Neecha's Blog

A friend gave me a simple recipe to make Thai shortbread cookies. I asked her a couple follow-up questions and made my first batch. It was an easy success.  Then, I attempted to bake the notoriously complicated coconut cookies called “kanom ping.” With each tweak of the recipe, I got closer and closer to understanding why each ingredient […]

Two trees of the same evergreen species were planted on the same day, only a few feet apart. One continued to thrive, while the other gradually shed all of its leaves. We discussed uprooting the leafless tree and replacing it with a new one. But those who had experience with plants and trees said, “Wait. […]

Around 9am, a red pick-up truck pulled into a parking spot in front of the house. The driver stepped out, glanced at the back and front of the truck, got back in, and turned off the ignition. He sat in the car for an hour before very slowly backing up the truck until it blocked […]

“The Girl on the Train” was an interesting story, but the thing I most got out of it was that often suffering isn’t enough to break our bad habits. Rather, it’s fear that catalyzes lasting change. The main character was an alcoholic who lost her husband, job, friends, and self-respect. She would unsuccessfully attempt to […]

“Buy me a Coke.” On any other day, this line would land this book in the trash. Why? No one buys the Coke! It’s so random, it never gets mentioned again, and it doesn’t fit in with the characters or storyline. I’ve never been able to get over a kink in a novel, just like I cannot […]

A man was disassembling a bed frame and yelled for a boy to bring him a box to store the wheels and screws. The boy ran back with a plastic milk crate. The man exclaimed, “This is not the right kind of box! It’s useless! No, no, no!! I need a box without holes in […]

A few HVAC companies came out to bid on the furnace at Akaliko. One salesman said that his company only carried Trane furnaces because they were, hands down, the best. In his many years of heating repairwork, he rarely ever encountered a Trane furnace in need of repair. In fact,the majority of the repairs were […]

I served a three day notice to pay or quit on a tenant who, despite being warned on multiple occasions, was habitually late with rent. She told me that I was being harsh, that it was better to have a good relationship and be lenient with rent, as she was with her tenants. I asked […]

While staying at a friend’s house, I woke up to a beautiful breakfast arrangement of fresh fruit, keffir yogurt, and flax, basil, and chia seeds. It was something I had never imagined eating, but for her, it was her go-to breakfast. It reminded me of how, in always sticking to our routines and giving in […]

The last time I sent a document to print, I needed 100 copies, double sided, black and white. Today, I hit ctrl + P to print a document without thinking about the last print settings and ended up running to the machine to repeatedly pound on the “cancel” button. It made me think about how […]

It’s not other people’s words and actions, but rather our own identity that dictates our reaction to a situation. For example, just this past week, I announced we would be holding a staff meeting the following week. With a love for gatherings and absent residual guilt over any past actions, two employees excitedly started planning […]

I was harvesting romaine lettuce when I noticed some leaves poking through the fence. At first I thought nothing of it. But then I looked at the fallen seeds and the dirt below the fence. I saw seemingly harmless plants taking root. But I knew that those tiny leaves couldn’t be taken for granted. Just […]

When a business refuses a customer’s request, the disgruntled customer usually threatens to post a bad Yelp review or in low-tech cases, to tell all their friends to stay away from such an awful business. If it were your business, would you be afraid? Most businesses are at the very least, concerned. Yet, why aren’t […]

I sent a message to my dad, telling him that I decided we’d remain open for Memorial Day, and he responded with a sticker. I looked on my phone and was confused as to why he respond “NO” to that. But then I checked on my computer and saw that the sticker showed up as “YES.” […]

You desire something, but only if it’s on your terms. You want to attend the event with your friends, but not if you have to drive out of your way to pick them up. You want to park in the metered spot but don’t want to pay when running in to grab something real quick. […]

In late June, I received mail from the city of San Francisco about heart graffiti on the sidewalk in front of one of our properties. The notice stated that graffiti removal was the property owner’s responsibility, and that we had 30 days to comply. As we stepped out of the car with three different scrub […]

I ordered 16 containers of curry powder from an amazon seller, and received my shipment within a few days. A few days later, I asked my dad why there was a 10lb bag of basmati rice sitting on our kitchen counter. He sent me a picture of the shipping label, addressed to me from the […]

I drove up to an open parking spot directly in front of our building. Two women stepped into the spot and shook their heads “no,” so I decided to drive off and park in an open spot down the block. As I walked up to our building, I saw the younger woman was still standing […]

A man named Ariel was coming to visit. I asked his daughter what he was like, asked his son in law, and asked his friend. I was confused as they painted portraits of three completely different men. When I actually met him, I could see how those three men weren’t the whole Ariel, rather they […]

I walked out of a Filipino bakery today and a woman rolled down her car window and yelled out, “Excuse me! Excuse me! Can you tell me what it’s called, that noodle with vegetables and egg on top?” “Oh, I don’t know. But they have food on display inside, you could go look. Did you […]

I walked by a pair of BOSE headphones while shopping at Costco, and decided to return and consider them on a day when I had more time. When I got home, I saw that the Costco coupon book had just arrived in the mail. I flipped to the second page and found the $100 headphones […]

A woman called to ask about pricing a catering order for one large tray of a noodle stir-fry and 30 chicken skewers. We gave her a 10% quantity discount and told her it would cost around $160. She said that the quote was outrageous and that our food was way  overpriced. She had a $90 […]

Today, I witnessed a customer returning batteries. The Costco employee took them back, and said, “ma’am, you bought these back in 2012. Please return things in a more reasonable amount of time next time.” The customer said, with a straight face, “Oh, I didn’t even notice the date on it.” Costco has a ridiculous return […]

When practitioners ask us to evaluate their personality and tell us to give it to them straight, we do a cost-benefit analysis and sometimes we end up dishing it out. So why is it that we often hear excuses like, “the only reason you would think that is because I’m a different person around you,” […]

When I decided that I wanted to install a new printer for my restaurant kitchen, I ordered my own equipment and installed it. I ended up paying $250 and learning through the set up process, compared to the $400 equipment plus $100 installation I was quoted by our service provider. As my employees watched me […]

While loading up on 25lb cases of cooking oil in the restaurant warehouse store, I stopped and moved my blue cart so a man could push his by in the cramped walkway. He stopped, turned back and said, “Let me help you.” And he helped carry a case of oil onto my cart. As I […]

I brought homemade pumpkin cake to share with my co-workers. I asked one of them, “How do you like it?”  She said, “It’s good, but you know what was tasty, that banana bread you made last time.” I immediately thought, “Oh I didn’t know she liked my banana bread. I’ll make sure to bake her […]

I walked into the Subway at the gas station and ordered a footlong. The woman working there told me to show her my gas receipt, so she could give me a discount on my sandwich. I had pumped 12 gallons, for $32. She told me the discount was calculated from 10% of the gas price, […]

I found two pizza boxes, a cigarette butt, and a plastic bag lying in the street directly in front of my house this morning. Then as I walked into the bathroom at work, I found an empty toilet paper roll on top of a rack of two used rolls. I thought back to my high […]

I was about to print a 20-page document for editing. I had to stop and think when deciding whether to print single-sided or two-sided. Which would be a smarter option? If I printed single-sided, I would have used 20 sheets, but would also have 20 sheets of scratch paper to use later. If I printed […]