Elemental: Snooty, delicious.

Omaha and I, for our anniversary, went to a restaurant called Elemental Next Door. The menu was hand-written on a roll of artpaper that scrolled out a broad, wood-panel-enclothed support beam a few feet from the door. The music was popular and slightly intrusive. The tables were all unique one-of-a-kind heavy wooden constructs, and along one wall a vast array of wines and beers could be had for a price.

The menu was heavy on foods few people eat. There was a lot of rabbit on the menu. Omaha had a rabbit stew that was actually quite delicious, and I ordered the vegetarian risotto. We also got a cheese board and an order of artichoke dip. For that and a bottle of (high-end, alcoholic) apple cider, we paid nearly $72.

Yeah, that's snooty all right. Astoundingly so. It was delicious, but that's pretty pricey. An example: a plate of popcorn was $5.

The staff was unobtrusive, if sometimes a little hard to find. Omaha and I shared a long bench table with another party, separated by a few empty seats, and a voluminous and somewhat intoxicated argument about politics broke out among the other diners. All in all, definitely a place to see and be seen, if you can afford it.

On the other hand, Omaha and I were working off a gift card worth a hundred bucks, and they gave us a corresponding gift card with the remainder of our credit on it. That's surprising, for an auction gift card. Kudos for them.

Stormy gets "promoted"

Storm at graduation

Omaha, Kouryou-chan and I attended Storm's promotion ceremony at her high school. It was a two-hour event that featured some of the most rude people I've met yet in my dealings with the school system.

It's called a "promotion" because the kids aren't graduating from anything at all; they're simply moving to a different facility, the high school down the block, and so will no longer be under the care of the middle school staff. They're being promoted to ninth grade. Still, there's a ceremony for getting out of middle school alive.

Man, the lighting in a gymnasium does nobody any favors. It's too dark for a high-speed lens, and too garish to make anyone attractive.

Storm was one of the top 10% of students, so she got a "silver" award, signed by Barack Obama's autopen, congratulating her on the constant 3.8 average and consistently higher than average test scores. She looked bored throughout the ceremony, but as she pointed out, most of her friends were up on the peripheral stage with the band.

Not paying attention

The band played for the opening and closing ceremonies, and that's where the rudeness was most pronounced. After having chaperone them at the Disneyland trip and having heard them play, I can say they were a highly competent middle school band. The audience apparently didn't care, because they talked right over the band's performance, constantly. They chattered and giggled and ignored the hardworking students on stage who were trying to play a rather complicated medley. The woman to the right was one of many playing a video game or otherwise just staring into his or her phone. It was all very disconcerting.

I think it's a small but representative sample of what's wrong with America: our generation didn't learn how to let other people have their moments in the spotlight. We all want it, and if it's not on us, we're as like to ignore it and do our own thing, damn them all.

I congratulated my daughter, and then sadly sent her on to her mother's, where she'll spend the next two and a half weeks, pausing only long enough to come back and watch Kouryou-chan's ballet. Ah, well.