It was like cleaning out a junk drawer before a move. It was the last few boxes of our storage unit containing the remains of our marriage. But instead of rubber band balls and expired coupons, it contained fragments of my life that I could not part with or bring with me to China. Diaries. My grandmother’s China. My purple […]
Sharpies
Seven Foot Marlin
I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast on my wedding day. But I do I remember the kitchen was a wreck as the condo was in the final stages of being updated, the avocado green appliances being replaced with newlywed stainless steel. And my night sleep wasn’t good; I parked on the couch as my pots and pans covered […]
Life is Sweet
Eenie Meenie Minie Moe. Which Sapa darling do I buy the honey from? I looked at the three old ladies, all equally lovely, their faces road maps to hardships I can’t fathom. Their silver earrings stretched their ears into fleshy hula hoops, their black hair coiled on their heads like silky snakes. In front of each is a plastic bucket […]
The Frog Monger
I wanted to look away but I couldn’t. She had a corner on the sidewalk near our bank. I was drawn to her raggedy rice hat and crumpled up face, like a dollar bill that had gone thru the wash. She squatted on her store, a blanket spread on the ground, her wares a basket of frogs, each the size […]
Praborommathatchiyaratchaworawihan (I can’t pronounce it either.)
It was a bit awkward standing behind a monk at Seven Eleven to buy a beer. But I didn’t care. I needed one. It was the first time I thought I was going to die, since walking down a Chinese sidewalk and almost getting plowed by a taxi. I was visiting an ancient temple in southern Thailand called . I know. […]
Chinese Costco
The rumors are true. There is a Costco store in China. The bummer is, the store in online, meaning no free samples of pigs in the blanket in the frozen aisle. I mean, without samples, what’s the point of Costco? But in the quaint village Kunming, (population approaching seven million), there is Metro. It’s a German version of the popular […]
Dang Zhang Lang!
Nothing says you’re in china like a cockroach in your refrigerator. So I sublet an apartment in Kunming from a young Canadian with slightly bad hygiene. (The locals really didn’t notice. All westerners stink to them). But this guy looked like he needed a shower right after he toweled off, the smell of BO reminiscent of a high school locker room. […]
Cheers to a pint.
Tears came to my Dad’s eyes as he answered the phone that Saturday morning. Only one person would be calling at that time. “Hello, Mr. Sinsabaugh,” the perky voice started, “How would you like a new kidney today?” “Very much, “the words got stuck by the lump in his throat. ” That would be better than watching the game.” As I happily […]
Twice as bright, half as long
It was even too twisted for a Stephen King novel. I got the text from my husband and the waves of pain from southern California hit Kunming China like a tsunami. A friend lost his second son in eighteen months. To make the nightmare even worse, both deaths were the result of suicide. The second son, like his brother, pried open […]
Magic Mountain
I knew it was going to be a serious hike when a leathery vendor tried to sell me a canister of oxygen. “No thanks, ” I said, wondering if she knew something that I didn’t. It’s Jiao Zi (pronounced like “wowza”) Mountain. It’s forty two hundred meters high, a century back in time and a two hour drive outside of Kunming. […]