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Pinkberry: a frivolous unemployment tale

Being unemployed there is really only so much you can do to on any given day to give Job Seeking its due diligence. There are only so many job fairs, online career sites, temp agencies, and job references etc etc etc before resigning to the fact you can really only do so much (again... on any given day). A good example: yesterday I found a position on Career Builders that appeared to be an excellent fit for my experience and skills. And so diligently (and somewhat excitedly) I apply for the said position only to find out I'd already applied for the position weeks ago (much to my dismay)...

Almost simultaneously after the mildly annoying and tantalizing job application, I get a call from one of my good friends (also unemployed) who wished to do something in celebration for a job interview that morning. We call these "Small Victories" because after slumming in the dispirited depths of unemployment for so long, any callbacks and or phone interviews are somewhat uplifting therefore calling for some kind of a celebration. I can blame myself for this because I sort of invented it...

Anyway "lets have lunch and then go watch that new movie Inception at midnight" he excitedly said. Immediately my concern was directed at the fact that there are 11 hours in between the two activities. Really as much as I like my friends without any real plans on such a sweltering Southern California day (in fact the weather was wild! 100+ degrees everywhere, while the inland were experiencing thunder storms, flash floods, and hail) it would seem difficult to hash out. A strip club was out of the question I thought (which happens to be my friends favorite pass time ahaha!). Drinking wasn't really permitted by the weather especially with such a long day ahead of us. But instead of really worrying about I'd decided to just go with it. After all I had done my job seeking due diligence for the day. Hell, maybe for the week....

And so we have some nice Pizzas at this trendy but confused Euro-centric-American-Diner looking place in North Hollywood called PitFire Pizza. The food is good, kind of like a fusion between CPK (with a touch of Chicago style pizzas) and Corner Bakery (except without the paninis) and I mean that in a good way. I had something called "Greens, Bacon & Egg" pizza. As the name would clearly state it is a wonderfully delicious concoction of American breakfast, soul food?, and pizza. The bacon was a little chewy but very tasty and the two eggs over easy as a topping was a real nice touch (if u like eggs anyway).... Anyway we probably spent too much time there sitting and chatting away even for two guys who didn't work (u know uncomfortably long?). My friend seemed to sense this too and before I could spit out an idea he gets up and proclaimed the weather called for a visit to a place called Pinkberry. And said it with a straight face too...

I'll admit I do enjoy the occasional yogurt but only to the extent that I have stolen from my sisters stash (the organic kind), and only because I am hungry for anything. You'd never hear me say let's go for some yogurt, 110 degree weather notwithstanding. Sure I have been to Pinkberry a couple of times but that's with a couple of hot models (coz' you could go anywhere with hot models right? Haha!). Going with another man, at least I thought felt a little funny. Even funnier my friend actually wanted to sit and consume the yummy Yogurts there. For the record I got the Mango with mixed nuts and cookies & cream and it was fantastic...

I do maintain that you shall never hear me utter the words "Lets get some yogurt" or worse "Pinkberry". Maybe the occasional Starbucks or maybe more often "Ice Cream". Maybe I need to get hip with it coz' I'm not cool enough for Pinkberry even on a sweltering day. Maybe I am possibly a little too sexist or perhaps I'd rather hear my friends say "Let's have a beer" on any given warm day. Or maybe I'd rather steal my sisters Trader Joe's Yogurt than to spend a lofty $4.95 for a medium with two toppings. Perhaps I'm still that little boy who grew up in that squalid little town in Northern Philippines who'd still rather eat Ice Cream in a bun (to which Andrew Zimmern says: can only be found in the Philippines and in the Sovereign Island of Sicily) Yes you have read that right. Ice Cream in a bun...

Zimmern's theory is that it has something to do with the climate. It is so hot and humid all year round in the Philippines that putting Ice Cream in burger bun, he thought, was a way to "hold in" the melting ice cream... Well you would be wrong Mr. Zimmern! It is not only necessity that engineered this rather odd practice. We just didn't have any cones man....

I can report though that killing time in Pinkberry is awesome if you like to People Watch. Particularly if you like to watch beautiful people. I mean hordes of every kind of beautiful people. Trendy, Hipsters, Professionals, College Students, Milfs etc... Anyhow two tables from us were these two beautiful girls (about my age. Wohoo!) who seemed to be engaged in a very loud and animated conversation which sounded to be European (and who doesn't love European women?). We tried listening intently trying to make out words and the origin of the language itself but to no avail. We couldn't make anything out... Something Nordic or Scandinavian I thought but I wasn't so sure because they appeared relatively too dark. My friend and I threw out a few more guesses but were never really too sure. Well, until he blurted out "Hebrew... I'm pretty sure it is Hebrew". How can you be so sure, I asked. "I'm Sure"....

Of course this turned into a kind of battle of wits which turned into a wager. A Dinner wager to be exact. This was a good way to spend the afternoon anyway because I figured eventually we were going to need to eat again since the movie was still a good 8 1/2 hours away. And to make it a bit more fair to him I allowed four other guesses. Namely: Armenian, Russian, Polish, Italian, and finally Hebrew. All pretty good guesses I surmised... Polish would have been one of my guesses myself but as such my best guess was also his....

And so I go over to the girls in my best behavior and politely explained our quasi-ethereal wager and somehow charmingly and ingeniously solicited their Marital Status and or Sexual Orientation as well (Hahaha i'm joking about the sexual orientation part.... but Married unfortunately). Seemingly amused they were gracious enough to indulge frivolous me and possibly even flattered I sensed. Apparently they get approached a lot because the language they speak not only is beautifully peculiar, most people (just like my buddy and I) could not for the life of them place it... Hebrew they claimed was kind of an odd guess while the rest weren't so bad (Polish being the usual guess from People). Anyway these two beautiful and nice people are from Central Europe, Hungary...

In conclusion, the movie Inception is quite a movie I gotta say. It is as surreal as it is realistic. It is predictably good. It is kind of mind-blowing but not abstruse. A very engaging and fun to watch flick...

Two Thumbs up! As Siskel and Ebert would say...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Friday, July 16, 2010