Christianese is the only language more confusing than Chinese. For starters, you can’t cut and paste it into my faithful friend, Google Translate.
Lessons from a Dummy
The Power of Words
It’s one of the few words that I know in Chinese. If you pronounce it correctly, you’ll be saying thank you. If you pronounce it wrong, you’ll be saying anything but.
Purple Haze
It’s become a thing for me. Heading to the mountains of Sapa Vietnam for my birthday
Barista of Bad
grinding up life’s bitter moments into something good.
Why I’m thankful for Donald, Angels in Khakis and Librarians.
As the green Jell-O melts at the Thanksgiving table, your father-in-law mutters an updated version of the prayer he said last year. It includes family members, a line about world peace, a reiteration of the poem about the footprints in the sand, gratitude for Costco for having pumpkin pies on sale. But as you secretly wish he’d hurry up so […]
When Spice Isn’t
After living in Kunming China for eight years, I have built up a tolerance for what’s spicy. Not just the far-side foods, either, but the spice of life. The nine-year-old selling liquor in his parent’s store? At least he can see over the counter. Old women recylcers with huge bundles strapped to their backs? Walk faster! Freshly slaughtered carcasses hanging […]
Reading People
I don’t know what smell was more alluring, the smell of old books or the red peppers. It was a hole in the wall Thai book noodle shop in Ayatthaya, Thailand. The eighty cent train ride from Bangkok transported me back in time to the land of ancient temples and cheesy paperbacks. I browsed the browning pages while waiting for […]
Bang-cha-cha-cha
So, between my semi-annual my-body’s falling-apart check upand street-food crawl in Bangkok, I stopped at a café for a cup of WiFi when I started talking with a guy named James. He has your typical ex-pat bio. James is a former country dancer employed by a high-tech business in Portland but he’s working at the India branch. Like I […]
The Dress
Girls dream all of their lives what to wear on their wedding day. But what do you wear on the day or your divorce? My final hearing called was scheduled for November 2nd, one thirty in the afternoon Wisconsin time. But being in China, that would be 2:30 am, thirteen hours into the future. It had been arranged that […]
When Life Gives You Buttbeans
Copi Luwak or butt bean coffee seemed like the perfect way to drown my sorrows on that anything but Good Friday.