Doin' Deals

Being a gangsta-ass chick doing deals is hard work (LOL) but you get little pockets of down time. Like right now. I wasn't intending to post a second time in Jersey but I find myself with a little bit of down time on my hands.

My time here has been an insomniac's nightmare. I've been so tired and yet so unable to sleep. I'm still on California time, despite taking my clonapin or lunestas.

We ate at The Brick House in Wyckoff last night. It's an ornate, cute little steakhouse with giant-sized steaks on the menu. I unwittingly ordered the rib eye au poivre, thinking it would be rounder and taller and smaller than the strip steak. Oops. It was easily two pounds of meat with large, uncracked peppercorns on the top and nestled in a delicious cognac brown bourgogne sauce.

We had two $70 bottles of Sonoma cabernet sauvignon and delicious parmesan-encrusted croutons. The house salad had an amazing vinaigrette on it that's almost as addicting as that of Olive Garden salads. I swear, this steak was bigger than me. I took at least 6 bites out it and barely made a dent. I had it wrapped to go, and two hours later, it was still warm!

It was me with six old white guys sitting at an expensive Italian steakhouse in an affluent North Jersey suburb. I was the only Asian person in the room. It was an interesting experience. I don't fit in with the older white male moneyed class, where money is everything, including power and the ability to raise a family and be a patriarch.

They just have different values than I do. Negotiation and being a savvy and shrewd business person are valued. They scoff at those artist types (like me) who can't figure out how to run a business if their life depended on it (I have trouble just getting my bills paid on time!).

Actually, one of the guys we met with looked a lot like that guy from King of Queens, the UPS delivery guy. Right down to the short-sleeved button-down with the khaki shorts. I almost laughed out loud just watching him talk in that same animated, over-excited way.