Snailkiller

I am sitting among silence in my new home.  School doesn’t begin for another week, Hong is at work, the neighbors are out, and only the squirrel outside my balcony keeps me company.   I’m on my second cup of Vietnamese drip coffee. 

I want to share this poem that Hong wrote for me in a love note.  Isn’t he sweet?  I would normally gag at such romantic nonsense in the movies but in real life, it is truly special.

by hong tran (112199)
please forgive me
for falling asleep on you.
I last remember Pablo
and his metaphors.
But love, you are my
metaphor for all
the good things of this earth.
I try to create poems for you,
but am lost for words,
words that rhyme,
alliterate, metaphor-ate!
I am lost,
spinning madly,
an autumn leaf just fallen
you make me…hold…breathe…
gasp…spin…
I am breath taken!

He wrote this after our first "date."  We decided to eat in and watch "Il Postino (The Postman)"  It is a movie about Pablo Neruda- the famous Chilean poet.  It was an incredibly dull movie and we both fell asleep on my sofa- he on the floor and I on the sofa.  When we awakened, he apologized for falling asleep and hugged me goodbye.  I really wanted him to kiss me but he didn’t.  But then we hooked up and well, I can kiss him anytime I want to.

I hope everyone had a great New Years.  I spent it in Vegas with the most awesome friends ever!  It was me, Jasmine, Angela, Mish and Jo.  We spent two fantastic and emotional nights at the Luxor.  RA club at the Luxor on Fri night was a blur of fun and craziness- the perfect buzz and everything.  We stayed up until 7 a.m. and didn’t wake up again until 3 p.m.  New Year’s eve was more crazy and random- a few minutes watching fireworks and then a few hours at the most raunchy, ghetto casino club ever.  Then a few more hours in the hotel cafe sorting out years gone by and journeys we all had yet to take.  We cried, we laughed, we did the sort of things five women did in Vegas when they each realized that this past year will be like no other ever again.  I think we all mourned that past as much as we celebrated the present.  I am turning 27 soon which I think is still young although my body feels old. I’ve actually lost weight since being out here- it’s the cold.  I eat all the time but my body burns the fat while I sleep or something.  I dunno where the fat goes. 

I am trying to finish the "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison.  I am on page 358.  It is a slow read- a phenomenal piece of work about finding your place in the world.  But it is intense and dense.  My next book will be "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. 

I am also trying to find summer work at a law firm or doing some sort of legal work. I hope to be in CA for the summer but we’ll see.  I need to get paid so that is my top priority.

When I was coming home from Vegas, the guy sitting next to me told me the craziest story.  He tells me as the plane starts it descent- as if this moment of descent is a metaphor for his future.  He tells me that he just found out his wife of six years had been having an affair- affairs with his best friends.  But wait- the story gets crazier.  Not only had she been having affairs but she would drug him (the guy sitting next to me - her husband)  and while she had sex with him, his friends would tape them and post the tapings online.  The guy then asks me if I believe his story.  I look at his eyes and seriously paused to consider the truth of this tale.  I tell him I believed him.  He was shaking.  He pulls out his ID and photos of his wife and son to corroborate his story.  The plane lands, I thank him for sharing his story with me, and I get off that plane as fast as I can. 

Happy New Years!

Please e-mail and let me know how you are doing: nanvue97@yahoo.com