1128

Yesterday Chap took Colin and I to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Chap had been a week or two ago and said it was good, so I suggested that we try it out. I remember broaching the subject in the car with Glenn, who hemmed and hawed and said that we were welcome to go on our own. “Gee, I thought Glenn was a little more open to different kinds of cuisine!” I said to myself. No, Glenn isn’t closed-minded. He’s just smart.

The restaurant was tastefully decorated: wood tones with big mural-esque paintings of people wearing lots of eye makeup and caught in the act of consumption. A chicly designed menu was placed before us and I selected the seasoned rice with pork tenderloin, following Chap’s example and not ordering a Coke. (Chap drinks a lot of Diet Coke, so if he wasn’t having one, water must be the thing to drink here.)

A small and unexpected cup of soup was out first: pork and peas and such in a broth with cilantro on top. It looked pretty reasonable, but the strong taste of cilantro quickly made me dive for spoon-fulls of flavorful pork and peas in hopes of suppressing the icky-ness of the soup itself. Anticipating the coming entrée, I remember thinking, “I haven’t gagged in response to food in a long time. Let’s hope I can keep that trend going.”

Eventually my half-finished cup of soup was replaced with a heaping plate of my entrée. Rice in the center with little slices of pork (easily edible!) flanked by a generous portion of pork cutlets (I can probably do this part, too), slices of apparently innocuous cucumber (check), carrot-ish garnish (not a problem, if I get hungry), a cup of yellowish fluid with red specks floating about in it (hmm), a fried egg (not going to eat that part), and a yellowish wedge of what I presumed was the shrimp cake (undecided).

I started out by fiddling with the rice, which was not a problem. The pork was doable, too, if a little gelatinous (I don’t eat a lot of pork tenderloin; perhaps this comes with the territory). The yellow and red sauce was “fish sauce,” I was informed, watching Chap pour the whole cup over his rice and pork. I decided to dip before pouring. “It doesn’t actually have fish in it,” Colin explained, though it sure tasted like it did. Chap declined my offer of the fried egg (he had his own, although he did seem willing to hold it on his plate for me).

And so I muddled through the edible meal, finding the flavor acceptable and certainly unique but, regrettably, on the whole just unpleasant. The cucumber was good, and the yellow shrimp cake wedge surprisingly inoffensive. Having eaten around 2/3 of what was offered, I decided I was done and pointed my utensils to 3 o’clock on the plate. My first Vietnamese lunch! Done!

Then the burping began.

I was in my office when the first one came, the fragrant taste of the cilantro soup filling my mouth. Yugghhghghh. I burped for the rest of the afternoon, the foul remnants cradling my tongue over and over again. Not Listerine strip nor Coca-Cola nor hot chocolate would quell the belching Vietnamese sewer formerly known as my stomach. On and on. I told Colin of the problem and he laughed, “It tastes good, doesn’t it?!” I’m fairly sure he was serious. I should have taken up residence in his office and exhaled thoroughly with each expulsion.

After work I went shopping for Jessica, unpleasant surprises punctuating my travels. Salespeople were helpful but remarkably willing to let me look on my own. Cart vendors kept their distance. The soup’s effects weren’t all bad, it seems.

I was at last free of reminders of lunch after downing a Great Wrap (#1, a gyro, which Jessica has never had). Watching the merry-go-round at North Point Mall, I reminisced of times past when I’d get my hair cut by Kenny at Hair Cuttery in the Peachtree Battle shopping center, and then go down a few doors for dinner at the Great Wraps there. The same manager was always there, always taking great care and a surprising amount of pride in bringing out my gyro. If business was quiet he’d come out from behind the counter and watch NBA highlights on the TV that was eternally tuned to ESPN.

That was about three years ago. A lot has happened in that time. Jessica and I were friends then, neither of us having any idea of where we’d be today. (In fact, I found it a little odd that she kept inviting me to do stuff — I was still getting used to this whole ‘dating girls’ idea, and much less familiar with the notion of ‘being friends’ with a girl. Pathetic, I know. But I digress.) I’d go up to Alpharetta every now and then to play games with she and her family, or maybe see her at Marriott if UGA was on break.

Today we’re four days from the wedding. When we got engaged, three months seemed like a long time, and in retrospect it’s gone by quickly, but living through it, driving to Alpharetta every day, sure seemed slow-going at times. Tonight I’ll drive to her house as usual to see her and get a few things taken care of for the wedding, but this will be the last weeknight I do it. Thursday and Friday she has bridesmaid sorts of activities, and then it’ll be Saturday. And then it will be Sunday evening, and we’ll be married.

Several times people have commented to her that, “Gosh you seem calm for a bride to be!” Oddly enough, between shopping and grading quizzes and planning, this past week has been fairly stressful, with practically zero down time to enjoy by ourselves. As excited as I am about the wedding and reception, I eagerly await our first “normal” night at home. It’s the simpler things that I’ve found to be among the most fulfilling: just existing in her company, whether we’re sitting on the sofa or she’s grading papers and I’m tidying up the house. We’ve been teased for our little domestic getaways together, but in a lot of ways they’re representative of what we crave: living together, supporting each other, working as a team, making decisions, planning for the future.

I don’t think we’ll mind packing our bags and going on a week-long South Caribbean honeymoon cruise, however.

Note to self: Do not eat Vietnamese for lunch (and for that matter, no chimichangas) prior to wedding.

Posted: Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 at 12:17 pm; Category: 1128, Adventure; Comments feed: RSS 2.0.
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