On awkward moments and adorable old people

"I didn't really want to tell you about it before but... well, you signed the contract so you're ours now!" Shan exclaimed while telling me about the slightly sketchy stuff that goes on at work. Nothing unsafe or unsanitary of course, but it still felt a little bit like I was being let in on this big covert operation. I'm one of them now. The restaurant crew. Not the coolest of gangs if we're talking street cred or influence I guess, but I kinda like it. I was given roasted marshmallows by one of the female cooks yesterday. I felt accepted.

Marshmallows of friendship.

I even got a smile out of constantly-pissed-looking Bata, which while awkward was nice proof that my niceness regime is beginning to pay off. I didn't have much to do and was standing around daydreaming, and for some reason my eyes just kinda lazily got stuck on him while I was thinking about nothing in particular, at which point he broke into a really warm smile and I probably went red all the way down to my toes and hurriedly got back to work. Awkward. I have to learn to not randomly stare at things that move when I'm thinking, as these things more often than not are people. At least he smiled and didn't seem to think that I was annoying or anything. That was nice. Project Friendship is winning ground.

Even though I really enjoy it, it feels like a bit of a down-trade to go from architecture to waitress-ing, status-wise. "I'm studying architecture" sounds a whole lot more intellectual than "I work at a Japanese restaurant", but what the hell. I think I might be happier working at this restaurant than I was in Architecture school. Architecture's awesome, Architecture school not so much. I ran into a guy I used to have a bit of a thing with yesterday while on my way to work, and got to talking about the usual 'what are you up to' meaningless bullshit. "Hey, don't you normally hang out around the Architecture school? Are you finished already?" he asked, and then you kinda have to go into the whole 'Yeah, I'm taking a break right now to work but I'll be back to do my Masters degree later' speech, and if you don't want to venture into the whole mental breakdown territory, it's hard for people to get why you're not doing an internship or something instead of waiting tables.

Waiting tables comes with a whole lot of perks though, and one of these perks is the cute old Japanese gentlemen that are friends with Karate Husband and come to visit the restaurant from time to time. They're always very kind and friendly, asking how I am and giving me compliments, and super courteous to boot. It's like having a bunch of your granddads-from-another-mother come over to have their granddad get-togethers at the restaurant. You can't help but think they're adorable and smile broadly at them every time you pass their table. In Japan you can apparently rent your own middle-aged man (Ossan) at a surprisingly cheap hourly fee, but I'm beginning to wish it was possible to rent yourself a granddad (Ojii-chan). My paternal granddad died when my dad was seventeen, and my maternal granddad died when I was around two, so I've lived my life 'adopting' grandparents left and right. I think I have around eight adopted grandparents in Toronto. I love old people. I always have. They've been nothing but nice to me all my life. My Toronto grandparents all used to babysit me when I was small, and I'd even have a separate birthday party for all my grandparent friends. Dad always told me that 'Blood is not thicker than water. There are people out there totally unrelated to you that can be as close or closer than any family member can', and I like that way of thinking. Maybe renting them is taking it a step too far though.