Alright Day Two: Monday Jan 26, 04

Man this is taking more energy outta me than I thought. I tend write about a lot of stuff cuz I notice a lot of things that are really funny. I don't know if I have all of them in my head. Dude, I think I have only 1 megabyte of memory in my head. I wish I had picture perfect memory. If I did, I prolly woulda been a smarty-farty who went to Harvard Med School like a "goo boy, study werry goo".

Alright. Well, we escorts are not paid for our valiant volunteer ventures with the vomen of Chinatovn. So we get to choose whether we want to escort during the day shift or night. I chose the night shift for Monday. Bling Bling wanted more guys for Monday morning cuz they were going to make a big entrance with all of the contestants in front of the media. But I wasn't about to skip work just to do that. Well, it turned out that there were enough guys who were unemployed, students or both who volunteered to escort the girls in front of the media that morning. The girls had their picture taken at the Four Seas Restuarant on Grant Street. Four Seas became the restaurant that almost every other meal event occured at.

Anyways, I got down to Chinatown for the evening shift. That was cool. Bling Bling told the guys to walk down to New Asia Restaurant while he, Dragon and the Dillester loaded the girls into the van. It was a rainy evening. We all carried umbrellas as we walked about quarter mile to Pacific from the Holiday Inn. Not bad if your feet didn't get wet. Well, anyways, I had to build up an appetite somehow.

So the formalities began that night. We got there and formed a tunnel of umbrellas so the girls wouldn't get wet. We seated the girls, who weren't used to the formalities that the escorts had to perform for the girls. Basically, we escorts are required to walk the girls, arm-in-arm into the restaurants, hang their jackets, and seat them at their tables. Then we need to pour tea for them and make sure they're all ready to chow down! When the food comes, we need to make sure the girls are served.

The "Two-Fork Method" is the standard method of taking food from the serving plate to a girls plate. Usually I would ask a girl how much food she wants on her plate. Heck, it's a pageant week and the last thing a girl would want to do is pork out and look bloated in her swimsuit or Chang Sam. The good thing about the girls nibbling is that the guys can really chow down when there's food remaining.

Well, I decided I would sit at the table where Miss Las Vegas was sitting. She seemed kinda nice and I figured I would get to know her a little better. Miss Las Vegaswould be on my left and Miss LA would be on my right. We spoke very briefly and Miss LA told me she works at Entertainment Tonight. Cool!

But the next thing you know, Bling Bing pulls me over. He said, "Dude, I know it's raining outside. But I forgot to bring the red envelope and the signed poster for the restaurant owner. Can you go walk back to the HQ and get it from the house mother?" Oh wells. Since I'm a freshman escort, I gotta do what I'm told.

So I take fat umbrella and take a stroll back to the HQ. While I'm walking I decide to talk to my buddy from LA who's connected to peeps in the TV biz. Darnit, he doesn't know Miss LA. I don't have mutual friend to bring up in conversation. Well, I get back to the HQ, get the signed poster and the Lacie and skidaddle my way back to New Asia. Dang it's cold and rainy.

Well, we get back there and hang out. I get to know Miss LA and Miss Las Vegas a little better. At first I thought Miss LA didn't really want to talk to me. But after I told her I was a former TV reporter and that both of us are UCLA Bruin alumni, she warmed up quite a bit. I think she thought it was cool that we had somethings in common. We also have a mutual friend who reports for KNBC-TV. TC is a real veteran in the TV news biz, prolly one of the most accomplished Asian American males. I met him a few times when I was still in it.

Anyways, Miss LA tells me she's really into chinese music and karaoke. She likes ballroom dancing! (Cool! cuz that's my gig too!) But she really loves singing chinese songs. I tell her about this wild place in SF called "Tango! Tango!", a karaoke bar where you sing on stage instead of a booth. "Tango! Tango!" is da bomb! People are so embarassingly drunk that they do the silliest things in the world on stage. I wish I could bring Miss LA there just to watch it!

Miss Las Vegas is really cool. I found out that she had been snowboarding since the time she was in 7th grade. Dude!!!!! That means she's a total black diamond chick! Snow bunny! Dang, I'm a pro on the blues, a rookie on the blacks. I get so involved in my conversations with Miss Las Vegas and Miss LA that Dillster has to remind me to serve the girls whenever there's something new at the table. Luckily I caught him forgetting to serve the girls here and there too. So I could jokingly order him around and say "whassup wit dat Dillster? You lettin the girls pour tea for themselves?"

I don't totally remember everyone else at my table. I was so involved in my conversations. I think the other girls were Miss Gdubb_HighSchool (Gdubb for short) and someone else. Dangit. Bad memory. I didn't get to talk to Gdubb as much cuz she sat next to the Dillster. But she's cool.

Aight. So the night is basically almost done. I guess. The girls don't want to pork out and eat like crazy so they just quit eating pretty soon. This was one of the many multi-course meals that we would down over the course of the next two weeks. So we loaded up the girls back in the van. And for some weird reason Miss Belmont was not loaded on the bus. Instead she wanted to walk back to the hotel. So me, Pandy and PrettyBoy walked with Miss Belmont.

Diversions. Miss Belmont is a veteran on the Chinatown scene. She wasn't really ready to go back to the HQ. She knew the game. The girls go through lock-down at 11pm and basically can't leave their rooms. Miss Belmont knew that it would be like that for 2 weeks. And although I didn't know it at the time, I realized it much later, Miss Belmont was rooming with Miss Chicago (aka Miss Congeniality). So if anything, I couldn't blame Miss Belmont for wanting to stay out of her room for as long as possible. Rooming with Miss Congeniality would have been crazy for two weeks.
Anyways, we let Miss Belmont buy a tapioca milk tea at Ten Ren and we walked slowly back to the Holiday Inn. For the early part Miss Belmont was talking to her boyfriend on the cell phone. But she was cool after she got her tapioca. We had to think of an excuse for why we took so long to get back to the Holiday Inn. So I said, I got it. We'll tell them that Pandy had to go to the bathroom and we had to wait for him. Good one, good one.

Well, I figured she was a tourist in SF and wanted to just see the city. But then she told me she grew up in the Bay Area. I was like, "oh man, I ain't gonna treat you like a tourist. Whatevah!" Oh wells, I figure it was just that she didn't want to go through lock-down at 11pm.

When we got back to the HQ, we played cards at the House Mother's room. That was kinda cool. Miss LA, Miss Belmont, and a few of the guys played Texas Hold 'Em. Dude, I wasn't very good at betting and wasted a few good hands. Miss Belmont played well and beat us all. Then the house mother said time was up. And I guess that was it for Day Two!