See what I mean

According to one of our friend’s, eating out would cause cholesterol and diabetes levels to increase and the levels would decrease if we quit eating out. Therefore, my husband is reluctant to eat out. Now the dilemma is, how do we eat every meal at home?

Every morning, I’m always salivating when I write down the address of the restaurants that I find in the recommendations section of the newsletter (Catch of the day) from NYCaltureBeat. I ask my husband if he wants to go to the restaurant. As usual, I get no response at all, but when I mention “seafood”, he will gladly eat out.

We ordered baked shrimp, clam with black bean sauce and broiled watercress at Great NY Noodle Town in Chinatown. We brought a bottle of wine because it is a BYOB restaurant. Even if the restaurant is not clean and does not have a good atmosphere, the food is quite delicious. We refill each other’s wine glass and enjoy the food.

If my husband is in a good mood, he tells me, “let’s walk.” and tightly holds my hand. I also love to walk on either hot or cold summer night. We kept walking and stopped at 135 Grand St. down in Manhattan. The seven-story building used to be a sewing factory except for the second floor where we lived with a roommate when my husband and I were just newlyweds. The building was turned into condos and now has a neat boutique store on the first floor. Whenever we paid our rent, the Chinese landlord who cultivated bean sprouts in the basement, gave us a whole bunch of bean sprouts in a bag.

We were walking along Broadway heading to Washington Square, where I used to take naps on the grass after lunch and I would hang out until it was late at night even after class on school days. I wanted to sit and rest at Washington Square Park pondering about my school days, but soon after I walked out the student hall to go to the bathroom, my husband who was waiting for me, stood up, and walked toward Union Square Park.

I was so tired and decided to walk slowly because I was wearing uncomfortable clothes and shoes for dining. My husband was walking fast and there was a lot of a distance between us. The more distance between him and I, the angrier I got. My good feeling was disturbed and I became sober. Eventually I sat down on the chair at the entrance of the Union Square Park. I was looking around and tried to look for my husband who was nowhere in sight.

After a while he sat next to me. “Why were you walking so fast? I was nagging him. ‘Why didn’t you ask me to walk slowly?” “We have been together for over 30 years. Do I still have to tell you all my feelings? Don’t you know without me telling you?”

I was sick of myself more than my husband, whom I already knew didn’t always care for my feelings.

“Let’s go home.” He doesn’t respond. I looked up at him. He was dozing. I got up and took a train and came home by myself.