… also known as the Great Hunt for Yeo’s Chrysanthemum Tea…

Earlier Saturday, Brandon and I headed out to Chinatown. He had an errand to run, and since I haven’t stepped foot in Chinatown in about 4 years, I decided to tag along. There was initial confusion about which bus to take through the tunnel at Stockton, but we soon figured that out (It’s either the 30 or the 45, by the way). The tunnel is located right past the Grand Hyatt near Union Square, and from afar, it looks like a huge gaping abyss leading to some faraway light. Its imposing concrete structure didn’t help the Twilight Zone flashbacks I was getting either.

As it turned out, the Twilight Zone might not be such an inappropriate analogy. The bus we were on went through the tunnel, traveled past pedestrians and other vehicles driving in the shadows, and emerged into what seems like a different world. Just imagine the contrast; we went from the climbing skyscrapers of Union Square to the dozens of Chinese mom-and-pop stores littered across the sidewalks in just a matter of minutes. It was like the bus was a time machine, and the tunnel was a matter transporter. Or something like that.
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I had one of those perfect days last Friday, where I did everything I planned to do. That rarely happens with my erratic sleep schedule. Here’s a quick synopsis of Friday’s events, just to show you what my perfect routine would look like:
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Also known as the Tale of Two Intercultural Couples and a White Guy with a Car, with a guest appearance by Steve Jobs. It would make a great TV sitcom, really.

UPDATE: Now with pictures! At end of entry

The cast: Me, Brandon, Jasmeet, Tina, Dan (the guy with the wheels), and the CEO of Apple.

The scene: The grand opening of the Apple store in San Francisco.
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Don’t have much time to report and chat, but here’s a brief summary of yesterday’s events:

Yesterday and today are the dates of the Alternative Press Expo. Brandon and I are there as exhibitors (under the thegeekout.com label). We’re at booth 450.

We had a blast yesterday. Brandon sold 12 of his debut long-form fictional comic, the stereos. We sold a ton of “the stereos” buttons, as well as geek pride buttons and stickers. The geek pride t-shirts made good bank too — we sold 4 of those.

We had a surprise visit from Courtney and her beau. I had no idea she was going to be there, so it was a good surprise. She even bought one of Brandon’s comics! She rocks.

Later on we had dinner at Mel’s. They have low-carb menus! Woo! The marinated chicken was good.

If any of you locals want to drop by later today, feel free. Brandon will also be selling his stuff at his site using some Paypal system, so if you aren’t local, you could still buy them.

Anyway, gotta go! Breakfast time!

I can’t believe I haven’t gone to Trader Joe’s until today. It’s absolutely one of the coolest stores ever. It’s got your organic needs down pat. One of the things I like is that a lot of their produce is already packed up and ready to go, which saves the trouble of picking through a stack of produce to pick out the good ones, since the packaged ones are already good. The poultry and meats look really fresh, and the seafood looks fresh as well. This particular store I went to was missing some things though. I couldn’t find sesame oil, and no cabbage either. So, no cabbage salad tonight I guess (unless I scoot over to the local store here for some). Actually, I don’t feel like cooking at all tonight, but I’ll probably do it anyway.

Back to Trader Joe’s. It’s like the low-carb dieters dream store. Tons of health food stuff, and a lot of low-carb stuff too. I’d say practically everything in the store is organic, and the stuff is not that expensive. They also have these little celery & peanut butter snacks ready to go, as well as (of all things) organic cheese puffs. I have my doubts about those, but whatever works. The store also has quite a bit of gourmet food items like those fancy balsamic vinegars and olive oil. Not bad, really.

Best thing is it’s only 2 blocks from work, so I could just drop in and shop for groceries, and head on home.

PS: I found this article that says buying organic need not break the bank. There’s also a handy list at the bottom that details the produce that are either usually low or high in pesticides.