Shells, Ice Skating And Thai Food In The City

At the BART station, a guy around his early to mid 20s approached me, my cousin and brother at the platform. He had a shaggy beard, curly blonde hair with a red flannel shirt and many travelling bags stacked on his hiking backpack. We shall call him "Shaggy." My other cousin that I was meeting up with called me to discuss that night's plans. I was still on the phone when Shaggy asked if we could spare a dime, nickel or quarter. Everyone said no except for me. Talking on the phone with one hand, I fumbled, reached into my pocket with my other hand and grabbed two quarters and a dime. I handed the change to him.

"Thank you." Shaggy says nicely. 

"You're welcome." I say, mid-phone conversation. 

Less than a minute later, he comes up to me again and gives me back the dime.

He says, "I don't think I need this much. Thank you." 

I smile and take it back. The shaggy bearded guy approaches me, in less than a minute again.

"Here you go. Thank you." He passes me back the two other quarters. 

Sooo, at this moment I'm thinking that's all the change I gave him so he really just returned the change and he gets nothing in the end. HMMMM...

I  just laugh and say thank you when Shaggy turns around and approaches me again.

"Hey, here's a shell." He says, with a sweet smile on his face. 

I'm still on the phone but I'm surprised by the token.

"Thank you! A shell! That's so sweet." 

It was so nice.  Now, I'm wondering where the hell this shell is from? Shaggy looked like a traveller (either that or homeless... maybe both, who knows), so it could be from anywhere really. Hmmm, I'd like to imagine that Shaggy recently travelled to Hawaii or the Caribbean and that's where it's from. And does anyone remember that episode of That's So Raven when she accepted a shell from a guy from a foreign country and in his culture, the shell was part of a proposal to marry him?
If that dude just proposed to me, then I guess we're engaged because this shell is lovely. Jaykay, gurl. But it really is nice.

All jokes aside, Why can't people be like this more often? Giving people change and receiving a pretty shell in return... If more people did that, the world would be a nicer place because I can say that the small gesture did make me feel happier. Feeling happier made the rest of my night more fun as well.

Small gestures = big impact.

We met up with my cousins and her boyfriend. We went straight at this place called King of Thai Noodle. Walking in, the first thing I noticed were purple walls with minimal decor and plain silver seating furniture. The ambience of this restaurant was very dry and stale, kind of like a cafeteria painted purple. The wait for our party of six was about 10 minutes and we were seated in the upstairs area.

Purple walls and art work

EVALU-EATIN': Looks like it's time for a restaurant review!

We ordered two orders of pad thai, Kao Prik Sod (sauteed beef with vegetables), chicken satay, Thai-style fried rice with pork and Thai iced teas. The food was not very good. I've definitely had better. Their portions at this restaurant were also pretty small even though all of the orders were a la carte. The chicken satay was in small portions, was dry and overcooked. The pad thai did not deliver in flavor. It also didn't come with the usual lime to mix into it (I LOVE MY LIME... I was throughly disappointed). The Thai-style fried rice was actually very good. The sauteed beef was flavorful, was soaked in lots of sauce and was cooked well.

Chicken satay, pad thai, Thai-style fried rice and a Thai iced tea

 I always try the Thai teas whenever I go to new Thai places. The quality of their Thai tea is what really interests me when it comes to Thai restaurants. It's such a basic beverage that's on every Thai restaurant menu but finds a way to have their own unique taste at every restaurant. It's kind of like searching for the perfect burger at different fast food joints, but instead, it's searching for the tastiest Thai iced tea. Their Thai tea was really good, I think that was my favorite part of the whole meal. My youngest cousin asked what I'd rate the place and i told him I'd give it a 6 out of 10.
After dinner, we decided on ice skating at Union Square. I must say that I was pretty uneasy about skating since I don't really know how to and because of my fear of falling on my ass... but we ended up having a blast!

Things I Learned When Ice Skating at Union Square:

• When my brother skates, he moves his arms like he's swimming through water. Very fun to watch.
• My youngest cousin is bad at ice skating. He fell on his ass several times and later complained of his ass hurting later that night. LOLLL.
• My cousin's boyfriend is a good skater. 
• My cousin that didn't know how to skate at all ended up being a good skater. 
• Boys and younger guys get excited and/or try to show off and end up trying to skate really fast even though they don't even know how to skate properly. 
• Boys and younger guys tend to be the ones who fall on their ass while ice skating. 
• I almost fell and my cousin saved me, so I think we're a pretty good team.

 I always feel like a baby learning to walk when I try to ice skate. I also dislike when people are great skaters and zoom past you like Apolo Ohno and I'm looking like I just shat my pants on the ice. I suppose old people that walk slower feel this way all the time. Life for them must be a constant ice skating rink where they are being overtaken by a ton of Apollo Ohnos.

Damn you, Apolo Ohno. Damn you.

We ended the night by taking photos in a booth and walking around Union Square while everything was closing for the night. We went our separate ways when my cousin and her boyfriend suggested we get off the S.F. streets and hop on BART before the crackheads came out. I was like, "Thanks for the advice. We bouncin'. PEACE." Because my ghetto comes out when I'm in defense mode. Can I just say how much I love my friggin' family? GOOD TIMES.

We really did randomly scream at the same time.

There was a party in that photo booth.

Stay Klassy and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

GOBBLE GOBBLE NOMNOMNOM,

Kris