Impossible is nothing

Sam and I used to have a breakfast tradition back in the U.S.  Well not exactly a tradition just something we used to enjoy doing together.  It would usually be motivation for us to wake up early.  Many a morning I can remember merrily going to Crepeville, Fox & Goose, or Ikea.  It was kind of our thing to do as a couple.  I miss that tradition now.  Even if we could find a good breakfast place here it means a long bus or subway ride that takes the laziness out of going "out" to breakfast.  Last night however, Sam said "I want to take you to breakfast tomorrow."  I probably looked a bit suspicious when I asked him "Where?"  He happened to know of a bakery that had good pastries and coffee down the street from our apartment.  We woke up late and rode our bikes to a two story bakery that I had seen but never entered.  I was surprised how reasonable the prices were for a latte or mocha. (12rmb=a little less that $2 US)  We grabbed some pastries and headed to the counter to pay and order coffee.  Just as the words for a latte came out of my mouth they said they had no coffee.  Sam said "What about a mocha?" (I laughed)  They replied again that they had no coffee because they had a new machine and didn't know how to work it.  I looked behind the cashier and sure enough there was a beautiful shiny new espresso machine.  It was big too.  You could easily make three or four drinks at a time on it.  Sam looked at me, smiled and said "Why don't you go back there and make us a couple of drinks?"  I just rolled my eyes and said "sure".  (That was sarcasm.)  Even if I could explain in Chinese that I had spent six months working in a Starbucks I don't think they would have let me near their precious new machine that they didn't even seem to want to touch.  Not that I would actually know how to work it either.  So we took our pastries to a table near the a/c unit upstairs and pretended we didn't need a cup of coffee to complete our breakfast outing.  Only... we did that cup of coffee!  So after we finished we walked around the corner to McDonalds and ordered two cups of coffee.  By this time it was 11:30am and the lunch rush had already started.  We found a couple of seats in amongst the crowd and sipped our coffee.  Then Sam out of nowhere said "Impossible is nothing"  I said "What?"  As if he didn't even hear my question he went on: "I thiiiink that's supposed to be Nothing is impossible.  You know sometimes they are just barely off.  At that bakery they had an oreo shake on the menu but they spelled it o-e-r-o "  I turned around and saw the t-shirt he was reading.  Yup, "impossible is nothing" was on the back of a girls t-shirt sitting a few feet behind me.  Something about it struck me as deep but I don't really know why.  Could be a good daily affirmation to repeat in the mirror.

 

In other food news we ate "Tex Mex" a few days ago.  I was pleasantly surprised by the cheese enchiladas I ordered.  Although the sauce was a bright orange the cheese was delicious and the salsa actually tasted like salsa.  It was in a part of town that foreigners frequent.   You could tell by the authentic country decorations that an American must be at least a part owner.  They even played country music which Sam wasn't too happy about in the beginning.  But the shredded beef burrito and the tollhouse chocolate pie made the music bearable.  If there weren't so many Chinese waitresses I could have sworn we were back in the U.S.