Coincidence?

Since before ~K~ was born, I'd drive in to New Orleans to spend the weekends with my folks and my dad and I, and every 7th week - my mom too ('cause she worked), would go to lunch on Saturdays.

Usually it was Mexican Buffet, because, surprisingly, it was the only thing I could keep down when I was pregnant (Hyperemesis Gravidarum.) We came to know the wait staff and managers very very well.

We continued going there for several years, until they opened a Chinese buffet down the street. My dad felt guilty swapping loyalties, but preferred the variety of foods they offered. Including the multitude of chicken dishes. Chinese chicken in almost every form. Everything chicken.

He loved Chinese chicken from Chinese buffets. In fact, for Christmas, he suggested going to a Chinese buffet instead of all the hoop-de-doo of cooking and guests and cleaning and such.

Sometimes, if he took too much on his plate and couldn't finish, he'd wrap up the chicken in a napkin and stick it in his jacket pocket. And yes, sometimes he'd forget it was there and we'd find it weeks later - all dried up.

And now, we think of him when we go, always wishing he was dining out with us or at least waiting at home for his buffet-to-go Chinese chicken.

So, can you believe that both ~K~ and I recently received the same unusual fortune in our cookies in two completely different Chinese restaurants?