Chapter 3: Nishimura

Forget what I said about not judging a man by his mole. If you can even get past looking at the darn thing, I'll be proud. But actually, its not the mole itself, but the one very long singular hair growing vertically out of it like a defiant tree branch.
The proud owner of said mocking mole, is a very sweet and otherwise not half bad looking guy. It was all I could do to not yank that sucker right out of his neck, or yell, "Look, an elephant!" and when he looks right, lunge at his next with a very small pair of scissors and snip the shiznit out of that thing. Honestly, who cares what people keep on their necks, faces, bodies or whatever...and this mole is not even big! It's a normal sized pigmented spot on his skin, but the hair produced from it is of overwhelming length. I finally couldn't take it anymore and I asked the guy what the deal was. (In a much nicer way than you are imagining right now, geesh). He told me it meant long life.
A hair.
Growing out of your neck. Out  past the collar and well onto the mid shoulder region.
Nothing could ever entice me to keep a stringly looking protrusion like that, even the promise of long life. Especially if my long life included a long life with THAT HAIR!

 Ok, he's a nice guy, and he likes his mole hair. Go him.

Chapter 3: Nishimura
For the two swift weeks that I worked at Nishimura I made friends with my colleagues, learned new ways of making myself look even more ridiculous than just a pretty gold blouse and black slacks ever could, and I'll miss the management and organization of it. Really, the place is well run, the food orders are neatly taken care of, and I never saw any huge snafus occur. Overall it was a nice break from the break neck of iCafe and the snail's pace of IRD, and I'll always cherish the memory of that uniform.
Chapter closed.

Shang Palace went off to a great start today with a fresh new uniform; management style. I'm in an actual business suit now and I'll be honest...I feel a little empty inside. Where's my lycra/polyester blend blouse and/or badly fitting waitress dress? No ugly colors, no flashy sashes...just a white button down and a black jacket/ pencil skirt combo. I even wear black tights...maybe I'm a shadow this time!
I basically get to follow around the sales team for a week, figure out what they do to get people to show up to the place, and how they make them stay happy returning customers. For the first part of the day, I sat in a private dining room (which are lavishly furnished, complete with an indulgent bejeweled chandelier) and chatted with the sales member Sean. Sean who incidentally happens to have a mole on the side of his neck, is very nice but his enthusiasm for talking wanes at really awkward times.
I rarely run out of things to say. If you know me at all...you know this to be true. But when I'm in a room with one other person I just met, who speaks very little expansive English and is also a little socially disadvantaged I don't freeze up...I trail off. A lot. And say things like, "so....yeah", "it's not bad though..." or "I like it very much yes..." Then there's the looking around the room, scrutinizing a painting so closely you realize you can no longer see a picture just paint strokes...and that's when its acceptable to play dead.
Later when he led me to another PDR and gave me a plate of goodies, I moved past his unfortunate symbol of pride and our awkward exchanges. I sat there munching on mango pancakes and a dim sum hallow fried cupcake thingy, looked around at the room's decor and thought to myself, "Wow...I really need some milk with this." I also was thinking how really ridiculously cushy I have it. People put me in rooms with food in it and turn me loose saying, "Have a taste, and wait a moment I come back". So I sit, eat and reiterate in my head...I have it pretty darn good here.

Folks, I'm not sure if you realize but this week holds a very important date. This week holds a one September 14th, 2012. Its an innocuous date to others, but to you it should mean oh-so-much-more. This date marks exactly two months until I am back in the States, once more in the dear company of friends and family. Have I mentioned time is flying?