It seems that of the few friends I have, they've been dropping out of my life like flies. Jen leaves Lowe's a few weeks ago. Then there was Saturday night with Angela (but that's a bit of self-created drama. I'm sure if I emailed her she'd write back). Now Family Garden has closed, and Ling Ling is moving away. Not only is Ohio losing the best Chinese restaurant this side of Chinatown, I will miss Ling Ling. I called her later that night and asked her if she would like to go out with Caro and me some time before she moves.
BUT! But, but, but... lest we fall into despair, there is a silver lining. A local coffee shop, Night Sky, had business cards for a nearby art studio/gallery, Market Studios North, and noticing on their website that they're open during the week, I stopped in last wednesday. Had a very nice chitchat with the two artists there. They wanted me to come back sometime with my sketches, and although I told them that I suck, they offered to give me a few pointers. Yay! Could these be my bee people?
---
Ling Ling invited me to the restaurant two mondays ago, its last day open. Since I was such a regular customer (and she said that I was her favorite. I am the mack.), Her dad cooked me a free to-go box of General Tso's chicken as well as a huge to-go carton of spring rolls, a bag of beef skewers, two bags of crab rangoons, three handfuls of tea bags, two bottles of pop, and a whole plastic grocery sack full of frozen pork dumplings (because we always ordered them). All for free. She said any food left would just go in the trash anyway. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers in case I find myself visiting New York.
---
Walking out of the grocery last Thursday night, a minivan stopped at the crosswalk as I was going out to my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed it was gold with a red tassle-thingy hanging from the rear-view. I looked up and noticed it was Ling Ling's van. I waved, and through the glare of the headlights I saw a flurry of hands in the windshield. "Andy!" she shouted through the passenger window, so I went over. Some dude I had never seen was driving, and Ling Ling introduced him as her boyfriend. He knew my name. That can't be good. She jumped out and grabbed my hand and trotted away from the van. He started to drive away (as he was in the middle of the lane), and as he did, I shouted "I'm harmless!". I think I heard him shout back "I know!" She mentioned that she was leaving for New York the next night, and we said our final goodbye. Her boyfriend drove around the lot and parked on the curb right behind us. I gave them a good wave goodbye.
It's a slight ego boost to discover that I can induce a spark of jealousy in a hot asian girl's boyfriend. I am the mack.
---
I haven't been back to the Market Studios North yet.
---
Did a recognizeable sketch of Mother-In-Law's friend, but since the pad was sitting an arm's length away, when you look at it straight it's all stretched out, like when they paint "STOP" on the street and it's normal when you're driving and looking at it from an angle, but it's all long and skinny when looked at from the top down. She liked it anyway, so I gave it to her.
BUT! But, but, but... lest we fall into despair, there is a silver lining. A local coffee shop, Night Sky, had business cards for a nearby art studio/gallery, Market Studios North, and noticing on their website that they're open during the week, I stopped in last wednesday. Had a very nice chitchat with the two artists there. They wanted me to come back sometime with my sketches, and although I told them that I suck, they offered to give me a few pointers. Yay! Could these be my bee people?
---
Ling Ling invited me to the restaurant two mondays ago, its last day open. Since I was such a regular customer (and she said that I was her favorite. I am the mack.), Her dad cooked me a free to-go box of General Tso's chicken as well as a huge to-go carton of spring rolls, a bag of beef skewers, two bags of crab rangoons, three handfuls of tea bags, two bottles of pop, and a whole plastic grocery sack full of frozen pork dumplings (because we always ordered them). All for free. She said any food left would just go in the trash anyway. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers in case I find myself visiting New York.
---
Walking out of the grocery last Thursday night, a minivan stopped at the crosswalk as I was going out to my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed it was gold with a red tassle-thingy hanging from the rear-view. I looked up and noticed it was Ling Ling's van. I waved, and through the glare of the headlights I saw a flurry of hands in the windshield. "Andy!" she shouted through the passenger window, so I went over. Some dude I had never seen was driving, and Ling Ling introduced him as her boyfriend. He knew my name. That can't be good. She jumped out and grabbed my hand and trotted away from the van. He started to drive away (as he was in the middle of the lane), and as he did, I shouted "I'm harmless!". I think I heard him shout back "I know!" She mentioned that she was leaving for New York the next night, and we said our final goodbye. Her boyfriend drove around the lot and parked on the curb right behind us. I gave them a good wave goodbye.
It's a slight ego boost to discover that I can induce a spark of jealousy in a hot asian girl's boyfriend. I am the mack.
---
I haven't been back to the Market Studios North yet.
---
Did a recognizeable sketch of Mother-In-Law's friend, but since the pad was sitting an arm's length away, when you look at it straight it's all stretched out, like when they paint "STOP" on the street and it's normal when you're driving and looking at it from an angle, but it's all long and skinny when looked at from the top down. She liked it anyway, so I gave it to her.
posted by Grover at 2/23/2005 04:46:00 PM
4 Comments:
For each friend that leaves, another friend will enter your life.
Good luck with the Market Studios North. The artists seem to be pretty cool, hope you enjoy your pointer sessions. It's always neat hanging out with like minded people.
I'm so proud of your new found self confidence!!!
Right, TG dealt with the art. So I'll deal with the food. A specialist subject of mine... ;)
Argh.
Losing good restaurants is very hard, I hate local restaurants closing down. They are very hard businesses to keep running, so are prone to that. Mind you, the pile of free food would go someway to consuling me.
I had a chat with a mate last night regarding going in to asian restaurants to see the female staff rather than the food. He likes to do that. I said that if a restaurant was good, the staff would barely get noticed by me. I think I'm more interested in food in general anyhow, LOL.
Sad that she's gone though, must be disheartening. Personally, I wouldn't have said "I'm harmless!" - to me that would indicate you wish you weren't. ;)
Part of me wishes I wasn't harmless, but I am (at least somewhat of) a gentleman, and wouldn't think of disrupting others' relationships. I was just reassuring him that my intentions were platonic. Ling Ling was cool. We'd get talking about the Chinese characters next to the English dish names on the menu. She even gave something called "Crazy English", which I guess is a magazine that has english articles, poems, song lyrics, movie excerpts, and their Chinese translations.
And to order cashew chicken, phonetically you would ask for "Yow Hoh Tsee". :-)
Which chinese language did she speak?
Mandarin is practically impossible to pick up non-natively, cantonese isn't much better, LOL. *Especially* for reading, they have over 40,000 pictograms! ;)
We know you're a gentleman, you demonstrate that often.
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