I Am, on the Whole, Stupendous

Last Saturday was quite overcast and cool. David and Lisa came over to meet Hammett, but, fearful, he hopped into the tub and refused to leave it, though they were able to peek in and see him there.

For some reason, Sir Dave didn’t faze Hammett, and I recall that Thelonious liked Sir Dave, too; neither cat liked/likes Tom, which is strange. Perhaps he’s just too big, with a voice to match. Maybe Hammett liked Sir Dave because there was just one of him. I’m sure he’ll warm up to his doting aunt and uncle in time.

We walked to 20^th St. and Harrison to Café Gratitude, which serves raw vegan food. The dishes are named “I Am Thrilled,” “I Am Glorious,” “I Am Sensational,” and so forth. So when your wait person comes over and says, “What would you like?”, you get to say, “I am fabulous and I am insightful,” and she says, “You are fabulous and insightful!” and writes it down, which almost makes it worthwhile to pay $28 for a small slab of “lasagna” made out of zucchini and ground nuts, served cold, and a small sliver of pecan “pie” and modest scoop of “vanilla ice cream.” Almost but not quite, though everyone should go there once for the spectacular ambience.

Lisa and David said they liked the food, however, so if you are a fan of raw food, you’ll probably love Café Gratitude. I suspect their palates are considerably more refined than mine and that they weren’t asking themselves, “Where’s the half-pound of cheese?” after every bite, and that they weren’t secretly unhappy that nothing was drenched in sour cream.

At one point, a server came over and said quizzically, “You are powerful and you are sacred?” We said, “We are! But we didn’t order those items.”

I joked to Tom that afterwards we could go get a burrito, but in fact, we found ourselves strangely full and at least three of us noted that we had also drunk unusually large amounts of water. The food may be filling because it uses a lot of nuts.

On each table is a pad to be used with a game that is affixed to the table. Each sheet lists words you can use to construct your name for the game, a spirit word followed by a something-else word, to yield “The Divine Luscious” and so forth. I was “Great Heaps.” Tom was “Magical Gigantic.”

While we ate, we were saying “I am this [fabulous thing]” and “I am that [splendid quality],” in keeping with the menu. After we got the bill and put our $100 or so on the table, David noted Tom’s incredulous expression and joked, “Magical Gigantic is angry.”

Back at Tom’s place, he and I watched the DVD Mily made commemorating her and Susan’s trip this year to Yosemite. We caught a glimpse of their car, with a bumper sticker that says “Matriotic.”

I emailed her that I loved that, and she wrote back, “Cool! I'm so glad you liked it. We love matriotic! I keep expecting people to come alongside the car and high-five us or scream RIGHT ON SISTAH! But alas, we just look in the rearview and witness the puzzled looks. One neighbor asked if it had to do with matrimony.”

Tom has been buying songs from iTunes and has it all ready to go, so I used his PC—iTunes is not available for the venerable operating system on my PC—to buy 39 songs and later burn three CDs that have nothing on them but songs I love; what a wonderful thing!

I ran downstairs for my credit card and list of songs desired, which spans the period from a few months ago (Leviathan: “Scenic Solitude and Leprosy”) to twenty-five years ago (The Weather Girls: “It’s Raining Men”). Four of five songs whose names I’d written down after hearing them on Snakenet Metal Radio were available.

At some point during my downloading project, Tom turned on the TV. “Maybe you could do something quiet, like read a book,” I suggested.

“I’ve been reading all afternoon!” he protested.

“How long have I been here?”

“Four hours.”

All of this song-acquiring reminded me of a song whose melody has stuck in my head for thirty-five years, possibly by Stevie Wonder. It occurred to me that maybe I could go to Amazon and find it by listening to Stevie Wonder’s song clips from the era in question.

I looked up his massive discography and listed likely albums; there were nine of them. The first one was on Amazon, but there were no audio clips. The second one wasn’t on Amazon. The third was like the first. The fourth had audio clips, but the song wasn’t on it. Ditto the fifth.

On the sixth (Signed, Sealed and Delivered), I think I found it: “Never Had a Dream Come True.” Only a 30-second clip is there, but I’m pretty sure that’s the one. It was like finding the holy grail. iTunes didn't have it, so I have bought the whole album.