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sublingua | |||||
| The heart with a mind of its own.(Be present.) | The mind with a heart of its own.(It's past.) | The dream that is your waking life.(Go there now.) | |||
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The Demonic Crush Continues
So to continue the Sushi Crush Episode: Sophistica was so very accomodating as she tried to keep me talking and thereby showcase my good points. But as is always the way when you bring a friend to view the crush, the friend is not the one who is nervous and blushing and unable to finish a coherent sentence. No, the friend, even while accomodatingly trying to engage you in conversation meant to make you look as though you were a suave, well-read, sushi-loving sophisticate, comes off sounding like suave, well-read, sushi-loving Sophistica. But you? You--tongue-tied, nervous, blushing--you come off sounding like you've never done anything even so intellectually challenging as watching Jerry Springer from your La-Z-Boy recliner while sipping Red Bull and vodka from a mason jar. Oh, but what I meant to say is that Soph did get in one good what I would consider bullseye on my behalf without even knowing it: At one point, while she was trying to decide what I should eat (and taking vegetarians to a sushi restaurant can sometimes backfire as they often want to order for you, the sushi-phile, things just for the sheer perverse pleasure of watching you have to eat them, things like, say, quail eggs and Philadelphia rolls in combination), she said, "How about uni? You love uni!" And after the last sushi dinner, when I finished up with uni after asking Aisho-san what his favorite was (yes, uni), it was like, ah, lovely, Sophistica, lovely girl! (And you know how you can sometimes, without having to turn and look at them, feel people looking at you or paying attention without looking at you? Well, I could definitely feel something, some look, from Aisho-san, directed at me.) And so at the end of the meal, as I was wrapping up, Aisho-san asked simply, "Uni?" and of course I said yes and finished up with uni the way he makes it, with avacado and lime. But that was way, way at the end of the meal. There was a lot in between those two events. We seriously sat for almost three hours in front of him, eating and eating and eating and occasionally drinking. The vegetarian x broke the ice when he decided that he would like to be a sushi chef and began pestering Aisho-san with questions. x had us on the floor when Aisho-san said to him, "You'd have to learn about fish," and x said, "Oh, I know about fish," and then proceeded to regale us with a long and hilarious monologue about his supposed fish-based knowledge, which apparently consists entirely of information gleaned from the descriptive cards attached to the fish tanks in the pet department at Wal-Mart. Even the other sushi chefs were laughing. Sophistica was wiping tears away with her napkin, it was that funny. After that I asked Aisho-san how he, being American, came to be a sushi chef. He assured me that he is half-Japanese--his mother is Japanese and his father American (in the military it sounded like)--and that he was born and raised in Japan and went to a Japanese grammar school before his father decided to send him to an American school in Japan. I asked him where in Japan he had grown up and he answered, "Tokyo," but in a way that made it sound that that was something of a convenient answer and that maybe he had learned to say Tokyo when in fact it was a tiny town perhaps ten km from Tokyo that no one who had never been there would have heard of or something. He told us that he had been a sushi chef since '91 (he doesn't look like he's been doing anything continuously except perhaps being weaned from formula since '91--that is, he is cursed or blessed I suppose with a very boyish-looking face, making me think that my original estimate of 26 was a bit low and that his real age is probably closer to or just over 30), and had moved here in '88. He also explained that he studies martial arts (he named the styles or schools he studies) and teaches them as well at a private high school. (Sophistica said later of his job as a teacher, "You know that there's a whole class full of 16-year-old girls who are totally hot for that guy.") It was only after I had received all this information that I asked him his name. He replied, "Max," and I then introduced him to our group, beginning with Max (who was sitting the farthest from me along the bar) by saying, "That's also Max at the end. And that's Sophistica. This is x. And I'm Sublingua." He repeated the names, saying hello. And hearing him say my name at the end of all of that? Oh, well. I think you know the luvst feeling that the crush saying your name brings up. Yum. [Pause to remind myself about the danger of taking too seriously the niceties offered by People Who Are Paid to Be Nice to You.] Okay. So, we ended up talking about sake and he told us about boiler-makers (a shot of sake dropped into a beer--I said, "Budweiser?" and got what would have been, in a less disciplined face, a look of near dismay and the reply, "No. No, a Japanese beer.") and I almost, almost invited him out drinking.... But, okay, so that's enough for now. Max is getting off work and I want to get to the gym early tonight, so I'll finish this up later.
More lies:
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