Xmas day

 Last night I had some sashimi I'd bought at H Mart, plus plenty of the watery beer. I watched YouTube, drank watery beer, and that was my night. 

I woke up, finally, around 3 in the afternoon. So here we are, Christmas Day. I didn't feel hungover, as there doesn't appear to be enough alcohol in 5% beer to do that to me. But my mouth was dry, and needless to say drinking even weak beer precludes getting any flute practice done. 

I'd far overslept the time to get over to Tom's for the turkey and chicken wings and stuff he was going to grill, along with stuff I was going to bring like some asparagus and zucchini as those grill well. Mushrooms would have been a win too. Plus I'd have had all the Bud Lite I wanted - especially as I was going to bring some beer also. And no doubt be a few bums; "friends" of Tom's and a fair number of food safety violations. It'd have been fun! Meh. 

I got out of here a bit before 4. I stopped by an interesting pile of clothes, donations left as they often are on non-working days, by the Salvation Army on 7th and picked up a pair of sweat pants, more like cold-weather pants, Hurley brand, that look like they might fit just fine. Hey that's about $15 saved and I'd been considering buying another pair. 

After dropping off a bag of trash, I visited the little free libraries and dropped off gallon Ziploc bags full of over-the-counter medications I'd picked up from the EMT training place and packaged up last night. I also found a couple of books I decided to take. 

Next was the 7-11 that's by the Amazon place. There's no non-sketchy 7-11 around here, but I thought I might luck out and I did, and was able to lock my bike outside, go in and buy a $100 money order, and be on my way. For a hot minute the usual aggregation of zombies around the front of the place was not present. It's normally the kind of place where ... I've actually seen a woman lying in the (wet) gutter there as if it were her own beddy-bye. 

That done, I swung by Lee's (closed) and then over to Nijiya. There was a skinny black guy with a lot of bags and junk out front, so I locked my bike up, then went in and got fried fish, eggs, and 3 tall beers. Back outside, I handed one of the beers to the guy, who was now sitting at a table in front of the place next door. I was pretty sure, so I asked him, "Aren't you the guy I gave a dollar to, months ago?" He was, and he said that dollar was exactly something he really needed, and it "carried him through" until his check from "the city" came. 

We talked for a bit, and he told me that he (1) had trouble with people not believing him about things, and (2) that he "played sports", namely basketball and football, for a living. "In earlier years?" I thought, thinking here's some forgotten player from long ago that whatever team he played for maybe ought to give a hand, and he corrected me, No, he plays them now. Pro football. Because of course the pros would just not be fully trained without a guy who at least physically if not chronologically is older than I am, and who might weigh 120lbs after a good meal, to whip them into shape. 

Then came the money. He rummaged around in some package of his or another and had wads of money in there, and in a sort of money-as-cookie-dough way, he tried to give me a sub-wad, of maybe $20 or so. It was for that dollar I'd given him, months ago. I said I was fine, and then he asked if I was Jewish, which I thought might be because I was telling him how to make a really good cup of coffee with just a funnel and "any old jive-ass coffee filter, or even a paper towels works". But it turned out he had several gift cards, and gave me a "Happy Hanukkah" Whole Foods one, that he said has $25 on it. I gave him the last $2 I had on hand in return, and we talked about where various Whole Foods stores are, and on that parted way. I'm to tell them at Whole Foods, to tell them Giovanni sent me, then they'll treat me right. 

The post office is closed tomorrow due to it being a federal holiday. Rain's coming in tomorrow night. I can't go around and mail things and get a postal money order, hence the one from 7-11. What I *can* do tomorrow before it rains is, drop off the $100 for the Dharma Center fund at the temple, and I can go to Whole Foods and see if the gift card is good. That will give me something to do before the rain starts.