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2 I know how to order, how to set the table, how to order ice milk coffee, and how to use chopsticks.
3 I get slightly irritated when restaurants automatically give me a fork.
4 Anybody knows me knows I can move gracefully around a fat bowl of hot pho. I also consider myself a black belt in chopsticks.
5 On Saturday I went into this place up in Millbrae. I sat right down, knew exactly what to order, set my area up, and ordered without looking.
6 This place is especially good because when I order the ice-milk coffee they bring it with the grounds, and with the milk and all.
7 Classic.
8 I usually wait until the end of the meal before I take the grounds off the top, and then I pour the remaining liquid concoction right out of the cup and into the ice. I love watching the coffee travel to the bottom and the cream deserting its way through the clear ice.
9 I then stir it until is is ice cold.
10 It's the crowning glory to a ritual that I understand as well as I understand my shoes.
11 I looked up at the bar area in the restaurant and focused on a live rugby.
12 It doesn't get any better than that.
13 I decided to go on Facebook for a sec, just so I could catch funny posts.
14 I sipped the coffee slowly. It was pure heaven.
15 I got lost in thought. I thought of rugby; I thought of all my students, and how Facebook is what their lives eventually become.
16 Just daydreams and thoughts.
17 There was a sudden commotion. A voice towering over my left ear said,"First you mix cream and coffee, THEN you pour it over the ice." It startled me. Then I thought for a second.
18 "Did I hear that guy right? Did he just tell me how to prepare an ice-milk coffee?"
19 Isn't that like me telling someone how to eat an Oreo?
20 I looked up. The voice came from the waiter. He didn't look unlike the guy who does the cannonball on the DN every couple of days. Here was my mental response:
21 Dude. Thanks. But I can handle this. The only reason you think that is the correct way to enjoy ice-milk coffee is that someone told YOU that.
22 Oreos. Is there a panel of experts out there? Cream first, then cookie? One side, then the other? Or do you just eat the entire thing like a sandwich? Do you drench it in cold milk?
24 Okay I'm calm now.
25 I guess I might have overreacted.
26 Moving On, Part One: I just heard a commercial that had on this guy who claimed that if people used his exercise machine every day, that they could lose forty pounds in four months.
27 Ninth-grade boys who could maintain a non League-of Legends train of thought for more than four hours should avoid this machine.
28 Moving On, Part Two: Could somebody kindly explain to me how Monday got here so fast? Ah yes. I went back in time. I went back to my high school town. I visited Millbrae.
29 Each time I visit Millbrae I drive right through my past. Oh, there are new buildings and stuff, but I don't notice them. I notice the back streets. I notice my old high school from my teenage days, Capuchino HIgh School. Cap rules.
30 I drive past Green Hills, and this small baseball diamond where I'd like to park my car, take out a bat and a softball and see if I could hit a ball over the fence, something I could never do as a youngster.
31 Ah, a Disney drive through my old town. Gorgeous day. A memory play. Pain, laughs, and oddities. And always flavored with a bit of modern angst.
32 Always a fun visit. I'd never want to live in the past, but the ghosts and memories of your town can make you go stone sober. They can also make you laugh and cry.
33 Stuff swirls and turns.
34 A part of me loves the heck out of it.
35 On Saturday I had a little business to do downtown and headed for Peet's Coffee. Inside I saw several people around my age, milling about the place.
36 They chatted about niceties and talked with superficial sighs. Dangling conversations, as a great poet once said.
37 Anybody lookin'?
38 I looked around and wondered if I went to school with any of these walking brooms.
39 I include myself in that mix.
40 A pretty girl walked by and smiled.
41 That made me smile.
42 The sun shone down brightly. Penny Lane played in my head. It always does when I go on such an excursion.
43 It was nice to be home beneath the blue suburban skies.
44 On the corner is a banker in a motor car; the little children laugh at him behind his back.
46 Ah, always.
47 fsaddfjakljddfsdf.
48 Do not go gentle today.
49 Take no prisoners.
50 We'll see you again.
51 Fly low.
52 Peace.
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