Recap of Whatever Club Meeting, October 14th, 2007

Present: Eric Yoo, James Kumm, Carolyn Kim, Hyemoon Park, Jean Ho

Not Present: Yewool Kang

Agenda: Bubby’s in Tribeca for brunch, Lars and the Real Girl

The five Whatever Club members met at Bubby’s in Tribeca at the agreed time. Hyemoon was the first to arrive; James, Carolyn, and Eric arrived together in one cab, Jean in another. It should be noted that Carolyn and James were wearing the same pants: brown khakis. It should also be noted that James wore a child’s size, pink v-neck sweater. His fashion-forward risk-taking was silently acknowledged by all present – until Carolyn revealed that she had shrunk all of his sweaters from washing, because of the bed bugs incident.

The Whatever Club members waited for at least thirty minutes, admiring the pies in the pie display case and smelling the buttery smells from the kitchen. Eric said hello to a man sitting at the bar; he told the club members that “he’s a really good ping pong player” who he met at Pong.

“Wow – his pancakes look really good,” Carolyn replied.

“Really fluffy,” added James. Hyemoon and Jean looked at his plate, and nodded in agreement that yes, his pancakes were fluffy.

“Bacon looks good, too,” said Carolyn.

“They’re making a super secret ping pong society – taking real estate out and everything,” Eric said.

“How long have we been waiting?” asked James.

“I’m going to check with the hostess,” said Carolyn. When she came back and said that it would be another forty-five minutes, the club members left Bubby’s. An allusion was made to Bubby’s anti-Asian seating policy.

The club members walked two blocks to another restaurant. It was nearly empty and they were seated immediately at a table by the window. There was one placemat in the middle of the table, and dying white daisies in a vase with gray stones at the bottom.

“It’s the anti-Bubby’s!” James declared. They ordered food and drinks. The waiter brought a serving of sourdough bread for the table, with butter and jam. It disappeared immediately. James asked for more bread.

The food arrived, and the club members ate in near silence, except to ask if others wanted a taste. Carolyn showed the club members how thinly sliced the salami in her panini was. Hyemoon said that the coffee was good, and Eric agreed.

After brunch the club members walked through Soho to the Angelika Theater. They bought movie tickets for Lars and the Real Girl and sat in the lobby for an hour, except for James, who went to Crate and Barrel then came back with a pretzel. Hyemoon and Jean took naps on the couch. Later, when they were all seated in the theater, Eric said that he’d never seen Jean happier than when she was sleeping on the couch. He also asked if she wore the outfit she wore because of the movie – “because of the doll, right?” he asked.

“Um – no,” she said. She was wearing a silver dress, fuschia tights, and red flats with gold buckles. “What do you mean, because of the doll?”

“Sometimes I dress up according to movie. Like, when I watched Brokeback Mountain for example.”

“You wore a cowboy outfit?”

“Yeah! Totally, man.”

Jean closed her eyes. She wanted to rest a little more before the movie began. Eric’s breath smelled like popcorn and cherry icee.

The movie began and the club members sat in silence for its entirety. When the movie let out, they walked out of the theater. Everyone said they liked the movie, especially Emily Mortimer's character. Carolyn stuck out her tongue and looked down. She wanted to know if her tongue was red, like Eric’s. It wasn’t.