a nice stop along the way

{ Food prep in Chinatown, Republic Bar and portrait by Jenny C. }

On sunday, I met my mom & family for early dinner in Chinatown. We were celebrating my brother & sister’s birthday. My oldest brother couldn’t make it because he needed to prepare for his daughter’s birthday party next week. Weak excuse. My family is pretty big so it worked out fine not to have them around. My mom had a great time. Everyone looked great. My brother & I both bought chocolate mousse cake. You can’t have too much chocolate. Afterwards I wanted to go to the Apple store to get an iPod for my brother as a birthday gift but decided that I can always order it online, plus no taxes. I was feeling anxious about tomorrows meeting so I went to work. Jenny was there. She said that Steve had just left. I sat in my chair, turned on my light, looked at my screen and decided not to stay. Jenny was leaving so I walked her down to 14th street. She was a little hungry and I was a little thirsty so I asked her if she wanted to stop into Republic for one drink. We ordered some appetizers at the bar and some Hot cran-apple rum and Roman Cokes. I told her to keep an eye on her bag. The last time I was here with Marina, "vensday," she had her wallet stolen from her bag while we were sitting at the bar. The bastards. Jenny drew a portrait of me in my sketch book. It looks like a corncob pipe in my mouth, but thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's no smoking laws, it's a straw. I kinda look like JFK, Jr.