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I was IM’ing with Amabelle this morning as I was working on my Vienna Teng recap from Saturday night. She asked me what I was planning on doing today other than the web site. I replied, “To be honest, nothing. I have been on a whirlwind of activities for the past three days. Unless someone comes down to my area to hang out, I’m staying at home.”

Around 1:30 pm, I was getting hungry, so I decided to make myself some yummy fried rice. 30 minutes later, I was sitting down at my desk, stuffing my latest creation in my mouth when the phone rang. Earlier in the day, I noticed that Eric’s IM Presence said that he was in the South Bay, so I naturally assumed it was him. When I looked at the CallerID, however, I realized that it was a different number, one I didn’t recognize. I picked up the phone and said my typical, “Adam here…”

Turns out it was Rae Chang. I originally had met Rae at the Sze Sisters’ Fourth of July BBQ at the Pacifica State Beach. I recall that thinking to myself, “Cool, an artist!” when I met her. I’ve been meeting a lot of musicians lately — hanging out with Eric and Amabelle can do that — so it was refreshing to meet someone whose background was in the visual, as opposed to musical, arts.

It turns out that Rae just happened to be in the area, having driven down from Oakland earlier in the weekend. She came on by my place around 5:00 pm and we spent the next few hours talking about all this random stuff: Star Wars trivia, DV movie-making, wushu and art analysis. I took out my neglected art portfolio and showed her some of my work. It was fun to have an artist interpret my work. Artists are generally more perceptive when it comes to analyzing and visual work, just like musicians are more attuned to aural information. I let Rae take a crack at interpreting my Virtue Wheel piece, and she didn’t do that badly, 3 out of 8 with one pair of flip-flops.

We were getting hungry around 8:30 pm, so we drove on over to Pho Hoa, my current restaurant of choice when I’m down at Castro Street (next to Lucy’s Teahouse, but it’s closed on Sundays). I ordered my usual: #45, large, no cilantro, along with an iced milk coffee. Rae forgot to hold the cilantro with her dish and suffered just a bit. Ah, another person who, as Eric says, “can’t appreciate the fine taste of cilantro!”

The food was decent, though there weren’t enough tendons in my soup. Tendons might sound like a digusting thing to eat, but they’re actually quite good. Chewy and tender, they melt in your mouth. They are certainly better to eat than those creatures from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! From those beetles to the snakes to the chilled monkey brains, I think I’ll stick with my tendons and flank steak pho!

Although I enjoy going to big social events, I prefer one-on-one encounters. They’re better because you have the opportunity to spend the time concentrating on one person. You learn a lot more about someone when you’re not thinking about the next person that you’re going to meet or the next little snack you’re going to eat (hey, that rhymes!). I was laughing and smiling so much from our conversation — the things that we had in common and the things that we differed — that I was getting light-headed at the restaurant!

I wasn’t planning on being with anyone but myself Sunday, but I’m definitely glad that my plans changed. Hanging out with Rae was a nice way to end the weekend. Great conversation filled with laughter and insight sure beats sitting at home waiting for night to fall and sleep to arrive!

Il est 3h38 maintenant. Après avoir écrit cinq “photojournals” dans quatres jours, je suis crèvé de fatique. Il faut que je me couches immédiatement. Je voudrais faire la grasse matinée demain matin, mais il je dois me réveiller tôt le matin pour une téléconference à 9h00. Zut! Tant pis pour moi!