octopus

after my interesting fraternal twin dream, my sleep for the past couple of nights has been dream-free.

it's a wonder that i didn't have nightmares the other night. i was up late sunday night, typing and revising something important. i took a break, turned my tv on and channel-surfed, and had the unfortunate luck of seeing a huge, live octopus on what i believe was the travel channel. seeing it gave me the willies because it was all tentacled, slimy, wiggling and continuously writhing around. ew ew ew! but thankfully, it didn't riddle my sleep with bad dreams of being trapped in those tentacles while swimming at the beach.

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speaking of seeing an octopus, i have a funny story to share:

annie is a friend of mine who attended college with me for a couple of years, and she's japanese-american (well, her parents are japanese). i've met bill and sumiko (sumi, for short) a couple of times and they're really fun and funny. sumi is so funny and cute. she's soft-spoken but just when you least expect it, she says and does the funniest things. anyway, one summer, annie's parents took her to japan and she came back with this story i'll *never* forget:

while annie was in japan, i guess she got tired of the sushi, miso soup, tempura, teriyaki, udon routine. and she started craving mexican food--specifically a taco. what happened when she went to a restaurant with her parents absolutely cracks me up. i can't believe what her mom did.

at the restaurant, annie's mom told her that yes, indeed, she could order taco there. so that's exactly what she orders up....a taco. well, it just happens to be the case that the japanese word for octopus is also "tako" (pronounced the same as "taco"). so a little while later, their meals arrive, and there it is: the server places a plate full of cooked octopus (octopus sushi, i'm guessing) in front of her. not exactly what she expected. annie said she sat there, stunned and horrified, while her mom watched, in uncontrollable laughter at her daughter's reaction.

funny, no? i think that i laughed so hard i just about peed my pants after hearing about that. be very careful what you ask for. you never know what you'll end up getting...