Oh, the euphoria. The wonderful, glorious feeling of finally getting what I’ve been wanting since forever!…It all lasted for about 2 days…before I started…wanting again. Strange thing about material gains, isn’t it? The satisfaction you get from it is so short. It’s like drinking salt water. You take a long sip, but then you get thirstier. No matter how much you have, you still get reminded of all the other things you don’t have. There will always be something bigger, better, and shinier out there.

Now, to which group does my new shiny camera fall? Hm, I was convinced it was #1, but then, a conversation with my junior pastor Joanne told me otherwise.

“You’re getting a new camera?” She exclaimed. “Do you even need it?”

I looked at her in surprise. “Of course! My camera right now is crap!”

“But I like your pictures,” Joanne said.

“Ah, but you haven’t seen pictures taken with a DSLR. They’re nicer. Crisper. Cleaner. They’re just…better…” my words trailed off and I started feeling rather ashamed as I realized how greedy I sounded. Dang, I realized. I want a lot of things.

It was the same thing yesterday during lunch at one of my local favorite dive, Amphora Diner. I met up with a new friend and blog reader, Yoshika, who asked to meet me after finding out that we lived so close to each other.
Amphora is a 24-hour diner which is constantly packed full, no matter what time it is. It attracts all types of groups—the elderly retired folks, the harried mothers and their kids, the rowdy high school students.
I like their interior design. It’s old-fashioned, and they even have a counter for solo customers:
Like all diners, their lighting is really crappy though. Thankfully I had my new fancy camera, which performs pretty well even in low lighting.
It’s food isn’t superb, but it’s consistently good, and they’ve got a HUGE menu. Yoshika and I were both flipping through our menus in despair, wondering what to order, because we just wanted them all. Sigh. Always wanting.

I finally settled on the Chicken Mango Wrap:
Chicken Wrap with Red Cabbage, Mango, Scallions, Red Onion, Lime, Cilantro, and Honey Yogurt Sauce. Side of fresh fruit.
I was glad that the chicken was well-cooked, but I wish it was seasoned instead of being served plain. The ingredients were fresh and bright, but I also wanted there to be more honey yogurt sauce. Overall, I was really pleased with my meal.

Yoshika ordered the Vegetarian Moussaka:
Layers of fresh eggplant, potato slices, red bell peppers, baked in tomato raisin sauce. Side of grilled vegetables.
This was awesome! The vegetables were roasted until it was so tender, soaking up all the sweet-tangy tomato raisin sauce. It tasted a lot like lasagna, just without the pasta noodles. Hm, I should have asked them to grill my chicken wrap, because honestly, food just tastes better hot. Ack. Once again, always wanting more.

Yoshika’s dish also came with a side of celery and tzatziki sauce:
We had a really great time together. Yoshika is half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese, and she comes from a family of foodies. So obviously, 70% of our conversation was about food. And since we’re both Asian, we talked Asian food: red bean paste, green tea cakes, okonomiyaki, kewpie mayonnaise…urgh! I must stop now.

I liked Yoshika a lot. We had a lot of things in common, and our conversation never lagged. In regards to our lovely time together, I didn’t want anything more. Our time together was perfect.
Sadly, our picture together wasn’t. We asked the manager to take a picture for us, and apparently he’s never used a digital camera before because he doesn’t know how to focus. Grrr. I should have handed him the point-and-shoot camera instead.

Okay, guess what?! Me and my new baby (the Nikon D5000, I mean) will be headed to New York City tomorrow!!! I’ll be there from Monday till Wednesday, and I’ll be staying at a dear friend’s place in Brooklyn. I cannot wait!
See ya in the Big Apple!!

Question of the Day: What is one thing you want but not necessarily need?