At the moment, I am in a @foursquare battle of the ages with a woman over the mayorship of a particular Chinese restaurant on Cheshire Bridge in Midtown.

For those who do not know about @Foursquare, it is a service that lets you check-in at locations using your phone or mobile device, accumulating points for which you can pit against your friends on a scoreboard. And if you check-in at a particular location enough times, you will receive the title of Mayor of that particular location. There are some social-media savvy locations that might give special privileges like discounts, a free appetizer, or in one place, a premium parking spot. But this is rare and usually, all you get are bragging rights. In some major cities, there are locations with people scrambling to check in at places for those mayorships, almost like a online version of a gang turf war.

So back to my turf war.

This particular restaurant, Hong Kong Harbor on Cheshire Bridge in Midtown Atlanta, has been an institution in the city for decades. It is what I would describe as a Chinese restaurant in the late 70s – early 80s style, which usually means that it was built to be able to hold banquets in the Chinese style, with a wall with a phoenix or dragon, red as the dominating decorating color, and large circular tables with lazy susans able to seat eight or more people. When such restaurants were few and far between, these would be the restaurants Chinese families would go to for family dinner, dim-sum, and to celebrate weddings, birthdays for elders, and the occasional “coming out” for new babies in family clans. Such restaurants have now made way for take-out places that have smaller real-estate overhead, or frou-frou “fusion” or “modern” Asian food to cater to a younger generation of Asian-Americans.

The menu itself is regular Chinese-American fare, New York Style Cantonese American food. You have your usual crab rangoons, Mandarin pork-chops, General Tso’s Chicken, Szechuan Pork, and even Sea Cucumbers! In such restaurants, variety is usually the name of the game.

So in my current turf war with this lady, I have found myself engaging in a weekly tug-of-war with a lady for the mayorship. I have found myself stopping by the restaurant at odd hours (they are open till 1am on weekdays), eating there multiple times a day, and sometimes even lying to friends about my eating there. In effect, I think I might be engaging in not very healthy behavior.

So, I have to step back and analyze my intentions. Am I realistically wanting this mayorship over the fact that i love this restaurant? Was I doubtful that this competitor actually ate at this establishment? Or am I incensed that this woman, a WHITE WOMAN, was the mayor of a Chinese restaurant? Those are the questions I have to ask myself.

So i have to let it go. I shall eat and frequent places without the expectation of rewards. If I happen to become Mayor, so be it. But this shall not be a turf war any longer.