Quotable Fortune

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0113 . . . OPEN:


I had eaten a somewhat sizable lunch yesterday. I still thought I was going to need just a little something else to see me through the evening at work, though. And since I was cutting it a little closer than I had planned, I decided to get takeout from Oriental House.

I almost didn't get that. As soon as I walked in the door, Emma's first words were something along the lines of "Hurry up." Not a good sign, to say the least.

I managed to make it next door to Oriental House, and I ordered the subgum chicken chow mein lunch special. As I was paying for it, I asked the lady at the register if she could bring it over, "because Emma is about to chain me to the register." She was amused by my declaration.

When I got back, I discovered why Emma was in such a rush. When our manager had made the schedule, it had Emma leaving at 5:00 PM -- and me starting at 6:00 PM. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture? For a number of reasons, Emma needed to clock out as quickly as possible. As in RIGHT NOW.

The food came a few minutes after Emma left as though the hounds of Hell were on her heels. Other than the especially rushed turnover, the evening wasn't too bad. The food was good. And here is what the fortune inside my fortune cookie said:

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

The line seemed familiar, so I turned to Google. The quote is from Aesop -- the moral to his fable "The Lion And The Mouse."

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Emmatorial Commentary

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Yesterday at work, I discovered that Emma had opted for getting lunch/dinner/whatever from Oriental House. This was not exactly by choice. She was originally planning to bring a sandwich, but discovered that she did not have one essential ingredient at home -- the bread.

To make a long story short, I told Emma about my explorations into fortune cookie philosophy, and I asked her if I could have her fortune after she cracked open her fortune cookie. She was amused by the concept, and she said, "Sure." This is what her fortune said:

"It takes guts to get out of the ruts."

Emma was . . . less than impressed. It is her opinion that Oriental House's fortune cookies aren't that good. As I recall, she thought that they had "crappy fortunes." And I think she was even less impressed by the fact that this particular fortune was attempting to be a short poem as well.

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Janus See, Janus Do

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0054 . . . OPEN:


My original plan for yesterday was to try another one of the lunch specials at Lemongrass Cafe. There was just one little problem. Their lunch specials run only until 4:00 PM, and -- you guessed it -- I got there just enough after 4:00 where they weren't offering them anymore that day.

As a result, dinner was from Oriental House, which seems to have become my default location for getting dinner. At first, I had no idea what I would be getting to eat. That was before my co-worker Emma decided to get something from Oriental House. She decided to get the Hong Kong Chicken. I think when I saw it, some inner voice said, "Hey, that looks good," and I decided to order it myself a little later. I also decided to try one of their desserts, the puffy egg custard tarts.

I didn't forget the fortune cookie, either. Last night's fortune read as follows:

"Live each day well and wisely."

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I Said, No Bell Peppers, Please . . .

JANUSFILES2 . . . ENTRY #0047 . . . OPEN:


Working on Saturday night is rapidly becoming a reason to get takeout for dinner. And once again, I turned to Oriental House. (Sooner or later, I will probably choose some other restaurant just for some variety. But Papa John's doesn't deliver fortune cookies with their pizza.)

This past Saturday, I chose kung po chicken from the lunch specials. When I ordered it, I specifically stated, as I have in the past, "No bell peppers, please." I also requested the less spicy version of the dish.

When I got my food back to work, though, I could smell the bell peppers in the food. And one of the first things I did was remove a rather large chunk of bell pepper and dump it in the trash. At the time, I figured that just picking out the bell peppers would be the easiest thing to do, because I was already on the register, and there was no way I could go back to get things corrected.

But then "Emma," one of my co-workers, came behind the counter, smelled the bell peppers as well, and commented on it. (She has the same low opinion of them as I do.) She then offered to take my food back to Oriental House to have the problem corrected, since she still had a few minutes to go before clocking out. I said sure, and a few minutes later, she returned with the food. This time, the odor of bell pepper was noticeably absent.

The kung po chicken was good, but they also didn't pay attention to my request for the less spicy version. It was just a little hotter than I originally anticipated. It didn't have me breathing out fire like you would see in any number of cartoons, but it was definitely hot enough to make me realize that this was not the less spicy version.

I had taken out the fortune cookie before Emma took the food back for correction. When she returned, I opened the bag, and found another fortune cookie inside. So at least there was something good that came out of this. Two fortune cookies, two fortunes, and two rather interesting viewpoints:

"It is better to have beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear."
"It takes courage to lead a life. Any life."

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