Lots of food, lots of alcohol, and lots of loud laughter. That's how I would describe my Filipino Thanksgiving.
I was greeted with lots of warm smiles and handshakes. They welcomed me immediately. "Hi Michael! Welcome to our house!", "Michael! So good to meet you!", "Here Mike, have a beer!"
Here's how it started. I was at Veniero's with some female friends. We were bemoaning the difficulty of finding good single people in Manhattan.
"Why is it so hard?" they asked. "Where are they?"
"I don't know, but I know they're out there."
Dear Mr. Nguyen,
I wish I could have met you. From what Kim has told me, you sounded like a truly impressive and honorable man.
Did you see your family at your funeral this weekend? So many people were crying. They love you so much.
"Stop it Michael."
"What?" I asked, leaning up from the couch. "Why, what am I doing wrong?"
"You're leading her on," my friend replied.
"No I'm not. How?"
"See, a friend like her, she just knows. She just knows when I'm up to something, when I'm doing something bad," said my friend, beaming proudly.
Ironically, on the drive there I was bellowing like a madman to a bunch of recently-downloaded mp3s. My throat was even a bit sore 'cuz I was singing so loud.
But once in that tiny, claustrophobic cell they call a karaoke room, my throat closed in on itself. It slammed shut like a wall of rock coming down on Indiana Jones, right before he reaches back to grab his hat.
It's been truly disheartening to talk to so many married couples lately. Not because I feel any pressure to get married myself, but because so many of them seem to be unhappily married.
I'm at that age now where a lot of my friends are dropping like flies (er, I mean getting married). And at this age, if you're single, you'll feel some of that the marital pressure. If your married friends aren't trying to set you up, they're asking you, "So when are you going to settle down?"
The BOOM of the impact must have been deafening. Yim, my cousin's wife, ran out of the World Trade Center lobby and into the courtyard. The shock waves shook the entire building and debris fell to the earth.
She looked up and glass fell into her face. Several shards cut her cornea. She covered her face and ran from the building.
I'm looking forward to my thirties. They seem like so much fun.
Because I know it's going to be just like those commercials where a bunch of thirty-somethings sit in a log cabin, sipping their Chardonnay and laughing about old times.
It IS going to be just like that, isn't it?
"Do you want another drink?"
Kristina smiled. "I'll take another one of these," she said, tapping her empty glass. "These were gooooood."
Weekly random rambles, musings & writings of Mike Lee in San Francisco, CA