What Happened To The Beach?

"Would you like a clean towel?"—the girl asked me with a big smile when she was checking me in at the gym, emphasizing on the word "clean." "That would be great!"—I giggled when I replied. I appreciate more about her small effort to bring me smiles than her little humor. I enjoy the tiny little pleasant things when I interact with people around the city. Since people’s attitude can be contiguous, I normally enjoy being around happy people more than grumpy ones. Maybe I am one of those who always see half glass full. Here is another example. On Halloween night, on the bus to Castro, I saw these two cheerful couple who worn fabulous costumes made by that lady. They act like two love birds even they are quite mature in terms of age, and they are definitely happy, so are everybody else on the bus—maybe somebody else could hold a straight face when seeing these couple. I can’t. My mouth was stretching from my left ear all the way to the right ear. Speaking of Halloween, the party is indeed over. Since last year, the City is determined to crash the block party in Castro. They certainly succeeded. The crowd was quite small, if there is any at all. The fun is all gone. Oh, those old good days! Although the Halloween is no longer fun on the street of Castro, luckily, the City still have plenty to offer. For one thing, the weather has been gorgeous like the true summer days. Yesterday morning, I walked to a neighborhood cafe and sat outside on the sidewalk, just like traveling in Europe. I ordered my breakfast under the bright sunshine and the relaxing atmosphere. Then I heard the lady at the next table describing her dog at her feet to her friend: "He is awesome, and he is pain in the ass." I wasn’t sure she likes her dog or not, but I surely liked my egg and green. I think it’s a crime to stay indoors under this kind of weather. Last Sunday, I spent like 5 (if not 6) hours in Marin Headlands. Not only I hiked very long distance, I also baked in the sun lying on the warm sand for a long time, reading a book, among other things. Today, it looked like a carbon copy of last Sunday. I began to repeat the same route, and planned to lie on the beach again. Well, to my surprise, the beach was missing. The giant wave and high tide pulled the spots where I used to lie down into the water. The wave was loud and powerful, as if it is very angry for my taking its spot last week… It’s spectacular! After staring at the tides for awhile, I marched on to the top of the mountain, to see the City on the other side. Suddenly, everything is calm and peaceful again, without any trace of violent waves. The Golden Gate Bridge is just as elegant and fabulous as usual. After each hiking, I am not tired. Instead, I am recharged and exuberant. However, that doesn’t mean that the entire week has been like this beautiful. On Wednesday night, it was quite chilly. I was craving for something warm. Besides, I was in a rush to go to a film screening, naturally a big bowl of noodle came to my mind. Since I had some leftover broth of winter melon, carrots, frozen tofu, tomato, and pork, so I poured it on top of the noodle and garnished with boiled egg, scallions, and jalapeno pepper. That was delicious. I have to cook it again sometimes. Tonight, I cooked some juicy buns (小笼汤包), braised eggplant with black bean garlic sauce (豆豉蒜汁煸茄子), white fish miso soup, Japanese sweet potato 红地瓜. Darn! I think I ate all the calories back after I burned them today during the hiking. And, I also ate so much yesterday after Jason and I cooked dozen dishes. It was a feast. With all these food in my stomach, I hope I will have a good dream tonight, because I have a lot dreams lately. Hello, new week! And, hello November! (Do I really update so infrequently now?)