i went down to eagle rock for a business meeting of sorts with hiroshi, the president of the yosc to show him the rough draft of the second layout idea i have for the web site plus to discuss web site and yosc stuff in general. we wouldn't have much time to chat to begin with and were debating between two restaurants as to where to have our lunch meeting. i was skeptical with his choice of blue hen, an organic restaurant mainly because i saw their menu and they only have 2-3 dishes that are potential meals for me. i was also skeptical of fatty's & co., the vegetarian restaurant a few blocks away because of the reviews i have read about them having odd hours (more like when they feel like it) and they didn't answer when i phoned during business hours to confirm that they are open. we decided to stop by fatty's first and if they're closed then we'll just go on down the street to the blue hen.

i hauled ass to make sure i was at fatty's on time. luckily i didn't get pulled over for speeding and was able to find parking right away that i made it just on time. i secured a table, ordered some water, and waited. and waited. talked to hiroshi and he was running late, but almost there (just getting off the freeway, etc.) so i ordered food for us. when he finally showed up, he said it took him 10 minutes to find parking which i can believe 'cos only street parking is available and it's tight. anyway, i pulled out my laptop and quickly showed him the new look. he liked it. we were pretty much done discussing it and i was about to put the laptop away anyway when a waitress brought our food to us (not the same waitress who i had been dealing with so far). this waitress informed us in a gruff manner that the restaurant has a no laptop policy (no signs anywhere regarding this) and started to put our food on the table. i said sorry and was pulling my laptop away from the table, (from this point on, imagine this in slow motion), as she was putting the food down (french toast for me and a veggie blt for hiroshi) but didn't quite have balance. the syrup was spilling on the table everywhere because she had no balance and it got the edge of my laptop, (slow motion mental freak out). i died inside. if it got on the display or on the keys, i could've killed her right there. fortunately for me it was just the very edge and i was able to clean it off. but that machine costs a lot of money and no matter what your restaurant policy is, you should politely inform patrons of the policy AND PLACE SIGNS if they are violating it. you should never get pissed and spill food like that! up until that point, the staff had not been friendly to begin with and this was plain rude. hiroshi got very upset and told our waitress when she came by about it and she didn't give a shit. neither of us will ever go there again.

on my drive back home i made some phone calls and decided to hang out with nopalita so i rerouted my course over to her area. normally i am terrible at driving in her area. i only know how to get to her house, that's it. if i have to go anywhere else or approach her house from a different path than i always taken, then i am utterly lost. luckily cell phones exist and reception was decent enough that i was able to get directions to her place coming from a different direction. she was hungry and even though i sorta just ate, i was hungry enough too so we headed down to teashaker, for which i always need directions. since i didn't have twiddle thumbs in the car as a crutch and nopalita gave directions, i think i might be able to get there on my own now. ^_^

there's just something about teashaker's food, in particular the chicken nugget appetizer and thai iced tea with boba. i don't like everything on the menu, but when i crave those two items i crave them intensely. once i think about, i cannot stop thinking about it until i eat them. it's really that intense. i wonder what they put in them, heroin? so we ordered those items and i'm having a bad restaurant day so of course the waitress gives me the thai iced tea without boba. you know what, i'm too worked up over the laptop-syrup incident to bother to ask for boba, but if the bill comes with boba on it, you can be sure i'll bitch. luckily for her, boba is not on the bill.

on my drive over to nopalita's, i pass by a sign on the freeway for one of the california missions. i contemplate going there. i have a certain fondness for california history and the missions in particular. in school they taught that the missions are built 1 day's walk apart. it's my romantic notion to walk to each mission but i bet with modern roads there is no longer such a direct walking path and it would take longer than 1 day to each mission. perhaps bicycling or driving if one is in a hurry or wants to include the missions on a road trip. as we finish our meal, we ponder our possible choices for the next activity of the day. nopalita suggests going to the san gabriel mission. a white light shine for i was thinking the same thing. next thing you know, i'm back on the same freeway heading to the mission.

we follow the signs to the mission district of san gabriel. we park and look around the mission playhouse (civic auditorium) area but it is dead. there is a small museum dedicated to california history across the street but we decide not to go in there. we decide to drive around to find the mission. (like idiots we don't realize that we passed the mission when we parked to go to the playhouse.) we park just behind the playhouse in the auditorium/public parking lot. next door is a historical house and a small museum dedicated to local history. we decide to go to the museum and we are greeted before we even walk in. two elderly ladies are the volunteers for the day. they seem happy to greet us, as if no one ever visits anymore. we don't tell them that we didn't plan on going here today as it would ruin their day. we find out that the museum is only open on the first saturday of the month. damn we have good timing--perhaps some high force was directing us here. we wander around and look at the items which are mostly household things from the first half of the 20th century. then we are given a tour of the house next door which kind of gives us the creeps. we ask one of the volunteers about the mission and they point us in the general direction.

we drive over there and don't see anything so we turn around. i am at the intersection of where we parked when we first got here. i see the same sign i saw last time for some mission church and it finally clicks in my head that this must be the new mission church so the old mission church must be next to it or behind it. the volunteer said that the entrance is still the original. i decide to park and we walk over to find this entrance. ah, we found it, the san gabriel arcangel mission! the entrance is not spectacular, too plain to bother taking a photo of. we notice the mission parking lot--damn we could've parked here! how did we miss the mission the first time? i suppose because there is not a large sign and it is on a curved street that we missed it the first time.

we enter the gift shop and it is filled through the roof with catholic trinkets for sale. no wonder the catholic church is so rich--they have more merchandise than all the star wars films combined. i never really understood the mentality to buy all these saint trinkets and i didn't gain any understanding while i was in the gift shop. perhaps i should photocopy passages from the bible about 'no other gods before me' and 'not making images' and leave it behind in catholic places. yeah, that will go over real well. while i'm at it, i should also leave copies of those flyers peta sent to me about christians should be vegetarians.

mission san gabriel arcangel

entrance to the mission for adults (around ages 12-17, can't recall the exact starting age) was $5. i never carry much cash and embarrassingly didn't have even $5 on me so nopalita had to shell out for me. nopalita asked for entrance for 2 and the lady at the counter actually questioned her back, "2 adults?", and nopalita had to confirm this. damn, are you saying you think one of us could pass for child's fare? one of us really looks under 17? or are you saying that one of us looks like a senior citizen? perhaps it's some protocol issue that one must confirm but i've never experienced that anywhere except for when i was young and i read that there was a military discount for some place so i was standing next to my mom and jokingly said that i could get in cheaper because i'm in the military. the lady at the counter then actually said something like, "so 2 adults and 1 military?" i was obviously too young to be in the military but the idiot believed my joke. c'mon! i was like 12!

iconography everywhere

walking around the mission grounds, it wasn't crowded, quiet, eerie yet peaceful. there were models for all of the california missions so i took a look at the santa cruz one since the original no longer exists. there was a cemetery and vats for making soap and tallow. there was a sacristy room (don't ask me, i'm not catholic, i think it's like the backstage area of the church) that was pretty boring and then this other room which was filled with paintings and had on display 2 rooms to show you what priest quarters were like--definitely not a comfortable bed nor an appealing room. some of the paintings were damaged with holes/tears in the canvas. there were articles posted on ishi, the last native. i haven't heard about ishi in a long time. i think should learn about him as soon as i get my library card. i really need to read more often and take it upon myself to continue lifelong learning now that i am not in school.

cemetery at the mission--note: no balloons!