Wheel of Fortune

I told you about my multi-talented friend Note, the co-owner of Kinnaree Gourmet Thai and tarot card reader extraordinaire.  The latter, at least our group of friends think she is anyway. I promised Note that I would blog about my month-to-month prediction, so that as time ticks on, we can come back to see how accurate she really is. Before we get to that, what she said about my overall future gets me giggling. She said that although I am a team player, I work better alone. Same thing with my social life, great with friends and going out but...
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Home At Last

Sawaddee from the Big Mango, y’all!  A nice, crisp, 75F “winter” Bangkok, no less.  I am enjoying the cool morning here. I arrived at dawn yesterday and what a day it was!  My brother and sister-in-law picked me up in his brand new BMW X5.  We had breakfast and I was left to myself all morning.  I unpacked, played some piano, and took a crack at the Nikki Heat novel before succumbing to sleep after lunch. My friend Note called to wake me up and off I went to her condo for a 4:30 p.m. pool party that didn’t happen....
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All my bags are packed

…I’m ready to go. Are you ready for me, the Big Mango? So I leave LAX tonight, arriving in Bangkok at 6 a.m. on Saturday.  (Yes, time traveling. It’s awesome.) Let’s say, I’d probably get home around 8 a.m.  I’d be done unpacking by 9 a.m. and I get to relax for a while. 3:30 p.m. I am off to my friend’s condo for a pool party.  A few hours later, we’ll mosey down to Kinnaree Gourmet Thai for dinner and drinks, my annual pilgrimage.  Hopefully, someone will drop me off at home with a nice buzz. Yep. I’m rolling...
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Widower Maker

When our beloved excuse themselves to disappear into their video games, we call that being a [insert game name here] Widow. For example, I was an World of Warcraft Widow, an EverQuest widow, and most recently a Fallen Earth and Fall Out Widow. Now, the table is being turned around.  I’m making a widower out of Brandon for the next few months. As in, a Italian Class Widower… Nora and I are taking Italian lessons together in Irvine on Saturday mornings, starting this weekend on through January. A USC Football Widower… If you’ve read my blog long enough, you’d know...
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Home Turf

Pim of Chez Pim texted me on a lazy Saturday mid-morning to ask if I wanted to meet up at Yai in Hollywood for lunch with her and some friends. Holy crap! Brandon and I have just rolled out of bed at 11 a.m. and we were to be in Hollywood by noon!?!  Pim assured us we’d make it a Thai time noon, so don’t worry if we were late.  And surprisingly, we arrived first. LOL. I Yelped Yai (or P’Yai for us Thais) as “THE mothership for Southern California Thais”.  Because it is.  I remembered when my mom and...
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August Rush

I was putting the laundry in the washer yesterday, an automatic motion I usually don’t think about much any more. Coins in.  Water runs for a few seconds.  Add soap. Let water run some more.  Add laundry. A thought popped into my head. “When was that first time you used the washing machine?” I grew up in Thailand in a household full of service staff. In the 3-attached home complex, 3 families, each with its own maid, shared a cook,  a groundskeeper, a laundry lady, and a driver. Pretty much everything has always been done for me.  The cooking. The...
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