22 August 2007

Good Fortune

I've always had bizarre experiences with fortune cookies. From the laughable:
My family was out to dinner and my brother & sister in law were adding "...in bed" to the end of everyone's fortunes. I was inwardly rolling my eyes, because I'm not twelve years old, when my nephew...then 16 years old...leans over and says "I was going to play that game too but then I thought it would be immature."
I laughed right out loud. And I couldn't explain why without insulting his parents or getting him in trouble.

The next story is when I lost my job a year and a half ago. We had recently had Chinese food and my fortune said "You will soon be pursuing other career opportunities." Not knowing what the future had in store for me, I dismissed it. Low and behold, less than three days later: I was unemployed! It didn't even occur to me until the Mad Genius woke me up one morning by bouncing on the bed and telling me "It's all the cookie's fault!"

So then, last night I brought home Chinese food for dinner. The Mad Genius didn't get home until 7:30 so he was dog-ass tired. We hardly spoke during dinner, he just didn't have the energy for it.

He always chooses the fortune cookie because I have horrible luck with them. He opens his, reads it, then tosses it on the table. "Fuck that."

I reach over, pick it up and read:

"You will bring sunshine into someone's life"

Perhaps it's not the fortunes themselves, but our reactions to them. Hmmmm.

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