Food!

It felt really good to come back to Monterey. It’s wierd. Whenever I was in Disrupt, it was always good to finally be done with the trip, and then come back, to my place in Hawaii to relax. But I didn’t like being stuck in Hawaii, nor did I like the job in Hawaii. But it was at least good to be off that trip.

Just last week, I left for L.A., because I had no excuse not to avoid my parents. While I was back, things seemed to be much better between them; it seemed pretty good for the most part. But it sucked that I was stuck at home with nothing to do except watch TV (at least it was Chinese TV) and read the copy of “The Economist” that I bought at San Jose airport before I got back. And whenever my buddies got off work, they were dead tired anyways and didn’t want to do anything. I’ve developed the quirky habit of going out to random places trying to eat good food. Problem is, the food isn’t as good as it used to be when I was a kid growing up. Jackson says it’s because most of the good chefs went off to Las Vegas to make slightly more pay in an environment where they have less expenses. Plus, most of the managers of Chinese restaurants in L.A. tend to work their chefs like dogs. My dad would probably go off with those chefs to Las Vegas, but he knows that his entire paycheck would go to the casinos anyways.

Once again, back to my buddies, they’re not the type to want to spend money and go out. I’m barely lucky enough to get them to go out for some tapioca or Thai Boba tea. Heck, going for some phở is the most expensive and exotic stuff they usually go out for. They’re very pragmatic about staying home and eating food their mothers have cooked for them. While coming back out here to Monterey where my Navy buddies are, it’s always a challenge to try something new at some random restaurant without a care of what the cost is as if every place is a foreign port call (at least we don’t care about the cost until the bill comes, unlike most foreign port calls).

Back in LA, my buddies and I used to talk about world affairs and politics all the time. But recently, we’ve only seriously talked about it once. Maybe it’s because we know our political views so well at this point, that we don’t have to ask each other anymore and we can just read each other’s minds? I don’t know. Getting back here, we immediately went off bashing Republicans and whatnot.

In the end, I know that I’m gonna’ leave here, and so are my Navy buddies. I’d really like to buy a house down in LA some day, if anything for my parents at least. I’d love to go back and bring back the LA I knew (minus the living in the ghetto part, of course).

“Home”.