I saw their lunch special was $7.50, a 4 "coures" (ah, sorry, I see they misspelled course on their menu) meal of soup; crispy roll (dude, THAT'S what that's called? Crispy roll? Seems too easy..), entree, and rice or noodles.

So pretty much the only thing I knew was okay for me was the steamed rice. Which I could've had fried.

I was seated in front of the window to the street, which I realized was done to promote business- I know that isn't some great realization, but it's something that came to me during lunch- and I had a lovely time. Relaxing, and getting something not as heavy as McDonald's (had McDonalds the day before, it was kinda gross. My stomach rebelled at repeating the performance two days in a row. Oh, but there were these two adorable kids there that kept staring at me while I ate my chicken nuggets... uh, right, back to the chinese place)

(some space for the reading benefit. let's give you a breath)

I got the food really fast, which was something I didn't let myself hope for. The fish soup was... kinda weird. It and the stuff sauce over the entree were interesting, and okay in the proportions I had them in, but I could tell if the meal were much bigger I'd have gotten sick of it.

The roll was good, but come on, that's a roll. Even I knew that was going to be okay. It came with a sweet and sour sauce, the remainder of which I poured on my rice, the covered part of which then sort of became my dessert, tasting awesome as it did.

There was a large painting across the way from me, light colours, storks, paper umbrellas- the kind of thing you'd expect in a chinese restaurant, but still, I liked it.

The table next to mine had this sort of not really couple. This woman who runs her own business and this really big (not with muscle) guy. She talked about how, with the amount of taxes she pays, and the extra work in doing her own book keeping, it doesn't make sense to run your own business. So that's her experience. The guy kept talking about how much of a hypochondriac/"nancy" he is.

Didn't seem the best route to go with impressing his lunch date, but maybe he was doing the self deprecating thing and she was taking it too seriously? That's probably the best case scenario on that one...

I told the proprietor I had a really nice time, and gave a couple bucks tip ("look both ways before crossing the road!"- no, no, I gave money).

***

Last night I went out for my buddy Jimmy's latest stand up show. He was hosting the show with six or seven other performers going up. For the most part they were pretty bad, but when they were terrible I couldn't help but marvel at my friends energy, and his reading of the room between sets. It was like, someone kinda bombed, he'd go up "hey, keep it going for *whatsisname*" clapclapclap and I'd almost feel like the guy leaving the stage deserved the applause.

Uh.. applause? aplause? apple sauce? That's looking weird to me right now. I got it right the first time but... weird.

Heh, usually "weird" looks weird to me. I should probably not think too hard about this.

So my friend killed- it's not easy for him to get a laugh out of me with his set, because I've heard it all before but it never fails, there'll be ONE new joke, or on told in a slightly different way, it'll catch me off guard, and I'll be laughing hard.

I kind of wish I was taking notes during the show, because there were a lot of interesting jokes and storytelling techniques on display that just... need... a little work. There were almost there. Maybe this is true of anything in life, but all the acts were just a hairsbreadth from hilarious. I could tell that with a different delivery, cut a different way, those jokes could've worked.

The first guy was pretty alienating though, sounding (at the most generous) arrogant.

The funniest guy was, hands down, this guy that looked like a crazy homeless guy who had great energy, had no notes, talked fast, was riffing off the (failed) jokes from previous routines. He lost a little steam near the end, but still, great job.

The final act of the night deserves a shout out. I kind of feel like he was disappointed with not getting a lot of laughs during his set- but he had a huge advantage over many of the other acts- he was nice to listen too. He was a good story teller.

He engaged the audience, totally at ease in front of everyone (at least, appearing at ease, which is all we can ask), and seemed really nice.

I had a nice surprise that night, an old friend from high school came out to the show, and I haven't seen him in a couple years.

He's a really cool guy, and back in the days of playing in the band for the school shows, he was one of my favourite things about playing- he's a drummer (well, he's a musician, he doesn't stop at drumming skills) and so I'd have a blast when we'd get to a section that really cooks, I've got my trombone miraculously in the groove, and I'd take a look next to me at my buddy on the drum set going wild, himself smiling and having a blast.

***

Well, anyways, it's Valentine's Day, so I'm going to draw myself a Valentine for humourous purposes. If I actually do it, I'll post it here so you can see the joke.