Mr. Watermelon

I don't think I related the story of Melissa taking me to her favorite earring haunts so that we could stock up on silver goods. She has gotten in good with this one vendor who sells really nice stuff out of a suitcase near Dunhua and calls himself Mr. Watermelon--he even has holographic name cards with his cell phone numbers and the name "Mr. Watermelon" in Chinese--clearly not a trustworthy individual. When Mel called him once she actually had to ask for Mr. Watermelon and when she asked what she should call him from then on, he said "Mr. Watermelon. I would say he was mafia, but what kind of mafia man sits for 10 hours illicitly selling the latest in trendy silver jewelry? Not mafia, definitely illegal...But should we take that out on the jewelry he sells? no, of course not. Anyway, the police were coming down the street at one point and we were in the midst of some serious shopping and negotiation...so we followed him into a building where we fled to a smokey hallway on the 10th floor to complete our transaction. Clearly I should not move to San Diego because the true home of my heart is in South Central Los Angeles, in the GHE-TTO. The fact that Melissa and I followed him without a second thought either indicates something about how stupid we are or about the lengths we are willing to go to for hot jewelry. And I don't know which one would be more pathetic. At this point Jon Nishikawa is groaning to himself and thinking that despite all my highmindedness I'm just like those superficial suburban housewives who end up bitching about their husbands whilst happily using their hard-earned cash to buy frivolous things. oh, I do hope i'm not like that.

Although, on a slightly related tangent, Julia was telling me how much having a wife and children is good for a man doing business, how it adds credibility and stability and normalcy and an implication of morality to them. So really, maybe those wives should be getting paid, not just because of the hardship of raising kids, but because having a family actually does legitimize a business man. why are you doing what you do? why, to support my family, of course. For a man, a family can be a strategic move. That means that they actually use them--they are a prop: throw in some mentions of the wife and kids and you have automatic credibility and common ground. Of course that is not always the case, and hopefully is less the case than more. But still, a case none the less. In that case, those poor prop women really do deserve their share of pay for upkeep.

Today on my way to work I saw my first A-Mei clone. A-Mei is a Taiwanese pop star who recently came out with a new album and she has this very interesting perm/dreadlocks/messy hairstyle. But it works, and today I saw a college student with the exact same hairstyle. seems like it would be hard to replicate, but if Taiwanese people are good at anything, honey, it's imitation!

I have to get to bed because tomorrow I'm going to Linda's grandma's funeral and then to the orphanage and then to dinner to prepare for our 101 climb. Busy day. need rest. love you. i definitely need to blog about getting kidnapped to the Makong tea garden though with my mom. I'll ponder it tomorrow and try to make it a kick ass rendering, although, even dryly relating the facts would be highly amusing in its own right. That's Taiwan.