dangerous compassions

I call you / from the comet's cradle

Sunday, April 16, 2006

dinner: Andy Nguyen's II

Today I drove us to vespers, and we glimpsed a chicken at the place where we always see chickens. Only the white one was to be seen.

My dear P gave me a hug for Easter. Jesus' picture was all decorated with flowers on the altar. And more people than usual were present. It was nice, and afterward Erik kept saying how much he liked it, but I don't know what was so different. I got dressed up a little, just for fun.

Then we went to Andy Nguyen's for dinner, and it was a delight. Remember how I said they have books for sale? Well, I was wrong--the books are free!!! Erik took two. They're Pure Land. And I took this cool card about the size of a postcard with a dharma wheel on it, showing enlightened beings on the top and the hungry ghosts at the bottom left. Animals are at the bottom right. But it's in Vietnamese, I think.

Anyway, dinner was lovely. Erik liked it as much as I thought he would. Service was slow, but we weren't in a hurry. My fake meat was delicious, so salty and flavorful and nice-textured. And my bland noodles were very wonderful for accomodating sauces: the sauces were good. My black mushrooms kinda freaked me out, so I just fed them to Erik, who has no Asian mushroom issues. He fed me a little of his brocolli, which I always appreciate.

A good time was had by all, except the unwell woman who barfed in the bathroom, which made everyone edgy. Everyone's checking everyone else's facial expression to see if we're supposed to make fun of her, feel sorry for her, or something else.

There was another strange moment, when suddenly the voice of a man was booming from somewhere near the ceiling. "God's talking to me, and he's not speaking English," I told Erik.

He said, "I hear it too."

I said, "That's good." At first I thought it was a cell phone. He thought it was a parade outside, the voice coming out of a bullhorn. Ultimately we decided it was a lecture being played for the benefit of those in the kitchen.

We're going back ASAP after studying the take-out menu diligently.

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