A Priceless Lunch

Yesterday turned out to be a rather gloomy day. It was overcast, intermittent rain and humid all day. One of those "I just wanna curl up and nap" sorta days. But as usually is the case, work had other ideas for me. So I was left wondering how I could turn this day around. I sat there a few minutes before lunchtime thinking what kind of lunch could turn this around. And then I remembered the local China Buffet. Oh man...having missed dinner last night and only having a granola bar (bleh) for breakfast, this could be it.

Whenever I go near a buffet of any sorts, my mind always takes me back to the Simpsons episode of years ago. The one where Homer takes the wole family to the local buffet. $3.99 all you can eat. To paraphrase, the owner comes up to Homer, who is still feasting, and tells him, "You go home now, you been here 4 hour."(in an oriental accent) So when Homer and family finally leave, the owner locks the door and hangs an Out of Business sign in the window. Priceless!

So as I enter the buffet, my nose is bombarded with a bouquet of aromas. My taste buds and saliva glands immediately start working in overdrive.(Yes, I'm sure drool was involved) I paid my fare to board the Oriental Dining Express and made my way to the buffet bar. I loaded the plate and headed for the nearest table. A feast of General Tso's chicken, fried rice, crab rangoon, string beans, baked crab meat cassarole, hot and sour soup and a spring roll. Man I was set...

As I contemplated going back for more, I decided that maybe something a little healthier was needed to counter-act my hearty intake. I wondered over to the salad/fruit bar. I found the watermelon cubes, cantaloupe, orange slices and banana jello. As I was filling my plate, for some odd reason, this little girl had drawn a blip on my curiousity radar. She and her brother were making plates of salad. They both had generous portions of salad with allot of goodies. What intrigued me about her was the difficulty she had keeping the cherry tomatoes on her plate. As she started to walk away with plate in hand, two of them rolled off onto the floor. I almost gasped in horror at the demise of those cherry tomatoes.(I love cherry tomatoes) I caught myself tho and stifled the laughter. She turned around and sheepishly picked them up and wondered how she was going to dispose of them. What came next? Yep, you guessed it...she put them in her pocket. My sides were hurting and I felt the contortion comes across my face as I tried to stifle the laughter again. She once again placed two cherry tomatoes on her plate and attempted the same manuever. Yep...two more cherry tomatoes hit the floor. Well this time, she left them because they rolled under the buffet bar. She paused for a minute and you could see the gears of her mind working. She walked over to the salad dressing area, made a center portion in her salad and filled it with Ranch dressing. I figured she'd just given up on the cherry tomatoes and the rest would be sparred a merciless demise. She promptly placed two more cherry tomatoes in the salad dressing and manuevered ever so carefully away from the salads. Yes! Mission accomplished. When she was out of earshot, I broke out in laughter.

As I was heading back to my table, I was proud of myself from feasting at the healthy organic bar second time around. I passed the two young children sitting with their grandparents. As I passed by, the little girl broke into a devilish grin and looked at her brother, "Here, I got you some cherry tomatoes" and placed them on his plate. I could hear that buffet owner telling Homer, "You go home now, you been here four hour."