My Biggest Fan– The Chinese Food Delivery Guy

Last weekend it was my mom’s birthday.  So while I spent some quality time at my parents’ house, I put in a few hours working on the boat in the garage.  My mom, 52 years young, is over the whole birthday thing and didn’t want to go to a nice restaurant to celebrate.  I suggested we do carry-out (because as old fashion as it is, and although I'm a bit ashamed to say, my mom is the one who ALWAYS prepares dinner in my parents' household...it doesn't seem to matter if it's her birthday).

While I was cleaning up the mess I made in the garage, the Chinese food delivery guy came right over to the garage door with the bag of food in his hand.  He took on peek and he was in awe.  “Ahhh. Wow!”  (That was about the extent of his English.)  He was so excited to see the workshop.  It seriously was like watching a kid in a candy store.  I can’t describe it any better way.  Mind you, he was looking at nothing but power tools and scraps of wood.  “Ahhhh….,” he kept saying (thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up).   He was so sweet. 

He pointed at the bottle of glue and then pointed to the board I had just glued and clamped.  I nodded yes, and the thumbs ups immediately tripled.  My biggest fan ever.  Where had he been my whole life?  I’ve had plenty of moments when I could have used this kind of support. He didn’t even know what I was building (which at this point, didn’t look like much at all).

The Chinese food delivery guy.  My biggest fan ever.

My dad, wandering around in the background, said in a loud voice (because like many Americans, he thinks if you can’t understand English, you’ll understand it better if it’s yelled at you), “SHE’S BUILDING A BOAT.”  My dad held up a picture of a boat, and in that very moment, the delivery guy went from giggles to complete silence. 

He was not expecting that.