I've decided that cooking mushrooms is one of my new favorite smells. I just love it. Smells like Benihana's, which smells like special events of my youth. That's where we would go for birthdays and celebrations when we were growing up, and it never gets old. When we visit my dad, he still takes us there - same place we've always gone in NJ, and though my applause for the little tricks the chefs do like flipping shrimp tails into their caps is often just covering my uncomfortable pity for them as I can see how sick and tired they are of pretending to be a circus act when they just want to cook good food, there's nothing like that mushroom broth soup, followed by the ginger dressing salad, and then Hibachi shrimp with all the delightful little sides that perfectly complete the meal. Now there's a run-on sentence.

Anyway, I'm standing there, cooking my onion-mushroom omelette, thinking about how I used to hate mushrooms, and I thought about other things I used to hate. Like pepper. I only recently added pepper into my life, and I do like it, but only in small quantities. So, I pick up the pepper shaker and give it light sprinkle when the cap falls off and the entire content of the pepper shaker drops into the pan completely blanketing every slice of mushroom, every sliver of onion there was. "NNOOOOO..." I scream. It's always funny when you yell out loud when no one else is around. You just don't know what else to do because thinking it doesn't quite hit the spot. I took the veggies out and rinsed them off with water, put them back in the pan and continued cooking. I'll never throw out onions or mushrooms no matter how fucking peppered they are.

One more thing about mushrooms - I don't know when they've gone bad. I mean, mushrooms are fungus, so if they grow a little on them, is it really that bad? I mean, I'm sure it is, but why? Moldy mold. What does it really matter?

Updates: within two days, I saw Ashley Olsen at Urth Cafe and then Aaron Karo at a bar. You know how I feel about the twins, so you could only imagine my excitement, which I of course hid, though I was not too subtle about where I stood and how often I tossed my hair around for another glance. Aaron Karo actually approached me because he said he has read my website. Imagine my horror. I believe I've mentioned here in the past that if Aaron Karo read this site he'd probably hate me because I'm not often that funny, and I definitely don't pay too much attention to my frequent spelling and grammatical errors. Thankfully, he did not insult me or my site, so that put me a little more at ease. Anyway, it was exhilarating to meet the writing wizard in the flesh and be able to tell him that I love his work. I was a little up the ass about it, but who cares - he approached ME, damn it! I don't have to play cool.

I haven't seen Harry Potter yet, and yes, I should be shot. It's a total betrayal to the Wizarding World as I have seen the last two movies on opening night. Now, arguably the best of all five books - I haven't even seen it yet. Sucks.

I'm trying to get used to the world of having a career. I can remember talking to Katie about how she felt when she first started working at her job a couple years back. She talked about how scary it felt, how trapped you can feel. I like my job, but I'm not used to the idea that every day you do the same thing, even if the details change a bit. School never felt like that. Everyday you learn something new, something more to the subject. There's always some new development in social circles. And then you have long ass vacations that are followed by learning BRAND NEW topics altogether. Sometimes I think it would be better to have to enter the work force for two or three years right after high school, and THEN everybody goes to college. You get to appreciate how great learning is again, how wonderful it is to have such little responsibility and flexible hours. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy. I've always craved stability and routine, and I love it just like I thought I would, but I'm 25 and only just growing up in that respect.

There isn't too much else to update. I'm sure there is, but I can't think of anything. Life is as confusing as ever, but stability definitely helps. Don't know where I'm going or where I'll end up, but it's starting to seem like you're always going and you never end up.