SF
Met up with Fred, Ivan, Mikio, and Danica last night. Got home at close to 5am.
Wow, SF is kinda cool. Grace drove the entire night, and since she is a size zero - 95 lbs, and a cheap date, she got hammered on 1 drink. But before that, we had great food @ Paragon, 
near South Beach, (SBC Ball Park) where the neighborhood is absolutely happening.
Nice apt, view of bay bridge, ball park, gourmet food, etc. Apparently the aptments there are now 500-600K USD. I am still not on US$ scale at the moment, really only wishing to live my life in RMB. ( no really, the denial is weird.) Down payment for a 600K place is about 120K which is approx 1 mil RMB. (Strange how I convert everything back to the currency which currently comes into my bank acct the most).
So food and drinks at the Paragon , on Townsend, was good, if not expensive. We ended up going to a element party @ the Westin St. Francis. Lots of security, good DJ, all asians that was about 600 people. 25 USD cover @ 600 ppl is 15k max. 6 USD drinks @ approx 1200 drinks is 7.2k USD. Cost of Venue, Security, and Drink/ Split with St Francis nets them about 8K? to be split among 2-4 guys. Guys walking around with Clip boards, reminds me alot of our guys in Shanghai. Guess, it’s still a way to make a living. In SF, 3-6 of these larger events happen during the weekend, but there is still large enough of a crowd.
Did see Danica’s x-fiance at the event. He is suppose to be moving to Shanghai with a law firm called Sherman? Pretty sure that guy is not over her yet, because he was definitely a bit pent up around us. Sigh, I guess that’s how it is when a ring is given, but end up not tying the knot. Hope, I don’t ever have to walk that particular road.
We ended up at a classic diner Mels on Gerry near Japan Town, and had another low carb, high protein diet @ 3:30 in the morning. Ivan and Grace were locked in a fast shooting , who can talk more shit contest, and neither really wanted to back it up. Fun to watch.
Been having some crank candid conversations with Grace, on just about everything. Known her since she was yeah tall, and spunky. She’s still a shit talker with a I don’t give a f**k attitude, but a sweet and intelligent one. Danica and her hit it off well, which I am happy about. The two have enough in common to chat about life, and for whatever reason, they actually look alike, at least to security checking ID with a flashlight.
Why I have connected for so long with Grace, must be some sort of weird cosmic thing, because I really only see her once every blue moon. It’s consistently in very condensed doses, and always based more on the conversation then anything else. I been a listener and good friend, although in the last 7 years, she has sort of been my driver/ body guard to keep me in check when I get back from Shanghai with my jaded prospectives. A wise cracking, and slightly naughty Kato, and me, sort of the Alfred/ Bruce with a sorted past, and slight dark sides. She calls that the Shanghai Tony. Other times she is the maternal parol officer who really wanted to be a social worker, and looks like Alley McBel but must carry on Lucy Lu’s legacy.
This time back, she has got some big rock on her finger. Guess , I can’t really be surprised, because it is about that age, and her boyfriend is a good man. (Pretty certain, Grace is a good judge of character). Looks like she is about to walk off into the sunset and start the next phase of her life, and I have got to say that it is exciting.
Wonder how little Lainny will walk? and if I will witness it in person.
Tony
