Ego Slipping At The Gates of Hell

Man, weird day. Unusual Saturday for me as I didn't have the kids. They had an invitation for Disneyland with another family, so I had to drop them off last night after dinner and a bath and then it's just been me since then. I have them tomorrow. Watched Vanishing Point last night, some 5th season Sopranos and Padres game tonight. Today I goofed around the house for a while, sleeping in because I didn't sleep well last night. Finally got up and around and had my car detailed. During the period that was being done, I walked to a sushi place I'd been meaning to try, for a late lunch. I ended up dropping much more money than I ever should for lunch for one, but it was fun. Sushi bars are about the most social places you can find and you naturally end up talking with other patrons at the bar about what they're having, what they like, and the sushi chef will often try to get you to try a specialty. I hadn't had cold sake for many years so I had a small bottle of it (learning it's bad luck to pour it for yourself) and several kinds of nagiri including freshwater eel, which was absolutely delicious. I saw one of the specials was fresh oyster, so I had it both as two small rolls and also on the half shell. On the half shell was really interesting--the chef added smelt roe and topped it all with a quail egg. Pretty decadent, and very tasty.

My waitress was a very nice, pretty girl named Shiho and we chatted a bit. I had her read random selections from the hilarious McSweeney's Book of Lists I'd brought with me, commented on her non-traditional black Chuck Taylors she was wearing for work, and learned she was the chef's daughter and only helped out on the weekends, the rest of the time working as an interior designer in Yorba Linda. The restaurant is near my daughter's dance studio, so maybe I'll try to talk to her again. Actually, it was a very non-carpe diem type of, uh, diem, and I've been mad at myself since. After getting the car I had coffee at Starbucks and read my book, and had some kind of eye contact with another young woman who was working on some sort of project with an Asian guy who looked like he was in high school. I couldn't tell about her--college, hopefully. I should've said something!

Two other female debacles to report:

1) Tonight I texted a friend of my very good friends who moved to Washington. I always got along with this woman at their house and at other social events, and I even briefly thought we might get something going after meeting for drinks once. She's kind of a flirt--goes with the turf as she's a pharmaceutical rep. Anyway, when I texted her tonight I wasn't drunk or trying to rekindle anything. I just wanted some simple social interaction and maybe to arrange another platonic meet-up, you know? But even though I'd given her my info for her phone a couple months ago, clearly she hadn't input it, because she replied to ask who I was. It took a couple replies before it finally clicked for her--I guess my last name probably hadn't come up more than once in the couple years I've known her? Anyway, what a relief she finally put the pieces together--my ego is fragile enough!

2) There was a woman at work I've known a couple years also, though I wouldn't even call her a friend. She's in Marketing and there's not a lot of reason to interact with her, plus she sits by the executives, so you can't visit much, and out of shyness or whatever, we've never had a ton of conversation. And yet, what we've had has been better than pretty much any guy at work could claim. I know she thought I was funny, but that was about it. Anyway, it was the weirdest thing. About a week ago I really started thinking about her more. I sent her an amusing email about her boss, and she replied with a very funny retort, and what can I say? Sharp women really do it for me. But I didn't really get much farther. She's the kind who may or may not reply to an email, and if she does reply, that's about all she'll give you. I even called her on some pretext, and after a minute of chat, she said, "So did you need something, or did you just call to chitchat?" which was clearly a sign she wasn't interested. So, fine, I started to come back down to earth, but hadn't completely given up. But a conference room baby shower on Thursday didn't go well--not that anything happened, just that I felt like I was in high school again longing for the popular girl and she barely acknowledged me. Long story short, the next day, Friday, I knew from a guy I went to a meeting with from Marketing that she was being let go, quite a few hours before it actually happened. I'm not generally a vengeful guy and felt bad about the news, though I knew she was only average at her job and probably not absolutely necessary. Ironically, I presume her duties will be absorbed by her best friend at work, who has been there less than a year. I have been considering writing her a letter to give to this woman to give to the terminated girl, Brianne, telling her to hang in there and that I always thought she had a lot of class and was suited for better than what she was doing. I'm not sure if I will, though. It really would be for a selfless reason and not because I think she would suddenly be into me now, but on the other hand, does she deserve it? It's not like she's ever been that nice to me. She was okay, but I hung in there more because she is really beautiful. So we'll see.