Like a sitcom?

To the casual observer, Leina's life can be a bit crazy. Sometimes she is scheming, sometimes she is being totally irrational. Like how she drives all over town to find friends who will accept trash that is in excess of the container that the City of San Francisco has allotted her.

Or when she finds herself with multiple houseguests, and give one her bed, one the guest bed, and then sleeps on the couch. And mind you that these houseguests are not old, infirm, or nursing bad backs. Or when she gets invited to a wedding (Leina gets invited to tons of weddings) and then finds out that her friend was not invited to the wedding so when he asks her if she was invited she lies and says she wasn't so he doesn't feel bad. Or when she sets a plant in its pot on the front yard and then doesn't move it for so long that the roots of the plant grow through into the yard and it becomes impossible to uproot it.

The point of this? Leina's life can be much like a sitcom. Like a bad sitcom, because she's zany, but not a caricature of someone who's off the deep end and thereby funny to laugh at. We don't laugh at Leina, we laugh with her.

Jury Duty

Though her blog has not been updated recently, that does not mean that Leina has not been leading a busy life. In fact, last Friday she was called for Jury duty! Like any American, she dreaded the possibility that she would have to serve. But like a good citizen, she went in and answered the questions. They didn't pick her but she had to go back on Monday. Over the weekend she hosted Ernesto and had a grand old time drinking mint julips infused with lemongrass.

Then she went back into jury duty where she informed everyone that she was certain the defendant was innocent. But you haven't heard the evidence, it was protested. Innocent. They said it was going to be a civil trial. It didn't matter, she said. He's innocent. Are you aware that he's not Japanese-American, they said. Leina paused. Still innocent. Probably. And she was dismissed. Hooray!

The biggest news is that Leina just finished her thesis! She finally got the 50 pages that she felt necessary in order to make it a legitimate thesis. Of course it took a bit of playing with the margins and changing the font (God bless Palatino), as well as some dream sequences that probably won't make much sense in the context of elderly spousal Japanese-American caregivers, but she's done!

What Leina Likes

Lately, Leina has been working hard on her thesis. For those of you new to Leina's life, it is on elderly Japanese men who care for their wives. Which is why a story like this is just up Leina's alley. I urge you not to read the story but instead click on the "Listen" button and listen to the radio piece.

Leina dissed her blogographer this weekend because her guest room is in use--Ernesto is up for a few days. We'll be eager to find out what zany things they do.

Crabby

Leina wasn't crabby yesterday--she was generously treating her blogographer, his wife and her roommate Angie, along with semi-interloper John, as they went out for crabs and garlic noodles. Leina drove. The crabs were good. She seranaded them with stories of Dyrch and beanies. And then she got in an argument with Tony as to whether a beanie had a propeller on the top (and they do. Well, sometimes). Then they bought some beer for St. Patrick's Day and drank it while watching recaps of celebrity reality TV on VH1, which is the only channel Leina watches these days. She was asked if she'd tried out her new toilet yet, and she hesitantly confirmed that she had. She was then asked how she liked it, and she replied that it was 'echo-y,' whatever that means.

Thursday, she went to this young progressive get together hosted by the organization that roommate Angie works for, but while she waited for Tony to come she stood in the back of this trendy gallery while people were socializing without taking off her jacket nor uncrossing her arms. And then after Tony came she still didn't uncross her arms for around half an hour.

It should be mentioned that an alternative version of certain events in Leina's life can be found here.

Your industrious author has also learned enough about this blogging to include links that are relative to Leina's life on the left sidebar.

Hosting

Leina is a good host. If you come to her house, she will always make tea. She has many tea sets, though it is uncertain how many of the tea sets in her posession are in the tea serving rotation and how many are trapped on the top shelves of her cabinets, gathering that greasy dust that kitchens that are actually cooked in accumulate over time.

The tea that she will serve you is generally good. However, occasionally she will make you tea but fail to tell you that she is making you tea, and when you are ready to go, you notice a cup of cold tea on the table.

"Was that for me?" you ask, and sure enough, it was.

It's shi shi time

Shi shi is Japanese kiddie talk for "go to the bathroom," and that is what Leina will be doing in her new white porcelain toilet. It was a day of mixed emotions. As the seasons change and the years pass by, one generation leaves us and another is born. The same is true with bathroom fixtures. Leina bid a tearful goodbye to "Old Greenie", but her heart is light in anticipation of a long and happy life with her brand new brightly enameled white fixture.

Old Greenie

sick

Leina is feeling a bit under the weather. She slept until almost 11:00 today, which is quite late for her. Perhaps she has been working too hard. Maybe she picked up a bug from the soil she was digging to plant the rest of her daisies. Maybe she ate too many oysters yesterday in Marin County, home of ample free parking. Or maybe little Dyrch (forgive me for having spelled it incorrectly on previous posts) just wore her out. Leina is in no hurry to have a little one of her own, in part because during her brief babysitting tenure, she resisted the urge to watch Flavor of Love and all TV programs with him, instead providing enriching social activities and similarly stimulating events. Like shopping for toilet paper for her swell new wall-mounted toilet paper holder.

