Wow! It was so cool to get out for and evening! We had a mediocre meal at La Posta, but it was good to see E's old professor. Mom and Dad were there, too. Both of them whipped out their dress-up clothes and looked spiffy, if not 1992ish.
It was so nostalgic to be back at the old restaraunt, where I've celebrated many special occasions. Walking through the main lobby, I was happy to see the SUV-sized bird still there. As a child it was full of healthy parrots, parkeets, cockatus, and other tropical birds, including a toucan. I don't know how legal that is now, but in the 70's living 40 miles from Juarez, you could have featured bald eagles, condors, and passenger pigeons and no one would blink.
During a lean time, La Posta featured inca doves. These birds are cheerful and sweet, but also nondescript and odiferously poopy. The incas had a long turn in the cage since it is fairly difficult to kill them. They are the cactus plant of the bird world. Tonight, a mangy blue parrot squaked, while two other parrots lost feathers in the corner. Sad.
I decided to check out the fish tanks, since they had an impressive display when I was a kid. Gone, of course was the aquarium maze of exotic fish. I remember being tansfixed by all of the glittery jewels of fish as a kid. It seemed as if therer were as many tanks there as in the local pet store (10-15), but it must have been less. the centerpeice of the aquarium display was the pirrahna tank.
At it's finest, it held a mini-school of pugnacious, healthy pirana fish with an attitude. The owner would feed them raw hamburger and on special occasions, feeder goldfish. Sometimes I would see these harried feeders gasping in a corner of the bare tank, since there was nowhere for them to hide. Once, after seeing the show I heard stories about how they would bite (bite at?) the owners fingers. I can't recall if the stories came from the owner or a family friend who liked to alarm little girls. My adoration for the sharp toothed big piranas is probably why I loved my dear oscars so much.
Today, the big tank still stands. A behemoth still, standing about 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep and about three feet tall. Piranas have come and gone. For a while they had oscars, then back to piranas. Tonight I could see three decrepit bored and blind piranas and two plump and chipper feeders. I wish the piranas luck, the feeders looked too confident.
The food quality goes up and down, as well, depending on the current manager and economy. But tonight we avoided the Ragu-like red enchiladas (it is blasphemous to mix tomatoess with red chile to make red enchilad sauce) and stuck with the Camble's Cream of Chicken Green Chile enchiladas. Not a bad meal, it was worth it to sit in the lava room amidst the dramatic lighting, scraggly rubber plants and gee-whizz giant lava rocks. The lava room is quaint, but you do suspect that the family got together over some beer and tequila to cement the rocks and boulders in to place. The 70's rocked.
I digress! MV seemed very happy to see us and had some career advice for
