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#221 - Adventures!
11/4/2001 @ 1:20 am

Oh, wonderful, joyous, funfilled day!

Actually, it started out kind of oddly. I got up, poked around the internet for a 1/2 hour, then went back to the bedroom to convince Sweetie to wake up and take us to breakfast. This has been our weekend routine for years. This morning as we cuddled, I licked the line of his waist where skin meets underware. He was ticklish. He had to pee. But then he went potty, came back to bed, and still played ticklish when I did it again. Oh, well. His loss.

Then we went out for adventures. Because once we left, there was no coming back until 6pm at the earliest. Because of the damn Husky football game taking place about a mile from our home.

Adventure #1: Find Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme just opened their first store in Washington state over in Issaquah, a 10-15 minute drive away. We did lots of web-research to locate our 2nd destination of the day, but for some reason not the first. We figured that knowing it was in Issaquah was enough. Um, it wasn't. We've seen the traffic back-ups at the highway exit at Issaquah before, so we were prepared for bad traffic. Especially with extra traffic for the Krispy Kreme. We did not expect to be tooling around downtown Issaquah for nearly an hour in traffic just covering a couple of roads. And still not finding it. We finally gave up and lunched at Denny's. We bought a copy of the Eastside Journal & a copy of the Issaquah Press to peruse during lunch, figuring there would be some mention of KK & their ADDRESS. Nope! On to Adventure #2.

Adventure #2: Find Uwajimaya

A really big super-store for Asian foods & gifts. This was the one we researched to death to make doubley sure we knew where it was, even though we had someone's word that it was right across from the bus tunnel entrance in the International District, and we were taking the damn bus. Do we research Krispy Kreme? NO!

Uwajimaya, affectionately referred to as Uwa-Jemima or Uwa-JiMama all day (so many syllables to keep straight!), was RIGHT across the street from the bus tunnel. And it was an Asian girl's dream come true! Mind you, I don't consider my Hawaiian roots Asian, but they might as well be with all the Asian stuff that I found familiar at the store because we had them in Hawaii. It was so much fun! We started in the stationary section (yippie!), moved on to Asian gifts, ending in the Hello Kitty section. I had been wanting to hit Uwajimaya for a couple of years now, since knowing they were a giant store meant they would have a giant Hello Kitty section, right? Eh, wrong. The Sanrio store at Alderwood has twice the selection. *sigh* I didn't get ONE HK item! I did get an Asian-themed coin purse for parking $$ though. Then we went on to groceries.

Because I have been on a mission ever since we went to Hawaii. And you could not find lychee in the grocery stores when we were there. Stupid me, I should have realized that this is EXACTLY the time of year we went to Hawaii, so why would lychee be in season wherever they normally ship it in from to get it to Seattle? Yep, my quest was defeated. No lychee. DAMMIT!! It's a little fruit whose rind is *incredibly* bitter, but the flesh inside, as far as I can remember, tastes kinda like lemonade. Or at least, that's what my 15+ year memory of lychee tastes like. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever have it again!

So we looked over the rest of the food market. We found oddly-squishy rice desserts. At least 3 different lychee flavored canned beverages. And about 20 different Hello Kitty food products! Ever seen those little chinese balls that look like cookies or crackers about the size of a pencil eraser? I got a box of those things, chocolate filled, with hello kitty marked on them and all over the box. Yuck. They're more like crackers than cookies. And they had the biggest fucking live crabs I've ever seen outside of the Asian exhibit at the Aquarium! Then we went on to the bookstore within the place. They had a huge section of Japanese comic books, but they were all shrink-wrapped, so I couldn't tell if they were worth buying just for the pics. I saw a cute little book with love paintings and Shakespeare scenes in Chinese & English. But I didn't buy it.

Adventure #4: see Monsters Inc.
We had a slight detour into the Westlake Mall to check out some shops. And the Anime store that carries a small selection of Sanrio products had a STUFFED MY MELODY! I couldn't believe it! My Melody has been my favorite character since I was about 10 and first discovered Sanrio at Bell, Book & Candle in Hawaii. And I've *never* owned a plush My Melody! Sweetie bought it for me, and I carried it around for the rest of the day. It's the cutest thing!!! Her hood is pink instead of red, but it's a nice pink, almost coral, so it's ok. But I finally have a My Melody! Yaaaaaaaay!!!

So we walked over to the theater and bought tickets at 4:06 for the 4:40 showing of Monsters Inc. Got up to our floor, and saw an already-long line for the showing. Filled with families. Ick. Families with really small children, with the tendency to cry. Double ick. However, we did sit behind munchkins, so the viewing was ok. And all throughout our wait I was playing peek-a-boo with this adorable little 2 year old seated in front of me.

