This day will be luck

I invited a few friends over last night for a Chinese New Year's Celebration. I'm not traditionally a die-hard Chinese New Year-celebrator, but it seemed like a good enough reason to have a dinner party. I had way more fun setting the table than making the food. Don't get me wrong, I love tasty food, but there's more joy in making things lovely for me. We had wonton soup, chicken stir fry lettuce wraps, egg rolls and fried rice (or "flied lice" as my Dad likes to say). My friend MaryAnn brought over some more traditional Chinese food--moon cakes, this sticky rice-banana stuff, and a sweet sesame cracker thing. Hmm...acquired taste is all I will say.

We ended our meal with fortune cookies, which brings me to my musings of the day. (Or rather my complaints?). I really think that fortune cookies should live up to their names and give, well...fortunes. Not advice, not some wise ole proverb, not some hard to understand riddle, but a FORTUNE. Here are some from last night that did not fit the bill:

"The gift is not as precious as the thought." Nice sentiment but NOT a fortune.

"Your patience will pay off sooner or later." Frankly, anyone who can get away with writing a fortune with the words, "sooner or later" needs to face some serious job-performance consequences.

"Promise only when you can deliver." Huh? Really? This was in a cookie?

This one I liked merely because it sounded like Chinese-English:

"This day will be luck."

I kept cracking the cookies open until I found one worthy of the name. This one is definitely a keeper and will be posted on my fridge:

"There's a secret romance blooming! Go for it, in spite of your hesitation." oh cross my fingers and hope, hope, hope