The Wandering Monkey

Yesterday I was hanging out with the new girl. It was late at night, quite late, and she got a call from someone. A guy. I don't know what they were talking about because it was all in Chinese. But she left shortly afterwards. Where are you going? I asked. She said to see a friend. I said, who is this person? She said a person she knows. At first she said it was a guy, then she said it was a woman. In either event she was going out.
I was tired and let her go, but when I thought about it, it didn't seem right. It was too late to be making any kind of social call. I was being played, I felt. I tried to see if I could catch her on the way out but she was already gone. I called her phone and asked where she was going, and she got upset with me. For a moment I thought that perhaps I should just leave this alone, not interfere and just not think anything of it. But it was too odd, and my feeling was that this was not Kosher. So I told her I was not happy with this. And I told her if she's going to do this, then I will say goodbye.
I think that will pretty much end things. Even through the language differences it seems she understood me, as she has not tried to reach me today. Overall I think this is for the best; it could never be in the long-term. I had felt I should be getting out of this anyhow, and this seemed the time for it all to happen. So, in all likelihood this chapter ends and a new blank page begins.
***
Tuesday was Chinese New Year's Eve. A local bar near my house was having free beer from 10 to midnight. It's the same place that I am holding a Valentines Day Swing Dance. So I went there. I ran into a couple of people I knew, or rather people who recognized me and I vaguely remembered them. After a while of talking to someone I will recall where I met them. I saw one person who had worked on the movie with me. And another who I had run into socially -- he was selling insurance in Shanghai and apparently doing quite well.
I said hello to the bar owner and one of the managers. The bar staff also greeted me with a smile and a hello. Though we had not been introduced, they had seen me several times there when I came over to do some work during the day. (They always make coffee for me.) A Latin band was playing that night. I knew the band members as well. I'd run into them before a few times, and the band leader Ricardo had called me asking if I knew anyone who could be a replacement singer. Their own singer had left the group or something, and they were going to lose their paying gig if they didn't find someone to replace him. I gave them two phone numbers of good singers who they could talk to, and apparently they've hooked up with one now! Ricardo was very grateful, very happy to see me. I'm glad I could help.
I ran into a few other people from the movie as well - one extra wrangler. He introduced me to his girlfriend and some of their friends who were hanging out, and I invited them to my dinner party on Saturday.
When midnight hit, I went outside to see what was going on. People were lighting off fireworks and firecrackers everywhere. It was like a Fourth of July in every direction you could see. I had to hold my fingers in my ears because the firecrackers were so loud. One Chinese guy was laying out these six-foot long strings of firecrackers and lighting them in the street. To our left, another Chinese guy was moving one piece after another into the street and lighting it off. We were not on a main road, but there still were some taxis trying to get by. At one point, they just stopped completely. It was like a war zone (though not really, of course). There was so much smoke from the fireworks that it looked like fog had descended. It was really pretty cool.
After about 10 minutes of this, I re-joined some friends downstairs. We all went together to another bar that had really good burgers, where I got my dinner. I ran into another person I knew there who congratulated me on getting the front cover. "How long have you been here?" he asked me. "How'd you get the front cover? What did you pay for it? What - you didn't pay anything? Well how much did they pay you?" Everyone asks the same questions. It's kind of cool.
Then I was walking down the street, heading to another bar where we hold a bi-weekly dance event. Four people were walking down the street opposite me. One of them, a foreigner, talked to me as they passed.
"The Nicole Kidman / Wong Kar Wai film has been postponed to July."
That's really exactly what he said. I was still trying to figure out who he was. Must have been someone I met on the movie, obviously.
"Thanks!" I said. "I heard it was suppoed to come in February but then it didn't happen."
"It is now scheduled for July."
"Thanks" and we both smiled, waved, and kept on walking.
I got to the bar and the manager gave me a warm hello and about me a beer. I said thanks, wandered around a bit, then decided that the night's just about as good as it is going to get. Off to home.

The bar manager there gave me a warm welcome and bought me a beer.