i am an ocean...you are an ocean, too...we are all oceans...come drop in my ocean today!

Yesterday I was a little bit saddened to see the veggie guy at my local supermarket was no longer employed there. Some green new young guy was bustling about unpacking and arranging all the produce. Even though I did not know that middle-aged guy, I always looked forward to his shy and awkward smile of acknowledgement when I entered. (PS, the pic is from summer...now it's covered in snow, perhaps?)

I am well-known at the veggie shop because I ask all kind of questions like, (in Japanese, of course...not the best Japanese but somehow my idea usually gets across)
- what would be the best way to eat this?
-this is pricier and 'premium' but what exactly makes it premium tofu?
-what is the difference between this and that? they look like carbon copies to me!

Sometimes they could not answer my questions and had to ask other employees in the backroom for all the details. Once I wanted to buy wintermelon but not a whole 7lbs. of it! The woman took the melon to the backroom, hacked it up into quarters and wrapped it up for me to go. Now that is service!

The fish guy is hilarious...puffing away at a ciggy and waiting for customers' requests. Isn't there some sort of strict hygiene code or something he should be following? Even though I find smoking despicable, I find his character thoroughly amusing and look forward to his crooked smile, too. He knows me as the girl who stares at fish and cannot seem to decide.

People come and go in our lives...we are like a big ocean...each time someone comes in our life, they contribute a little something. A positive figure in our lives seems to represent some sort of addition, a drop of water, to us, the ocean. A negative figure in our lives would suck moisture out of us, the ocean. If someone is subject to prolonged exposure to negative people or surroundings, the life is sucked out of them. Perhaps that is what we mean when we say, *I feel like I just got the life sucked out of me.* We in effect, did. Sometimes I am sad that someone, even someone I do not know well has departed from my life...but am happy to have their memory and that I have been honored with their contribution, a wonderful drop in my ocean.

Me, waxing poetic...a bit philosophical there...