But I thought you was used to the business

The best part about dinner with rushthatspeaks, gaudior, and B. at Mu Lan tonight was making a wistful remark about a dish I once had there with sliced lotus root, then ordering their smoked pork with leeks and realizing when it arrived at the table that there were slices of delicious crunchy lotus root in among the hot green leeks and extremely smoky, mahogany-red rich pork. It was not the same dish. It just also had lotus root. It hadn't said so on the menu. I was pleased. But I think the most awesome part was the bit where the rest of us had gotten a table and Gaudior was still trying to park somewhere blocks and blocks away and on hearing that we were ordering for our fourth person because she was still attempting to stash the car somewhere legal, the waiter looked horrified and told us to tell her to park in the abandoned gas station across the street. I went outside to call Gaudior. The waiter came by a second time to make sure I'd passed the message on. Gaudior came in, much food was had by all. When we left the restaurant, we found the car waiting peacefully beside some derelict-looking pumps spray-painted "NO GAS" in adamant red capitals. From the number of vehicles drawn up around the station, other drivers had evidently made the same call. The really confusing part was that the garage still appeared to be in operation: windows lit up, car on the lift, mechanic in coveralls doing something to it. Gas station itself, total urban exploration. Or a really cheap parking lot. I hope we tipped that waiter enough.