Traffic Falafel & Dead Birds

Monday night, traffic out of the restaurant was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Nate and I drove four blocks and suddenly we were caught in standstill, bumper-to-bumper traffic. So we did the obvious thing and called the falafel place, Oasis Grill, a block away and placed a take-out order. I called, jumped out of the car (unmoving traffic, remember) and sprinted the block to the falafel place. By the time I got back with our two orders of Deluxe Falafel, we had barely moved... but I had learned the cause. We were in four lanes of traffic, which were reduced to two lanes then one without warning. Damn subway construction. But we finally got home and decided to set up the new surround sound stereo system Nate had gotten. It was, of course, 11:30 at night. We didn't go to bed until 12:30 because stereo systems are that much cooler than sleep.

Yesterday was pretty chill. I stayed in back during the lunch rush and made sandwiches. During the ball game rush, someone asked me to recommend a beer. "Sorry, I'm under 21, I have no idea what it tastes like." He winked and me and said, "But I bet you do..." I had no response. Nate and I skedaddled out of there when he got back from a catering event and we decided to cook dinner for Heidi. So I made a salad and roasted a whole chicken. An entire chicken.

Everyone had gone to bed by the time it came out of the oven. So I managed to wrangle it into a couple of tupperware containers and went to bed myself. So the dinner became breakfast.

*sigh*

Love,
Henna

ps. I realize all I do is eat, work and walk dogs... but all I want to do after work is eat. and sleep. pttthhhbt.

Psychosomatic Love and Puppies

Hooboy. I'm sleepy. I'm always sleepy. Work was pretty typical, I gave people food... there were a lot of gluten free orders today. etc. And one dad brought his two year old (I'm guessing on age here) to order a mousetrap sandwich. She had a huge gash on her face and the women sitting behind him looked very concerned. One woman leaned over and asked, "Excuse me, what happened to her face?" She turned right around and explained, "I fell out of my stroller!" She talked to me for a bit about the scab on her face, falling out of the stroller, being hungry for her sandwich... then she knocked over her cup of water. So I gave her a to-go cup and she thanked me. I enjoyed her very much.

I went over to Jeremy's because they were having a 70% off sale on swim suits. Isn't that nice? So I got half of a swim suit for 1.80. COOL RIGHT? MONEY SAVED AND STUFF. After I got back to the restaurant to wait for a ride home, I decided to sit outside to cool off. One of the people who live in the park walked by with their dogs. He had a beautiful white snowball that was probably still a puppy. She stopped her owner and came over to look at me. I moved to pet her, so she jumped a foot in the air. "Would you mind terribly if I let her get to know you? I want to her to meet more people." How am I supposed to turn down an offer to meet a puppy? So I sat there as she tried to eat all of the cheese off my clothes until she put her paw in my hand, sat down, and insisted I pet her. It was adorable.

Heidi and I came home to some dogs desperate for walkies. So we took them down to the BofA and Divisadero. As we were walking, there was a massive crashing noise. I have no idea what happened, but two cars were absolutely decimated... one was thrown back on the sidewalk. No one seemed hurt, but they blocked traffic for a good couple of hours. So we trotted around the spectators (and the thousands of dogs stopped to watch) and plodded up Divisadero. (Do you like my adjectives for "walk"? I'm trying to practice being a thesaurus.) We had a grand ol' time avoiding snack sized pups until we walked into a group of four people.

First of all, one was English. From London.

"Oh. My. God. I love pitbulls! Can I pet her?" As he bent down to pet Stella, the two ladies and the other gentleman descended upon us to shower love upon the dogs. Stella gave everyone's face a thorough cleaning as the girls squealed and took pictures to send to their friends. They wanted to know Tilly's breed ("dog") and were thrilled that they were both rescues, which led to more doggie kisses. Right in the middle of this dog love fest, a man walked up to all of us and asked for a bit of our time (that's a bad way to start any story). He entered a contest for KMEL106 R&B Radio for their Home Turf competition. He was one of the finalists and if his song wins, they play it on the radio on Friday. He showed me how I could vote on my phone. (Link here. Vote for "Psychosomatic Love" by Alejandro Adam) I hope he wins. He was very earnest.

The dog loving crew continued to thank us for adopting the dogs and letting them shower Tilly and Stella with love after Alejandro walked off.. I assume they were bartenders/waiters at the bar we were standing in front of. "Just so you guys know, this bar is very dog friendly, sometimes we have more dogs than people!" Of course, dog friendly means we can't bring ours near there. Shoot. But the British bartender hugged both of us and there was another round of thank yous.

Lots of hugging and dog love tonight.

Love,
Henna

Donuts, Glitter and Visas, OH MY

MY VISA ARRIVED HOME TODAY. YAY! I'm all ready to go to new places and such. HOORAH.

Today was another day off for me, so I decided to do what my mother has been suggesting. I went to Dynamo Donut & Coffee for fun times! It was an adventure because I took two new buses (24 and 48) and went to a part of town I was ENTIRELY unfamiliar with. Which was pretty cool. I almost walked right past Dynamo... but doubled around quickly when I realized I was leaving fantastic donuts behind me. There were happy birthday signs everywhere! I came on the right day for their 4th anniversary/birthday thingymajigger. I ordered two donuts (Maple-Bacon-Apple and Ginger-Orange) and was pleasantly surprised when the guy gave me an extra (Apricot Cardamom) to celebrate their birthday. He told me I should go enjoy this beautiful day on the patio so I did.

