MUSING IN SAN JOSE

When Asiana got fired from her singing gig at Casino San Geranimo--her band was receiving $2,000 a night to entertain and then when the smoking ban took effect and business fell dramatically, the casino felt it could no longer afford her and suddenly she was gone and I did not have a clue where she was and I was tweaked. Finally, a security guard at the Casino whom I had helped with some of his communication issues, told me to try calling his marketing office, which I immediately did: joy! the marketing manager said Asiana was singing at the Bay 101 Club in San Jose.

LAST WEEK I was in San Jose on business and I stopped by the Bay 101 Club and relived poignant memories of nine years ago.

The area where Asiana sang, talked to me, and danced with me--and I was blissfully and naively happy with that not knowing then that she was at that moment taking permanent residence in a room in my soul that will apparently be topsy turvey and unfinished for the rest of my life--has been converted into an extension of the restaurant. Bay 101 did not have a cabaret license; I was told that as the result of these, largely Vietnamese dances, there were fights and trouble and some years ago the City Fathers shut the dances down.

SO WHEN I FOUND OUT where Asiana was singing I went to San Jose to see her. The first attempt was a total bust: I got horribly lost and she was not there but at a special gig in Santa Cruz; However, the next one was succesful--I walked into the room she was on stage singing, "How good it is to see you." Asiana had not seen me for three months. And, when she spotted me, she waved and blew kisses and man did I feel good. It felt as though I was in a movie.