Dana's Blog October 31

From ILB

fortunes

Here's something I learned on my trip to Asia: They don't have fortune cookies in China. That’s an American thing.

Even so, all summer long, I kept wishing for a fortune cookie. I wanted to crack one open and pull out exactly the right cliché, the one small piece of wisdom that would put everything into perspective. I wanted to finish a meal and find the little slip of paper that would tell me, "Everything is going to work out for the best." "You are safe." "You will do the right thing."

Kinda silly to expect so much from a cookie, huh?

Last night, Aunt Margaret took me out to dinner. She wanted to see my trip pictures and hear all my stories. (I don't think she even realizes how much danger she was in these past few weeks, and by the way: she has completely given up on her hotmail account.) We went to Yank Sing so she could eat Dau Miu Gow and Chicken Fun Gwor while looking at photos of me stumbling along the Great Wall. Well, when we finished dinner, I finally got the fortune cookie I'd been wanting for months.

"A problem you solve for someone else is the very problem you must solve for yourself."

Can a fortune cookie be, like… retroactively right?

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Today we helped Melissa go home again, but I don't think we quite know yet what that means for us. Even though Melissa is gone, I don't seem to have control over Aunt Margaret's site. There's still something living there, and it thinks it's going to broadcast something on Thursday 11/4.

For my part, I'm going to do what I can by helping Melissa execute the training mission she arranged for her crew. I'll be handling all the remaining RSVPs for the events, so if you can make it to Austin, Chicago, New York City, or San Francisco this Thursday evening, be sure you email me (mailto:danatwing@gmail.com) with the city and your crew name.

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I don't know what happens next, but I think we did the right thing. I think we sent a lost girl back home. I think we solved the right problem. And I think our fortunes will change as a result.