Oh the Memories

While walking past Dynasty, the fancy Chinese restaurant (bet you don't hear those three words together very often) on 48th and Lexington, I smiled as I reminisced the first and only time I dined in at that place. At the time, I had just moved to New York from California and Josh was the only person I knew relatively well, so I arranged to have lunch with him to catch up since we hadn't seen each other for a while. On the recommendation of my coworker, we went to Dynasty.

After we strolled in and checked out all the celebrity pictures on the wall (Arnold, Jet, Chow-Yun Fat, Clinton, just to name a few), as well as the classy decor, we were led to a table. We were both surprised to see all the $20 entrees listed on the menu. Now, Josh is one cheap bastard when it comes to food (nothing wrong with that of course). On top of that, he didn't have a steady job because he was about to start med school soon. Earlier on he had talked excitedly about the $40 (or was it $60) he made after having his blood drawn as part of the screening process for a drug clinical trial. He went all the way to Jersey to do this presceening and hoped to be admitted into the clinical trial so he could spend several days in the hospital being injected with this new experimental blood-thinning (or was it coagulating) drug. He was willing to go through all this for some amount like $1200, which of course isn't chump change, but I don't think I could have put up with all the discomforts and risks.

The bill came out to be around $25 per person. I felt like the biggest jack ass in the world and offered to pay for everything since I suggested this place. Of course, Josh didn't allow me and paid off his share with his blood money.

Now I feel a tinge of guilt every time I walk past Dynasty. On the other hand, I also find the whole incident extremely funny. I probably shouldn't bring this up when I ask Josh for free medical advice in 4 years.