I went for Shanghai food on Sunday. I absolutely adore xiao long bao, these dumplings that have soup along with the meat filling inside the thin wrapping. We had four orders with crab - extra tasty - and another one with just pork. We also got a scallion pancake, two pork chop noodle soups, and one Shanghai fried rice. The waiters must have gotten a bit annoyed with the way we kept waving them over to add another order. Lord knows the people sitting around us were giving us the weird "Did they not eat in two months?" look. My cousin, who's working in some big law firm that provides their employees with two great cafeterias and an even better pay, treated and I think we almost ate her out of her savings, poor girl. That's after she had to run out to the ATM too because the restaurant didn't accept credit cards. The rest of us had nearly demolished all the food by the time she came back and we had to reorder. We're shameless. But if you're surrounded by ravenous guys who didn't eat anything in the morning, it's difficult to prevent them from attacking you if you try to get in their way of piping hot food.My cousin is an angel though, one of the rare types who makes friends everywhere she goes and laughs everything off. I've actually never seen her angry, come to think of it. She's a weird dork (our bros' words, not mine) who tries everything at least once (think bull testicles, public karaoke) and I suspect my dad favors her over me. :)
Me, on the other hand ... I got a mosquito bite that same day and had to go to work the day after. I'm very allergic to insect bites. As in, the bite got so swollen, it was the size of my palm and it looked yellowish in the middle like an aging bruise while rimmed with this fiery crimson color like I've been scalded. It's not itchy - it's painful. I tried to ice it down and the ice didn't even feel cold on it.
It was seriously inflamed and when I woke up, a putrid yellow blister had formed on its surface. I had to limp into work and I wasn't happy. Even though I didn't mention it and worked through the pain, my mentor picked up on the black, danger vibes I was emanating. When I'm unhappy or in pain (or actually! in the mornings, when I'm sleep deprived), I have a tendency to withdraw from others and stay quiet, as in if you ask me to do something, I'll do it and I'll either won't look at you or I'll give you a look and then glance away without an expression. If I know you better and you try to initiate small talk again, I might actually bite your head off. Think provoking an injured wolf.
My mentor was all "Awww" and offered to bring in antihistamine for me when I told her about it and then sent me to work, being sure to steer clear out of my way.
I was in so much pain, I had to call in a substitute to take my place for the night SAT class I was supposed to coach for high school kids. Sadness.
The bite's fading now, but I'm ashamed to admit that my temperament can be pretty much a ticking bomb sometimes. Don't be fooled by the quiet appearance.
* Picture source: wikipedia
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