While enjoying a nutritious and authentic Sichuan dinner at his local Panda Express Gourmet Chinese franchise, ... stumbled upon a truly fortuitous fortune cookie. After stuffing his face with Cream Cheese Rangoon, Shanghai Angus Steak, BBQ Pork, Vegetable Lo Mein, Mushroom Chicken and Sweetfire Chicken Breast, ... began to recede into a truly vegetative wok-grease inspired food coma. Within this overfed panda-like haze, ... sucked copious amounts of over-sweetened iced green tea in an attempt to offset the meal’s rush of fat and salt with a sensible counterbalance of pure glucose.

It was at this precise moment that ... eyed his unopened fortune cookie, shimmering in its cellophane packaging, perched next to the strewn remains of his soy sauce and duck sauce packets. “I spotted the cookie and could not believe my good luck. At the exact instant that I was approaching the very brink of satiety, I saw the final dose of sugar that might serve as a capstone to my unforgettable meal. I ripped the packaging asunder as though I were a junky opening a long-awaited fix.” ... inhaled the two halves of the cookie, almost overlooking the paper fortune strip that descended like a falling leaf onto his sauce soaked meal tray.

Cleaning his face and hands with a much needed paper napkin, ...’s gaze fell upon the cookie’s fortune. “Health is the foundation of happiness” it read, and ... thoughtfully meditated upon the fortune cookie’s sage wisdom. It was then that ... caught sight of the fortune cookie's lucky numbers, interrupting his idle rumination on a healthful future filled with exercise, diet, and a harmonious balance between body and mind. “I knew I had seen those numbers before." ... mustered what little mental faculties he still had to reference the numbers against important dates he had stored in his then cloudy memory. "My brain strained under the urgency of finding some sort of significance in those once familiar digits.”

After long minutes of cogitation, ... was struck with an unexpected insight. In the midst of a mental slideshow of historical events, locker combinations, and pin codes, a numerical pattern emerged in bold relief. “Those numbers are my mother’s birthday!" ... silently exclaimed. "I almost forgot. I need to get her a present and a card on amazon, before they charge me for express shipping." The fortune cookie was auspicious indeed as the item ... selected for his mother did not qualify for super saver expedited shipping and fell just barely inside of a birthday delivery window.