thank you notes 8/27

i'm thankful we got takeout last night from a chinese place we hadn't tried. i'm thankful it was really good. i'm thankful for steamed scallion dumplings and lamb with cumin and hot peppers. i'm thankful to remember when we were in san diego visiting d's family after we got married and went out to dinner at a chinese restaurant and i told d that the chile oil in the little glass jar was especially good and she should try it, but she thought i meant that she should eat one of the whole hot peppers from the mapo tofu and then burned her mouth in a way that was terrible but also a comical bonding moment for the whole family. i'm thankful to remember when went to rick bayless's restaurant xoco in chicago after a friend recommended it and had soup that not only didn't taste good, but seemed to be purely salt and burning spice in a way that was very unpleasant. i'm thankful to remember, i think, that we stopped at cvs on our way back to our hotel and got a pint of ice cream to balm our tongues. i'm thankful for fried rice and i'm thankful for the shallow plastic containers places like this use to pack entrees. i'm thankful that my fortune cookie fortune said that home and family are important to me (or something like that), which is not really a fortune but is true anyway. i'm thankful i allowed myself to have seltzer, since my stomach issues have been recurring even after i quit it and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference and it's a much better cocktail analog than iced tea. i'm thankful for the bitter hiss of it, the intimation of a burn. i'm thankful that we have leftovers and that if i make some rice in our rice cooker this morning, they're enough for our lunch. i'm thankful for leftovers and thankful when they're enough.