2001-08-13 - 11:41 a.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Cry to Me", from the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack.

So, here I am on my new bike. Notice my steel-toe clunky boots and useless spindly arms:

I like that little Nike swoosh thingie. I think it's from taillights behind the bigass evergreen that is the dark blob in the background.

Poindexter and I waited until evening to go out again, and of course as soon as we left the house it started to rain. So I rode my bike around in the pouring rain until the lightning and thunder started. Drat. I was having fun -- I got into some higher gears, so it was a lot smoother riding -- and didn't want to quit.

Poindexter says I need to practice sharper turns (doing figure eights) and standing up (to deal with obstacles) and then I'll be ready for DIRT! I hope I like riding in the dirt as much as I do empty parking lots.

Unfortunately, with all this rain there is no dirt, only mud. Plus something happened to Poindexter's carburetor, so it may be a while until we get out there again. Just as well, I suppose, since we're going to Florida next weekend to see Poindexter's sister and the nieces, who are down there visiting MIL and Papa.

In the car yesterday I mentioned to Poindexter that I was getting more guy-like by the day. First it was the VW, then guns, now motorcycles. I said, "No wonder I'm also getting so girly, what with perms, makeup, and clothes -- I need to counteract the guy-ness somehow."

Actually I think the girliness has something to do with the fact that I am finally accepting the fact that I am no longer a poor college student. It's okay to spend a little money on girly shit.

Poindexter, btw, thinks I am the cutest thing ever on this bike. You should have seen the goopy expression on his face when he looked at the photos he took of me riding. He's been telling all the family that I am "very good at it" and that he's proud of me, etc.

What IS IT with the Chinese food around here?!

It SUCKS!

There's one halfway-decent restaurant between my office and home that suffices when we have a hankering for Chinese. But there is NOTHING that I've been able to find yet that is on a par even with the CHEAP places (Mr. Chau's ... sigh ...) we used to eat at in San Jose.

Maybe we were spoiled. In San Jose, we had the most marvelous garlic chicken -- the likes of which I've never had anywhere -- on a regular basis at an upscale CHAIN restaurant called House of Cathay. Everything they served there was ten times better than anything I've had here. In northern Virginia, even the highest-rated places -- Peking Gourmet and Fortune, for starters -- are just overly oily and tasteless. What's the DEAL!? What happened to SPICES?!

I suppose it's quite possible that the local folks LIKE their Chinese food that way. This isn't an issue of authenticity, btw -- I have no idea what authentic Chinese food is like -- but a question of HAVING FLAVOR.

We wasted $40 on Friday night on food from the Falls Church Fortune that was borderline inedible. It's really sad. I'm having leftovers for lunch and I am not looking forward to it. At. All.

It's even more aggravating when I know I can get delicious gyros, yogurt/cucumber salad, and tabbouleh for $5.95 at the MALL, for godsakes. What do the Middle Eastern restaurant owners know that the Chinese ones don't?

As I said to Poindexter, "It's hard to fuck up a gyro." Kung pao chicken, on the other hand...

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