Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Interesting Juxtaposition

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Yesterday was one of those days when I realized that, somewhere around 7:00 PM, I realized that I was going to need a little more in the fuel tank if I was going to make it through the rest of the night without rude complaints from my stomach. Fortunately, things weren't too crazy after rush hour was over, and I had a few minutes where I could lock up and walk next door to Oriental House to get takeout.

I went with the beef with broccoli lunch special this time. I wasn't particularly in the mood to be adventurous, and beef with broccoli seemed like just the thing. About 15 minutes later, they brought my food over.

The fortune in the fortune cookie brought a little bit of amusement. Not so much for the fortune itself, which was this:

"A lifetime of happiness lies ahead of you."

The amusement came from the other side of the fortune. Like most fortune cookie fortunes, on the back side of the fortune was a word of Chinese. On this fortune, the word was zui, which means "drunk, tipsy."

Okay. does this mean that a lifetime of happiness lies ahead of me if I am drunk or tipsy?

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Sunday, March 14, 2010

So When Do I Get It?

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I think I have gone through just about all of the lunch specials at Oriental House. I'm probably not going to try the Pepper Steak, ever. That sounds like it is mostly bell pepper, and I am quite certain that I have made my views clear on bell pepper on numerous occasions.. Other than that, I think the one selection I hadn't tried was the General Tso's Chicken.

Last night, I had to be at work on the early side. And as I didn't really think about it beforehand, I fell back on Oriental House for lunch. This was easier said than done. Once I decided what I wanted, it took me over 30 minutes to lock up, walk next door to Oriental House, and place my order. Every time it looked like the lot was empty (in other words, when the coast was clear), and I was walking to the door with the "Be right back" sign in hand, someone else would walk up and scuttle my plans once again. One time, I had locked one of the doors, taped the sign to the door, and was outside and just about to lock the other door when someone decided that their day wouldn't be complete without making mine just a little bit more insane.

I mean, seriously, people! Do you have something against an overworked cashier getting something to stave off the pangs of hunger?

Once I did manage to get over to Oriental House, it took all of about three minutes to place my order, pay for it, and ask them to bring it over. And I have already suggested, I ordered the General Tso's Chicken with fried rice and an egg roll. Mild on the spicy side, please.

When the guy from Oriental House brought my food over a few minutes later, I think he was glad for the break. from what I could tell, they were even busier than I was. We talked for a minute or two. I was doing what I could to stretch out his relative peace as long as I could.

The food was delicious. Not too spicy, with large chunks of chicken, carrots, and zucchini. There were also a couple of chili peppers blended with everything else. I tried to bite into one, but it was dried, and not really conducive to eating. That attempt also released an additional bit of heat into the food. Not much, but enough to make me glad that I didn't order the full strength spiciness.

And of course, there was the fortune cookie at the end. Here's what the fortune said:

"Joy comes from peace today, save the adventure till next week."

Given the sort of week I have had at work this past week, I want to know one thing. Just when am I going to get that whole "peace today" thing?

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