Fortune Cookie for Germans

Since a few nights back, some strange noises had irritated my sleep. A sound like "knock-knock" had woken me up a few times each night. The first night, I really thought somebody was at my door. Then, I came to think of mice. Or rats (when I was really desperate.) But later, I figured it must be the giant fridge. It was. Upon closer inspection, I saw the fridge has the same brand like my first walkman had: a Sanyo. So, here we go: sound-producing artefacts. After that riddle had been solved, and after I had turned off the monster, I had the best sleep in a few nights. And then: I woke up to blue skies. The rain had gone. That would be a good day.

I started it at a newly discovered coffee place, Cole Valley Café in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. To a café au lait and another caramel macchiato, I revised an article and also wrote on the dissertation a bit.

Most meaningful today however was meeting Heidi. She has been my ESL professor when I went to College in Ohio. It makes me very happy we are still in touch - not only because she taught me that "v" and "w" should sound different, and not only because she was the one making me write my first American diary (a daily blog in print, if you will). So, we went to Chinatown and had an early dinner at Hunan Home's Restaurant, a place well acknowledged by Zagat, yelp, and alike. And yes, the food was good. It ended with the usual fortune cookies, and I learned that you should offer them to each other, for the luck. So, Heidi offered me this one here: "Be direct, usually one can accomplish more that way." Really? Me, the German - sometimes too direct - girl gets such a cookie? That made me smile. On the day the sun came back.