It was absolutely charming on their back porch/patio/garden. And I paced myself, so it wouldn't feel like I ate three donuts by myself (even though I did, but whatever). SO I DECIDED TO BRING MORE DONUTS HOME.
I asked the guy to pick me an assortment of four. He gave me six. I love birthdays. (I also bought Tilly and Stella a doggie donut. OM NOM NOM)

When I came home, we gave the dogs their donut and I walked them down Page until Golden Gate Park. There were SO MANY DOGS. It was kind of annoying because Stella and Tilly do not play well with others. It was an ordeal.

We decided that we needed to get out. Except everywhere fun in San Francisco (apparently) is 21+. Ptthhhhbt. But we got an invite to go play some dominos out in the Richmond District with some of Nate's friends. SO AWAY WE WENT. We stopped to get dinner first at Tia Margarita, which was yummy. Then we walked over to Nate's friend's house. (His name is Nate as well.)

Heidi and I found the best thing ever. Well, things to be precise.

Sitting on the sidewalk were never before worn gold flats. GLITTER. SO MUCH GLITTER. And they were sitting next to a book entitled "The New Feminist Agenda". Score. They were just my size. How freakishly awesome is that?

I suck at Dominos.


TODAAAAY (Saturday) was a slow day. It was very slow. But at least I wore my pretty new shoes. Heidi made risotto (corn, zucchini & asparagus) and I prepared the salad (mango, butter lettuce, radicchio, avocado and cucumber). We watched The Artist. It was absolutely lovely. After, we noshed on the plum-cardamom upside-down cake Heidi made.

A good night.

Love,
Henna

Del Popolo!

PIZZZAAAAA. OM NOMNOMNOMONOM.

Last night, THE AMERICAN had a special event, "Pitchers & Pizzas" with the Del Popolo food truck. It was insane. We were in charge of drinks and the truck was in charge of food. But just to show you how crazy things were. Del Popolo had a line wrapped around the corner for almost the ENTIRE four hours. We sold almost ALL of the beer we had (12 kegs). In four hours. I was manning the inside taps and non-alcoholic beverages. So much beer.

The pizza is fantastic. Eat it up. We finished cleaning up inside the restaurant around 10:30 and Nate and I drove Melanie home to Sunset. Then we got Micky D's. It was surprisingly awesome at 12:30 in the morning.

I woke up late. I was so tired.

Love,
Henna

I'll Dream of You

Heidi and Nate got back all safe and sound last night. I was very worried because I hadn't gotten any texts from them (turns out my phone had been hoarding 30-odd texts and send them tonight). So I was getting a bit worried and decided to stay up, cook dinner, and furiously read my book (1Q84).

I made catfish.

Mmm. Chewy.

Today was a typical day at work. Food. Served it and all that jazz. Until 2:53 (or something)... anyway. Hella close to when we close.

A couple of dudes, older dudes. They ordered their food and the younger dude (still old) told me I was beautiful. Whatever, that's cool and all. He comes in later to bus some cups from his table and called me "a beautiful thing". Ooooh, thank you. I'm a creature now. 

THEN. AND THEN. He brought one last thing in, told me I was so beautiful (third time's the charm, I guess...) and then told me that he'd dream of me. (eyaaaaaaaagh). Then he gave me twenty dollars. "This is just for you sweetheart, for you and your smile."

Well, first thought was ew. But hey, money is money.

Heidi and I ordered take out from the new Chinese place in the Lower Haight, Wonderland. It was some pretty decent food.

And now we're watching True Blood. Hoorah

Love,

Henna

Fingerprints?

I have cuts all over my fingers. I don't know how they got there, but they're there. And there's a cut on my wrist. From my watch. Another gash thing in the crook of my arm because I dragged the sharp end of the cheddar bin (20 lbs of cheddar). Good thing I've already been fingerprinted, amiright?

Today was so much nicer than the two-marathon-plus-baseball-game-crowd-line-out-the-door-all-day. Mostly, I think, because it was a Sunday. People are so much nicer on Sundays. Or maybe I'm making that up because I'm so gosh darned tired from yesterday that someone could have been yelling at me and I would have just seen daisies everywhere instead. Or something. A man told me I had an infectious smile. "When you smile, it makes me smile. It is very nice." Then another guy told me I had pretty eyes... but I'm pretty sure he stumbled in from the bar across the street... so.

I spent most of the day on register, which I enjoy because I get to smile and be generally pleasant all day. Then I can go home and feel justified in my cynicism and general hatred for the people around me. Ahhh, it's so nice when that happens. There was a very lovely family that came in to the restaurant. They were visiting from Virginia and had found the restaurant featured on a website all about what to do if you only had one day in San Francisco. Another couple came in and ordered a couple sandwiches. They were totally adorable in their preppy, pastel clothing. Pastel is such a nice change from the orange and black sea that is the Giants Crowd. I translated the couple's name tag slogan from the French correctly and they were very surprised. "YOU SPEAK GERMAN?" Wait. That makes no sense. I totally meant French. But the sentiment is the same. I mean. preserve our hearts is NOT difficult. But I got to look all impressive and stuff.

Dinner was good.

I made sizzling sesame steak.

COOOOOKING.

Raw, Marinating Beef

Finished product!

Love,

Henna

I. Am. Exhausted.

You know those terrible days that are so busy you just want to curl up and hide underneath the register? Yea. That was today. A line starting at 10AM and not ending until we closed. And we were understaffed and hooof.

So I got home, walked the dog and made dinner. But the first picture is my breakfast.

Biscuit with a fried egg inside.

I found a good recipe for corn tonight. Put 1/4 cup of sugar into a pot of water, boil corn in it for 3 minutes. Voila.

Love,

Henna