Last Weekend

So sorry for the lack of updates. I think part of the problem was that last weekend was kind of crazy, and so I've felt a bit behind ever since. Last weekend:

Friday night we went out with one of my favorite friends, let's call him Kami-tsukae, because he is an absolute origami master. He deserves his own post, so more on him later. But anyway, we went out for pizza and beer and a whole lot of talking. It's hard to even say all the great things about Kami-tsukae, but at the same time he's a troubled soul. Being a philosopher (one of PoB's classmates, originally), he has the knack of abstracting his own problems into philosophical positions. You might say this isn't such a good thing to do, but it does enable one to talk about personal things without actually getting into personal details. Good for us over-intellectualized academic types. We have decided that the three of us our going to do "Bible-study"--more on this soon!

Saturday night, we were invited to a banquet in Chinatown. It was a fund-raising banquet for the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago ("the midwest's only Chinese-American museum!"), and I believe it was a $100/plate type dinner. Pocket of Bolts and I were invited (as in, we didn't pay) through a connection with my work. I managed to get us a ride with some other people, and PoB was very patient as I chattered away with them in Chinese. Indeed, he was overall a 5 star boyfriend that night. It's impossible than anything could have been less vegetarian friendly than the meal we ate (Cantonese food), so he'd decided in advance that'd he'd be willing to be an omnivore for one day. (He liked the duck and beef, but was less keen on the squid!)

There was also a lion dance (I'll update with photos if I can get them off my phone), and some live music. The bands they had engaged to provide the music kept urging people to dance. Sure the place had a nice dance-floor, but who's going a rich, shy Chinese person to go out and dance in a brightly lit room with several hundred other rich, shy Chinese people watching them? It just wasn't happening. Finally, a very distinguished looking middle-aged couple took the floor and it was about all I could stand. I persuaded PoB to come out onto the floor too, despite his insistence that he wasn't sure what to do. I told him we'd fake it. And so we did. Now tell me, am I or am I not actually marrying Prince Charming!? Because what was his comment when we and just one other couple were determinedly faking an ability to dance under bright lights in front of several hundred rich, shy Chinese people? He said to me, "You're fun!"

Because isn't it fun to step up and be a star when no one else is willing to? Isn't that the meaning of seizing the day?