double the fortune... double the fun!

[bluecastle]

I took myself out to dinner tonight. Sudden cravings for Chinese food were not to be denied. So now I feel like I am going to pop!

I got a parking space right across the street, and as I was getting out of my car, I looked up and realized that what I was seeing is probably NOT what people imagine when I say "Hey, I went out to the local Chinese buffet for dinner."

Witness the picspam:



This is what  our Chinese restaurant looks like. Well, the first floor ... the bit behind the maroon awning, is the buffet. The rest of the ground floor is an antique shop, the drycleaners, the Dairy Queen, and the lobby to the upper floors, which are subsidized senior citizen housing.

Not having the know how to stitch the pics together, here is the rest of the building.



Once upon a time it really was a hotel. Back where there were passenger trains coming into the station at the bottom of the hill, across the creek.

We're not very middle America around here are we? LOL

And just for kicks, here's the reverse view of the other side of the street.



The ground floor of this building ... the Temple Court Building... has an eclectic mix of investment firm, and youth center!



Then next door ... the darker red brick building... used to be a bank, but now after a zillion dollar renovation it has been dubbed The Courthouse Annex. On the top floor there's supposed to be one hell of a meeting room/ballroom with a stained glass skylight. Someday I'll wangle a tour.

So there you have it, a tour of one block of the town I grew up in. If you go up to the corner, where the annex turret is, and turn right you see the county courthouse with it's Greek pillars... and across the street is one of two dive bars in town :) And a gun shop.

See, it really is "rural" Pennsylvania after all.

My bonus prize for diinner came in the form of a double fortune in my fortune cookie. Guess which one I prefer...

:) Depart not from the path which fate has you assigned. :)

and

:) Answer just what your heart prompts you. :)

Comments

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

THE SECOND ONE!

Sigh, I wish we lived in the same city, as I wanted Chinese foood tonight. BUMMER.

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

Absolutely the second one. The first one is way too manifest destiny.

The buffet wasn't great. Too many things overcooked or tough. But there was a lot of it.

I would have loved to have dinner with you!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I so live in the wrong place. :*( Dammit if I just hated my job!! WAIL!!!!

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

I'm the one who doesn't really like their job. Maybe I'M in the wrong place :)

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

But you like where you live? I am bored by where I live. LOL. It isn't bad, but I want to live somewhere beautiful.

Nick made me fall in love with coastlines. He grew up on an island, lives on the coast now, and made me go to all the beaches we could reach in two days in Wales.

I would like mountains and beach. All at once!

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I love my little town. It's beautiful, and I like to show it off. But sometimes it gets really really RURAL around here and I want big city lights.

I'm just here, because I've always been here (or a couple valleys over) and my parents are here.

Otherwise I'd strike out for new vistas.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

My kids, MIL and dad are here...and one sister. My kids want to leave, my MIL is diabetic who likes to eat too much, and my dad is easy-going about such things...eventually, the familial ties here will be gone. My oldest sister? I hardly talk to her--a good person, absolutely, but she and her husband do their own things.

My other sister lives in Nashville and I'd love to live near here.

But...my job is just marvelous, I love the challenge, my position-on-high (seriously, mah boss adores me as does the team leader--i am their goddess). I am spoiled rotten there and I know it. I wish I made about 400 a month more, but damn...it is areally good job. 9 years in July. Will be hard to leave someday.

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

yeah. my boss loves me. his boss loves me. the library folks know and seem to like me. I just am so over doing the same paperwork/data entry every day for the last 10 years or so. And the pay is kinda lousy, comparatively anyway.

remind me of all this tomorrow when I have to write my yearly evaluation essays. ack. hate that. stupid waste of time.

but yes, someday there will be travel.