Leina is also without an upstairs toilet. It had been leaking and Angie had thought that she could fix it. At the moment it is partly taken apart but not yet put back together. There's a nut which is really really stuck, that not even Tony was able to remove it.

Oboning it up

Leina, today, went to obon practice. Obon, to the unititiated, is an ancient Japanese dance practiced in San Francisco during certain festivals. In fact, it was at a certain festival of this sort that your narrator (or blogopher, as has been suggested) first met Leina, almost nine years ago. Obon is sort of a cross between contra dancing and the macarena. Sort of.

Leina had grand plans for dinner but they didn't work out. She was going to make turkey wrapped in bacon but she failed due to an unfortunately placed bag of flour. Instead, she boiled some eggs but they were more difficult than expected, and the house has a faint sulfur smell to it at the moment.

Checks and balances

Last weekend, as duly noted in this space, Leina went shopping for new bed supplies.
Perhaps it was not mentioned that Leina was not alone--she went with Erica, her new roommate (and biographer's sister) Angie, and Erica's mother, Mrs. Turner. Leina had fastidiously clipped Bed Bath and Beyond coupons for 20% off from the newspaper and mailings that she'd received over the past few months, and though some were beyond the experation date, she'd been told that the staff always overlooks that (and they did), so she was able to get 20% off all her big ticket items (including the $40 pillow, so in fairness, it was only $32, but it is little--littler than it appeared in the earlier photo).

Mrs Turner, thinking that Leina received 20% off everything, asked Leina to include a simple $25 nonstick frying pan in her purchase. Leina was happy to oblige. A few days later, Mrs Turner realized that she'd never paid Leina for the frying pan, and embarassingly, that Leina did not get 20% off the frypan, either. So she gave her husband (Mr. Turner) a check made out to Leina for the full amount of the frypan, plus tax. Mr. Turner did his duty and passed the check on to Leina.

Did Leina, upon receiving the check, rejoice regarding the reinbursement, and rapidly remit the refund to her checking account? No. Leina, operating on a code of honor unknown in these parts, refused to accept the check. She attempted to return it to Mr. Turner, who wisely held up his hands and said "This is between you two. I'm staying out of this." Did she relent and just accept the check, since there was no logical reason for her not to? Did she tear up the check and send a curt email mentioning that it was her pleasure?

Leina, the good person that she is, drove over to the Turners' house, and hand-returned the check to Mrs. Turner, who was not particularly happy to see her. In fact, Leina went "on the s___ list," according to an email composed the same day by Mrs. Turner.

Nevertheless, Leina was invited over to dinner at the Turners' this evening, where she ate stuffed roast boneless leg of lamb, polenta with black pepper and roasted pears, and bibb salad. Leina brought blueberries. While watching the Oscars and complaining about how Memoirs of a Geisha used a Chinese actress to play a Japanese role, Mrs. Turner was introduced to the blog, and commented, according to Angie, how Tony "has too much time on his hands."

a Saturday

Though she was up well past two o'clock (even waking your biographer to harass him after he'd gone to bed), Leina awoke this morning at 7:15. Though she generally tries to be a good citizen of spaceship Earth, she used Round Up on the weeds in her front yard. It was easier than pulling them, but now she has to wait a few days before she can plant the rest of her pansies. She also installed a new toilet paper holder for her bathroom. Leina's excited about that. Tonight she went to Alpha Bar and drank a cosmopolitan.

Rude Leina

This evening, arond 7:00. Leina described her condition; "I am tired! Tired! Tired! Tired!" Leina picked up little Dirk this morning. It should be reported that Dirk is actually a girl. Funny name for a girl, but who are we to judge? Girls, according to Leina, are much more difficult diapers to change. "So many crevices to clean!" in the words of our protagonist.

So Leina and Dirk went and picked up Noriko for some reason, which meant arriving, waiting two hours, and then picking up Noriko. Then she went to Marin for some reason. Then she went to take little Dirk to the library to hear a story teller. Leina was very rude at the library and rolled her eyes on numerous occasions. Apparently, Leina was not impressed with the animated way that the storyteller told the story. Too much emotion, said she. Auntie Evelyn scolded her, and with good cause.

Leina also went to Bed Bath and Beyond and returned the comforter and featherbed and bought new, more expensive, comforters and featherbeds. d Why Leina needed a featherbed on a $600 mattress could be a good topic for debate. Rest assured that she did not return the duvet, which is the part of the comforter that matches the room.

Alas, she was unable to return her $40 pillow because she'd taken off the tag. Plus, she likes it.