That movie was AMAZING!!! Most people think I'm bizarre, what with my penchant for animated movies, because I thought Toy Story was boring, Antz was horrible, and A Bug's Life was OK. Hell, we still haven't seen Toy Story 2 yet! But this movie was genius! I don't know what it was, but I've been fired up to see this since the trailers first went out. I think it was coz John Goodman's monster was adorable, and so was the little girl. Oh, now I remember: it's the way she calls him "Kitty" and chases after him. Yep, I was a goner! It was the cutest movie ever! Plus, it was pretty funny too. Yay! I already want to go see it again, while it's still in theaters. That's pretty rare for me. We'll see if I manage to drag Sweetie to it though. We really want to see K-Pax before spending money on something we've already seen.

Adventure #5: to actually FIND Krispy Kreme
With directions obtained from Sweetie's work, we were off to Issaquah one more time. And we found it! Of all the retail areas of Issaquah, it was kind of out there, which was why we didn't find it when we were driving around. And when we got there, we thought that the lines that they talked about expecting on the news had died down. But that was just because people had turned off their car lights while they waited.

Ever been in line for a car ferry? This was just like it. I could see at least 6 lanes of cars just SITTING there, with their lights off, waiting for their chance to line up for the drive-thru. And the walk-in line? Holy Fucking Shit! This is why I had said we should wait a month before trying it out. I mean, we've never even had Krispy Kreme before, so it's not like we're really craving it. *sigh* We turned around and vowed to come back in a month. At 2am!!!

Adventure #6: get dinner
Outback or Chinese? Outback or Chinese? Cheeeeeeeeese fries! Sweeeeeeeeet 'n Saaaaaaaur Pork and Duuuuuuuuuuuumplings. We went for Chinese. It *was* an adventure, since we were on the east side, and had no idea where to find Chinese food. Other than the big neon-highlighted place that we saw only AFTER the exit was long gone. But, we finally ended up somewhere in Bellevue, and had quite yummie foods, thank you very much!

Adventure #7: discuss the future
We were driving home, and I said to Sweetie, "You know what the U-Village needs?" (University Village is the outdoor mall right down the street from us - very upscale) He asked, "What?" I said, "A Sanrio store." He said, "You could open one." I was silent for the rest of the trip home. Because I have always said that I will never work in retail. Except to run a flower shop. But I know nothing about flowers. But as soon as he said it, I realized I would be *great* at running a Sanrio or other card/gift shop. Esp. Sanrio, because I know the product so well, I kinda know retail despite not working in sales, and I could easily manage my own store with my bookkeeping skills.

So I checked it out online. Bottom line, if they even pick you - because you don't buy a franchise, you sign an agreement or somesuch to run a store if they deem the location you suggest is adequate - they suggest it will take $155-$260k just to open the store. And to apply? You need $250k to your name, $75k of that in LIQUID CAPITAL. Eeeeeeeeeek! We don't even own a fucking house!

I told all this to Sweetie. He was surprised that I took him seriously. I told him about the flower shop (always a pipe dream for me since I was a girl), and how I could seriously do a Sanrio store or even a Hallmark. But the money. I said that we'd need to own a house, so we could use that as collateral for a loan. He said he'd be willing to do that.

But like everything else, it would need to wait for everything to sort out with his company. I am really feeling like the CEO & owner are selfish bastards. It's just the 3 of them. And Sweetie gets $2k from them a month guaranteed. Then he gets whatever $$ he can pull in from his contracting gig. And if THAT is less than $2k, they make up the difference. So they're letting the contract HE went out to get subsidize his paychecks, so they can draw their paychecks off of his back. Them with their houses and mortgages and cute little families and money to send wives to Paris just to fucking write for 3 months. We were about to start looking at houses, discussing starting a family, and sending me back to school. But all that has to wait now. So *they* can keep their houses and families and trips to Paris.

Do I sound bitter? No. Not in the least. Why should I be bitter just because starting my own business or going back to school would alleviate SO much stress from my life, and I can't do anything like those things, because we have to sit here and wait to see if this works, and in the meantime get screwed by his fucking employers. Nope, I'm not bitter.

Anyway, I'm going to go back into denial-mode now. That's what the weekends are for. To deny that life is shit right now. Eat brownies. Go to movies. Lick your husband.

Sweetie is giddily programming his homemade Tivo. Isn't he adorable?

Here are some of my favorite cuties from Sanrio, most just supporting characters without names. (Most Sanrio characters have little "friends". Hello Kitty has a little bunny that's *not* My Melody. MM has a little, um, bird I think. Kikurin has more hamster buddies. Chococat has a whole Posse of duckies and a bunnie and... something else I think.)

Here's a link to what looks like bio info on every character Sanrio ever made!

Finally, I should have guessed, but did anyone out there know there's not one, but TWO Sanrio theme park??? Puroland and Harmonyland.

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