Join the (Old) Club
Days off, sushi fun and the Big Sister Test
According to my 12-year-old, I am now in the “old people” club, a very unofficial yet real spot in the human timeline. This past week, while riding in the car, she said, almost in a smirking fashion, “Old people. They don’t get jokes anymore.” My eyes were focused on the road as I was driving, but I could see her rolling her eyes in the backseat. Typical pre-teen stuff. I certainly rolled my eyes at my parents when I was 12 and she’s no different. I seesawed between retorting with “Hey, I’m still cool!” and “You’re only as young as you feel, and I feel young, thank you very much!” But that’s not something you say to a 12-year-old; it’s something you say to your kid when she’s 30 and begins her existential crisis journey that some of us (ahem, me) go through when we pass certain decades.
Both of my kids had a four-day weekend thanks to Teachers Planning Days (something I’m always confused about—why do teachers & educators get so many when the rest of us have to request time off?) and I was home with them on Monday. To a certain extent, I try to get my kids out of the house whenever these planning days occur so they don’t spend all day playing iPad or watching TV, but this time, I was out of ideas.
“Why not take them out for sushi?” my husband suggested.
“Uhh…,” was my response. I have a complicated relationship with sushi restaurants. Why? Because it’s where I used to go with my mom back when she was still around. The four of us—me, her, and the kids—went about twice a month, after grocery shopping trips on the weekends. Nothing fancy, just conveyor belt.
In fact, the place we used to go to was dark, dank and the food (as well as the service) were mediocre. But that’s not the point. It was where memories were made. Years before, when Lily was just barely a kindergartener, my mom would take her to this nondescript place tucked away in a corner of a strip mall on Sundays after church and errands. It was her way of giving us some relief as we had a barely two-year-old at the time. Together, the two of them munched on California rolls, slurped miso soup to their hearts’ content and marveled at the crispy mini sesame balls. The rest, shall we say, is history.
Still, I didn’t want to go back to the same place. The memories are still raw for me. So I found a solution that worked for all of us—another conveyor belt sushi just fifteen minutes away from our house called Akira Sushi.
We stopped by for lunch on Monday and being one of the first customers to arrive, had our choice of seats. We sat at the same comfy booth as we had done three months ago and 12 plates and $33 later, we were full. What’s better, the staff were much more attentive.
Making memories is very important as during this meal, it was agreed upon that in the future, should any girl wish to go out with James, they must pass the “Lily test” aka Big Sister Test. It’s a very legitimate test that involves two questions: Does she know all the weird things he does? And if so, does she still want to date him? If the answer is yes to both, then the girl is a keeper.
Somehow, eating sushi and listening to Vietnamese music reinvigorated memories from two months ago when the two of them performed at the Tet (aka New Year’s) performance at school. The songs they danced to with their classmates came back so as soon as we got home, they went straight to YouTube to search for the songs. Then we found ourselves dancing to these ridiculously adorable videos that just makes me want to go back to Vietnam and see all the beautiful sites again.
Until I can do so, I’ll just continue listening to the music. Scroll down for the videos.
Delightful Discoveries of the Week
Every post, I’ll share a few delightful things that totally made my week. Here’s a few this week:
Vị Quê Nhà (James’ song)
I visited many of the shots in the video during my trip to Vietnam last year…and boy, the memories are coming back to me now. It will be a while before we can go back, so in the meantime, I’ll dance along and imagine myself there.
Như Hoa Mùa Xuân (Lily’s song)
Another incredibly catchy tune that’ll inspire you to get up and move your feet. At least, it did for me. Lily danced to this song at her Tet performance at school and it made the local news!
Natalie’s juice (Orchid Island Juice Company)
We got some samples of this juice recently and was surprised to discover that it tasted absolutely delicious. This Florida-based company has a variety of juices that are as flavorful as they are fresh. I went down a rabbit hole and learned that Natalie’s juice, while not sold at every grocery store, has been around for over 30 years, a very impressive feat for a family-owned business!