I call it the the second-best because it is, and it is on account of there's another Chinese restaurant in town that's better. Their food is fantastic, but so are their prices. And so are their lines because they're only open a few hours a day. If I were feeling wealthy and exclusive I would go to the best Chinese restaurant in town, but I hardly ever feel wealthy and exclusive so I usually go to the second-best Chinese restaurant in town.
Best Friend Boy and his family goes there a lot and knows the manager fairly well. Etch-a-Sketch used to go with them a lot, so she also knows the manager fairly well. And now I go there so much that the manager knows me as well. Or he's confusing me with Etch-a-Sketch, since we've gone there a few times together and people commonly mistake us for each other due to similar hair and body structure.
Whether he thinks I'm me or whether he thinks I'm Etch-a-Sketch, the manager usually comes to personally talk to me whenever I'm in the house. A few weeks ago, when Pepper and I came for dinner, he encouraged me to come to the restaurant for their Chinese New Year's celebration.
Since I'm a sucker for Chinese food and celebrations and interesting things that I've never done before, I agreed, and on the night of the celebration I showed up for a 6:30 reservation with Pepper, the Seamstress, and Goldfinger in tow.
The restaurant was pretty crowded with couples and families. Little red envelopes hung from the ceiling. There was one near our table that was hanging alongside a bunch of lettuce.
We ordered from the special New Year's menu and settled in to wait.
Pepper was excited because her grandmother is Chinese and used to take her to a Chinese restaurant for a similar New Year's celebration. She was so excited that she brought us all gifts for the occasion: notebooks!
PEPPER: Read the words on the front, because they mean something.
The Seamstress's notebook said, "Reach for the stars." Goldfinger's notebook said, "Make mistakes." This is what mine said:
Obviously, Pepper knows me well.
Shortly after our food came, a drumming started within the restaurant. It was a compelling, steady drumbeat, and everybody started moving in time to it. I kept bobbing my head back and forth because I just couldn't help myself. Goldfinger was bobbing his head, too. The waiters were stepping in time.
Then the dragon came out! We all craned our heads eagerly to look... buuut this lady from the table next to us stepped in front of us so that she could take a video. So we were left in suspense while she videoed. But then finally, finally, she moved, and we could actually see the dragon.
It was the real deal, too. The dancers in the dragon costume pranced up and down and all around the restaurant to the beat of the drum. They were accompanied by a dancer wearing a mask and carrying a fan, and another dancer in a monkey mask and costume. It was just like in Fraggle Rock when they dress up as the Weeba beast and dance and shout "Weeba weeba!" Except nobody shouted "Weeba weeba!" Not even me, even though I really wanted to.
The kids in the restaurant couldn't get enough of that monkey. I couldn't get enough of that monkey. He hopped around, crouching on the ground and poking his head through the cutouts in the partition walls. He monkeyed his way through the aisles, which we enjoyed watching... buuut then the lady from the table next to us stepped in front of us again so that she could take a video. Again.
After about twenty minutes of this, the dragon began a different kind of dance. It lifted its head up to one of the red envelopes hanging from the ceiling, close its giant dragon mouth around it, and gulp it into its gut. Envelope after envelope it swallowed, even the one hanging next to the lettuce. In fact, in its haste to eat the envelope, it also swallowed the lettuce. And then it danced around the restaurant and threw the lettuce up onto the ground. Because apparently, dragons like red envelopes but not lettuce.
All the while, the drums kept beating. They made me feel like I had to get up and do something, but there was no room in the restaurant to do anything. The only thing to do was to keep eating, even though I was stuffed with food from the very filling special New Year's menu.
Soon the whole thing was done. We applauded, paid, boxed up our food, had an obligatory conversation with my BFF the manager, and left. I couldn't help feeling kind of hopeful because a) the excitement of the drumbeat had gotten into my soul. Also b) Pepper had said that we should use our notebooks to make New Year's resolutions because, as far as she was concerned, it was like New Year's all over again. And since this was a lot more exciting than what I usually do for New Year', I liked the idea of starting 2016 over with this other beginning.
Then we got home, and the Seamstress looked up our zodiac signs.
THE SEAMSTRESS: (to Awkward Mormon Girl) Apparently the year of the monkey is supposed to be really bad luck for you!
AWKWARD MORMON GIRL: ...NO.
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