Chinese Food

Well, we have a new president.

I hope this means what I think it does.

It's a beautiful day, here. Now I have to get down to business and focus on my coursework. Last night was a lost cause, of course. Jay drove to the airport in the city--2 hours on the road in his radio-less Saab. Ancient Saabs seem to be the vehicle of choice for the genteel liberal poor--have you noticed this? And none of them have radios. Or, they do have radios, but the shady people we purchase them from don't know the code to turn them on. So I had to call him every 15 minutes with updates: "McCain won Kentucky."
"Shit!"
Yesterday was also my online class chat. One of my classmates, whom I met last week during mandatory on-site clinicals, informed me and the rest of the class that I had correctly diagnosed her ear infection. I think if I could just find the time to focus on it, that I might actually be pretty good at this stuff. Last week was just a lost cause. I had too much on my plate. Nick's Tulane application had to be in and we were just crazy getting all the last minute stuff wrapped up. My father is helping, but he's also hindering, too. Some times he calls or comes by 6 or 7 times a day. Hopefully this week will be better, but I don't see how.
Lilly announced that she is going to be an opera singer. She's scheduled herself for Tanglewood auditions in Chicago and has announced she is going to take piano lessons. Lilly just sets off, arranges things, and sends me the bill. Nick requires a lot more pushing. He's like me--always asking for permission.
We should all be like Lilly. Except for the weight. Lilly's losing too much weight. She suggested Chinese on Monday night, before her band practice (Lilly started a funk band. They already have two gigs coming up. They're really good.) We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Kai Min, which is on the second floor of one of the old buildings downtown, across the hall from the community radio station. It's been there forever, and seems to have fallen on hard times recently (they served us on paper plates shaped like footballs) We were the only people there except for two overweight pimply college girls, sitting in a booth by the window. As far as I could tell, the girls weren't talking to each other. The only people running the place seemed to be Chinese teenagers, not the usual owners. No one spoke English. The radio was playing syruppy pop tunes. About 3/4 of the way through the meal, one of the college girls started singing along with the radio (Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas) at the top of her lungs in a strong clear voice, "I hope you know, I hope you knooooowwwwww......that this has nothing to do with you...."
She kept going. Lilly and I stared at each other. Spoons frozen above our egg drop soup. I had hoped that the chinese food would make Lilly want to eat (all that MSG), but she only ate 1/2 of her soup and a crab rangoon, packing up the rest. Well, I thought, at least we'll have dinner tomorrow.
When Lilly was five, and Kai Min was a little classier, we were eating dinner there and our local rock promoter and club owner was in eating dinner with Chrissie Hynde, who was playing a show at the Blue Note that night. She was dressed entirely in black vinyl and had all her eye makeup on. Lilly kept staring at her throughout dinner. At that time in her life, I was letting Lilly dress however she wanted to. I had this theory that it would create confidence and artistic daring and help her deal with whatever flack came her way regarding her cleft. Lilly was attracted to shiny stuff (she wore nothing but glittering ruby red slippers for almost 3 years) and sort of adapted cheap club wear that would trail on the ground. Lame dresses that she would belt with scarves, that sort of thing. This went over okay at the Montessori school she attended in Miami, but in Paloma, we were working on toning her down, and it was a bit of a process.
Lilly kept asking "Who is that beautiful lady?" Finally, in the middle of dinner, Lilly got up from the table, clacked over to Hynde in her ruby slippers and stood at the end of the table.
I was a little worried, because I'd heard stories about how mean Hynde can be to fans (squeezing Kim Deal's breast--remember that story?). Lilly didn't know who she was.
"Hello," Hynde said. "How are you?"
"Hello," Lilly said reverentially. "I just love your outfit."
"Thank you very much."
Lilly smiled and came back to our table.
Ah. Soul Mates always know each other.

That's my 1/2 hour.