Step left, around, and together with the right

Today I made Mexican food for a friend and myself and then crushed her at Mariokart Double Dash. She could not understand why victory, without exception, eluded her, and frankly I didn't want to go to the trouble to explain to her that I practically majored in Mariokart in college. I thought it best to humble her quietly, consistently, and relentlessly. The Mexican food, chimichangas, was dang good too, if I do say so myself. Of course I left the room many times in order to spare my friend the after effects (and myself the embarrassment). If there had ever been any danger of defeat, though, a potent secret weapon had I. Fortunately it was never necessary.

After that I had two classes, one with five elementary school girls, the next a private lesson with a rather eccentric young man who knows nearly everything there is to know about major league baseball. He is one of those people that is easy to caricature, even in a second language. I always look forward to our time together. It makes me wonder, though, if he might not be mimicking me to his friends as I do him. Am I a bad person? Yeah, OK.

Next I went to yakiniku (Japanese do-it-yourself bbq) and karaoke. I do these two things so often that I usually don't even mention them. This time I am mentioning them, though for what reason I do not know.

Moving on.... Picture if you will a covered street for pedestrian traffic only, with various and sundry shops on each side--everything from very sexually oriented bars, clubs and video viewing centers to Hello Kitty theme stores. Now on this street imagine thousands of people walking to and fro, on their way to who knows where, talking and minding their own business, trying to avoid bumping into the other people surrounding them. Kind of like the video game Asteroids, but instead of shooting all you can do is dodge. On second thought, more like Frogger. Right, so I have mentioned three video games, actually four, in this posting so far. Yet here I stand; I cannot recant. Anyway, on the street imagine a girl in her twenties with an open guitar case, a mic, amp, and her axe singing away to any who will stop, or for that matter pass, and listen. As she sings one person, and one person only, finally stops to enjoy her musical stylings. This person just happens to be in her sixties or seventies, wearing a white hat and a white surgical mask because she has a cold and wants to protect others from her virus-infected breath. She stops, listens, and before long begins to dance rather conspicuously, Pee Wee's Playhouse style, right in front of the performer; or should I say her fellow performer. For not long after the dance began, the onlookers, myself of course included, increased exponentially. Not only that, but the passersby could not help but rubberneck as they moved on, slowing down noticeably to take in the scene. I captured the whole phenomenon on video with my cell phone, everything from the growing crowd and double takes to the singing, strumming and dancing. It was, I must say, hilarious. It made me wonder what the dancing lady was like forty or fifty years ago. I would have liked to meet her. What am I saying? I would like to meet her now! It is people like her that add that indefinable flavor to the casserole of life. Though I may never be able to truly understand such spicy people, I hope I will always appreciate them. People like her amaze me. Their oddity is simultaneously thought provoking, instructive and unifying. (If you were to accuse me of overanalyzing, you would be in good company.) The most amazing part of all was not, however, the shamelessness of the old lady in a society that is in many ways ruled by shame, but the incomprehensible and commendable ability of the singer to keep from laughing as she performed, with the masked dancing grandma boogeying away two feet in front of her. Very impressive. Perhaps one day I will attach a photo. But probably I will not. Let your mind's eye take you there. Imagine your own grandma. She won't know.