A teardrop on Valentine's

It's not what you think.

M'bro, a musician, is on a mini-tour at the moment, bouncing around from Hawaii, to Denver, to New Orleans, to Austin...and while in Austin, he decided to drive up to Dallas for a day and surprise Old Man Pops.  That day happened to be Valentine's day, and so born was "The Awesome Family's Valentine's 2011." 

Old Man Pops was pleasantly surprised, though he played it off, according to m'bro:  apparently he just opened the front door and said "oh, hey, you're here?"  I thought it would have been better if m'bro had torn up his clothes, slung mud all over himself, and staggered inside ala "Shaun of the Dead" style, but whatever.  Instead, he bebopped in and they did electronic-y man things all night.

We decided on sushi for Valentine's dinner.  For some reason, m'bro felt like crying and ordered a Teardrop roll.  We've established that I like it hot,  but that doesn't necessarily translate to food.  Usually with Tex-Mex, yes, the spicier the better.  But when it comes to sushi, at least, wasabi ain't my pal.

I had my first experience with sushi while I was in college (remember 8ish years ago when sushi restaurants suddenly appeared everywhere from out of the blue?).  I had no idea what to expect, as this was back in the day when I was a picky eater and afraid to try new foods.  When I saw the green spoonful of what I resembled avocado, I was relieved.  "This won't be so bad," I thought.  Anytime there's avocado, it's got to be good.  My friends felt the element of surprise would fare better than their warnings.  I.e., my head exploded.

So, when m'bro tossed around the Teardrop idea, I was hesitant, given my history with the green devil.  Described as "seaweed-wrapped morsel of finely diced, pickled wasabi plant," I just wasn't sold.  Our ever persuasive server told us they didn't have any horseradish, so it couldn't be that bad (snickering all the while he convinced us).  Still not sold, but I eventually agreed.  Time to leave the past behind, right?  And truly, perhaps because I was prepared this time, it actually wasn't that bad.  Sure, there is a moment of sheer panic with your first breath after chewing/swallowing and you feel as if your brain has caught fire through your nose.  And there might have been a millisecond of completely losing any sense of smell...and sight...even hearing, possibly...but after the mild panic attack, complete with flailing arms and whimpering, there was a sort of cleansed feeling, likely attributed to the fact that there were no more tears left to shed.  That, and our taste buds were completely burned off.

Teardroppin' all over the place

Turns out, our server was Korean and from Busan, which is the coastal city I'm targeting to live in.  He was born there and goes back to visit every year.  He shared some info about the city and told me I'd really like it. A nice affirmation.

Then, in my wasabi'd state, I asked the native Korean speaker how he learned the language and whether he had suggestions for Korean Language systems.

Here's hoping I don't have permanent brain damage.
-Katerbait