Humble Victory

Today, I went with Bro to Small Claims Court in Santa Monica. Evidently, he had sued his previous apartment owners for not returning pro-rated rent money. What an experience! I had never been to court and suspected that "Judge Judy" was nothing like the real thing, so I went along for the ride. It was a very intense experience for me...despite the fact that I wasn't even part of the case! (Actually, the Defendants kept trying to pull me into it since I once lived at that apartment, but I just let my brother handle his own.) I didn't realize what a prop I was until the Defendant said in an accusatory tone that I was an attorney. I almost LOL'd b/c it clearly says in the documents that you cannot bring an attorney to Small Claims Court unless it is an appeal process. Then again, I can see why he thought that; for the entire time, I sat next to my brother taking notes (like I usually do) and the speaking Defendant kept staring at me. When I stared back, he'd quickly shift his glare to my brother. All in all, I was extremely impressed with how quickly and logically my bro refuted the Defendants' arguments. Sparing details, it ended up with decent results as both parties presented their evidence and agreed on losses. I actually missed the real drama (i.e., the decision) because I had run out to feed the meters. Phooey! My bro is right -- I always miss the good parts!*

*Explanation: I can't count how many times in my life I've been with my brother (usually in the car), and he tells me to quickly look in a particular direction to see something phenomenal. I always miss it to which he always follows up with, "Mei, how come you never look in time? You always miss the good parts!" Welp, I've never been proud of my slow reaction time....

Afterwards, we went to celebrate Bro's humble, small victory. After visiting his friend at a nearby ad agency, we went a short distance to 3rd Street. We walked into a few stores, and he bought FBIL a nice, funky shirt from Urban Outfitters that met "all the criteria" [1) funky, bright colors; 2) plaid; 3) unique patterns/details/embroidery]. We eventually walked all the way down to Monsoon for happy hour. It was delicious, especially my mango lemonade! We sat outside and had the scallop tempura roll, a sashimi roll (with 3 kinds of fish), spicy eggplant, Thai popcorn chicken, California roll, and maybe one or two other dishes. We probably ordered almost everything on the menu cuz that's how we roll when it comes to happy hour. Bro and I got there around 4 and then FBIL joined us around 5:30.

Afterwards, Bro and I made a few more stops in stores and then called it a night around 7:30. After all, it was quite a full day of excitement with lessons learned.