Sushi. A fine dining experience? It's an acquired taste. One should not take a sushi 'virgin' to an establishment like Nebulous without preparing a list of reassurances and constant supplies of "Try it. You'll like it." Don't let the menacing look of knives, glinting against the white uniforms of the chefs at the bar or slicing effortlessly through pink tuna bellies, deter them. And when the wooden slab arrives at the table, stacked with bite size pieces of nori and fish and rice, pat their hands as they look on with horror at the thought of consuming something so..."fresh" from the sea.

Oh, but the looks on your companion's face as he or she realizes that sushi is, indeed, the most brilliant thing to ever spring out of Japan! Imagine the glee of other patrons as they jump up on the table and scream: Screw Sony! Sushi holds dominion over all!

For starters, the restaurant offers a tantalizing array of apéritifs. My personal favorite is this seviche. The imagination behind this oeuvre ushers in the others, tempting the palate like the first cigarette of a ten-cigarette evening. Sip a little chilled sake, just enough to wet the lips and sweeten the tongue, while waiting for the procession of literary elegance to resume. Watch the chef as she prepares the food for thought with a perfectly precise hand behind the glass guard. Armed with nothing more than a long blade and a pair of chopsticks, she cuts through the viscera and procures the sweetest parts.

(One-hour break as Meenabell drives like a madwoman to the nearest sushi restaurant; satisfying her craving for protein and breaking her three-week stint of Born Again Vegetarian glory. Thus ends restaurant metaphor.)

There are good diarists in this little community. Then there are the good diarists.

Nebulous615's diary is definitely in one of the two aforementioned categories. Technically proficient; grammar, spelling, etc., it's error free. What elevates this diary from good to good, is the ease. The ease with which a reader can slip into her narratives, into the facets of her life which she deems interesting enough to share and put under scrutiny. The ease with which it was written. Her entries are not redolent of sweat, of effort, but they remain brilliant and evocative nonetheless.

She is everything at once. The daydreamer. The ever accommodating friend. The Queen of The Rope Swings. The working student. Her imagination paints for the reader pieces of her life via camera obscura, deceivingly still moments from what is surely something hectic.

Nebulous615's entries revolve around the usual tribulations of a twenty-one year old's life, but what distinguishes her diary from the rest is her style, raw and elegant. She has a way of drawing the reader in, even during the rare mundane entry, that makes one feel guilty for compulsive voyeurism. There is a dichotomy, for while she pours her emotions over the page I am left with the sense that she isn't really telling us all, just enough to keep us addicted to her writing. It makes me return to her diary, almost day by day, in anticipation. Maybe today will be the day that it all becomes clear.