The “Royal” Treatment

  Yesterday I drove to the Westfield Mall in Aurora, IL to meet a dear friend for lunch. 

Peggy and I went to Elgin Community College together in 1967 & 68…Peggy went on to finish college at Southern Illinois University, and then got her MBA from Aurora University…Me?…I spent a year after Jr. College working as a Nurse’s Aide in our local hospital…Shortly after, I met Dennis and the rest is history…

 

FYI, Peggy is now single again, in case anyone who isn’t already attached at the wedding ring is interested…

 

We agreed to meet each other at the perfume counter in Sears…I haven’t been to that mall in at least 10 years, and Peggy had never been there.  Luckily we found the perfume counter just fine..Before Peggy showed up I was drawn to the gatrillion sales that were absolutely EVERYWHERE!!

YOWZA!! 90% off this jewelry….WALK AWAY FROM THE SALES, DONNA….

We headed to the food court to get a cup of coffee and some conversation..The food court had a Mickey D’s , so we got our coffee and found a table…This mall was NOT busy at all..a sign of the times..They did have a really neat Carousel for kids to ride, and there was a counter and chairs all the way around to keep Mom and Dad to keep close watch on their kids when they were on it. Very clever,eh?

Peg and I found each other on Facebook about 2 years ago…When we were at Jr.College together, we became great friends…I think the thing that really endeared Peggy to  me happened in Anatomy and Physiology Class…We were partners, and for one of our labs we had to “pith” live frogs and attached electrodes to their legs..For those who are clueless, “pithing refers to a procedure used in biology classes to immobilize a specimen, for instance a frog, by inserting a needle up through the base of the skull (from the back) and then wiggling the needle around, destroying the brain. It allows for dissecting the frog, as well as observing its living physiology, such as the beating heart and expansion and contraction of the lungs, without causing unnecessary pain to the animal. The specimen remains living because respiration continues through the skin without cerebral control.”…..I know…disgusting.  But the worst thing for me was that we had to each catch our own live frogs from a tank before the “pithing” occurred…I HATE JUMPING THINGS!!! ESPECIALLY GREEN SLIPPERY ONES!…My dear lab partner, Peggy, saw my horror and stepped in to retrieve my frog FOR me…I am forever in her debt…Thanks, Peg.

After some hot coffee and great conversation, we decided that we both had a craving for some Chinese food…I was familiar with only one Chinese restaurant across the road from the mall..Szechuan Gardens..They use to have a scrumptious luncheon buffet and we Googled it to see if it still existed…Since neither one of us were as smart as our phones, we figured we would do a “drive-by”, so I jumped in Peg’s car and we drove across the very busy Rt. 59 to have a look/see if this place was still there…

I just gotta say that riding “shotgun” with Peggy brings back some great college memories…Peggy and I use to drive around in her car to find out where the hot guys lived. Then we would sit outside their house to just watch them come out…Oh,no..We never let ourselves be seen…We slunk down in the seats and waited till it was safe to get another peek..Neither Peg, nor myself were delusional enough to even imagine the possibility that these stud muffins would give us 2 goofy college freshmen girls a second glance..(Actually, Peg was and IS a knockout looker…I eventually found out that hanging out with Peg got me at least within close surveillance distance..She was a guy magnet.)

So, the Szechuan Gardens was now some other joint..Not to be deterred, Peggy got on her cell phone, called a friend for some advice, and soon we were zooming off down 75th Street toward Downer’s Grove, reliving our college days and hoping to chow down at a place called Royal  Seafood and Sushi Buffet…

That 2nd photo is a bit blurred, but above the words “Lunch Buffet” it says “Children Under 2 Free, 65 or Over Senior Citizen 10% OFF, Over 5 Ft.2 Inches, Adult Price..” Now there’s a first for me…Some very tall kids are gonna have some very honked off parents.

  Peggy and I paid our $8.99 each for the “all  you can eat” buffet and almost knocked each other down getting to the long tables of steaming Chinese cuisine…I took some photos, but not until I after I had consumed copious amounts of mussels, shrimp, egg foo young, some green things, some orange things, some crunchy stuff…The only thing I just could NOT do was the Sushi..Nope, No Can Do raw fish!

Trays and trays of food…On the right is the Sushi Bar….Thanks, but I’ll pass..

Food everywhere…Pic on the right has fried crawdads on the end..and calamari rings to the left of it…Thanks, Peggy, for another great time together…and we didn’t get arrested or anything!!! DARN IT!

So, this morning it was already 63 degrees when we walked…Since the weather was warm, McGyver decided to get some scaffolding up on our kitchen roof so he could re-stick some shingles that had blown off in the big winds we have had this Fall…Our friend, Jim Otto, was the owner of the scaffolding, and thank the Lord  he stayed to help Dennis get that heavy equipment up on the roof…Awwww, I coulda done it …NOT!

Well, that’s about it for excitement here at the Cave Dwellings…Hey!..How about that?..I actually posted 2 blogs closer together than 7 days!!! Things are lookin’ up!! (Not sayin’ that this will continue, mind you).

“Most of us don't need a psychiatric therapist as much as a friend to be silly with.” ~Robert Brault