HeyChristine.com

Wednesday, November 8th

A new Italian restaurant to add to our Yellow Pages...

I had dinner last night with Mike L., Acer Ginny and Patty for Mike's REAL birthday at a new Italian restaurant called Amaroni's Little Italy, where the old Star Canyon used to be. Smaller groups are always a lot more fun. Or maybe it was because it was us three girls and Mike, which of course made things far more exciting.

Anyway, the food isn't too bad (although Ginny would beg to differ) but the interior design of that restaurant is one of the best I've seen in Western-style restaurants here in Taipei. I really, really liked it and would go there again because of it. Also, it's a family-style Italian restaurant in which you share very large portions. It reminded me of that place we used to go to off of Shady Grove Road back when I lived in D.C. I really miss those days.

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Dinner with the President.

Anyway, Jay came later and joined us for dessert. We were totally trippin' out. First, we couldn't stop calling him "Mr. President" in Chinese. "Zhong tong hao, zhong tong hao". The way he walked into the restaurant all dressed up in his suit and tie with his big politician-like smile was just too funny. And of course during the evening I couldn't help but tell them a little bit about this website and, in particular, about the conversation I had with Bone over the weekend at Mike's "other" birthday party that we had at Hooters.

Patty, Ginny, Mike, me, and the President of Taiwan

More about Bone and our little conversation...

Bone's friend Donnie from good 'ole Alabama had come up to introduce himself, and we instantly bonded because we're both Southerners. Yeehaw! HEY BUDDY! Naturally I directed him to sign-up for my website at oriented dot O --- R --- G. In other words, I spell it out. The reason I do this is because most people expect me to say oriented dot "COM", which is not yet a developed website, so whenever I say oriented dot "ORG", it takes them a few moments to catch on.

Well, Bone, being the person that he is, not only caught on. He also went happy with it.

Bone: "What? Your site is called oriented dot ORGY?"

Donnie (turning to me): "What kind of site is THAT, Christine?"

Me (ignoring Bone): "It's a site for the English-speaking community in Taiwan."

Me (to both of them): "I also own the oriented dot COM url but that's going
to be a regional version of the current dot org site."

Bone: "WHAT? Your regional site is called oriented dot CUM?!"

And that set the stage for a whole lot of hootin' and hollerin' at Hooters. Please note that I do not normally incorporate such FOUL language into my every day vocabulary (please forgive me Dad if you're reading this), but in this case, Bone was cracking me up.

And that conversation, of course, rolled into tonight's conversation. Those guys were trippin' out big time, and in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think, you know what. If all else fails, if there is absolutely no way I can ever convince investors to help me build my glorious Greater China online community, maybe I WILL turn it into a porn site and then sell it off to the highest bidder. I know exactly who could help me do it too. I'll use that money to build something else, dang it.

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Be serious Christine.

Now why in the world am I going off about last night's dinner? Well one, because it was a hoot (no pun intended), and two, because I was so gosh darn busy today. There ain't that much more to tell.

I was trying to throw together something quick and dirty for the Inspiration section of this site, but the more I worked on it, the more I wanted to do. Although a minor, almost insignificant part of the site, I do hope that the quotes I've included will in some way inspire someone else in the way that they've inspired me. I'm just that kind of person.

Also, I almost forgot to mention. As we were leaving the restaurant last night, we were waving down taxis when a young woman with orange hair who was standing near us came up to Jay with a big smile and said in Chinese, "You really DO look like the President!" Jay's response was, "Oh my GOD. I'm gonna get shot one of these days." Here's why.

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