Story #32: Hello from Jason

This is a real excerpt from an email response following a speed dating event in 2007:

“In my spare time, I like to enjoy a quiet drive around the city and listen to the songs playing from my iPod. Occasionally, I'd stop at a park and take a walk. I'd listen to my footsteps and realize that there is someone next to me. Like a phantom, it is something that I could never see…I'd close my eyes, and I could feel the wind. I would stand there, unmoving, with my eyes closed and my hands balled up into gentle fists.”

Story #31: Heaven is a Steakhouse in Texas

Six of us rode east from Los Angeles in an Astrovan with a destination in mind: Cattleman’s – a “legendary Texan steakhouse” that served The Cowboy, a two-pound T-Bone. We had three days to get there and back, making stops in Tucson for Whataburger and Albuquerque for grits and Davy Crocket hats.

When we arrived in Texas, we drove up a dirt road until we got to the restaurant at sunset, toured the large estate – complete with a  petting zoo – and ordered a plethora of food, only to do it all again the next morning before heading back on the road.

Story #30 - Birthday Drunk, an Adjective

After a full day of tequila birthday drinking, my boyfriend had the unfortunate task of taking care of me. These were sentences I repeated all night:

“Where am I?”

“Where is my car?”

“Where are my pants?”

“Please give me water.”

“Why are you giving me water? I don’t want it.”

“I love you sooooo much.”

He bought me a quesadilla, but when he asked if he could have a bite, I kicked it away from him every time he got close.  I refused to walk in our apartment and traveled from room to room sliding on my knees, giggling.

Story #29 - Float On

The same week I went on vacation in Malaysia also happened to be a popular week for Arabs to vacation there. Malaysia became a popular vacation spot for Arabs after 9/11 because it was a Muslim country that was accepting of Islamic practices. The women wore traditional abayat – long black cloaks that covered them from head to toe with only an opening for their eyes. But that didn’t stop them from participating in water sports like jet skiing or parasailing while wearing their abayat. From a distance, when the women swam in the ocean, they looked like black jellyfish floating.

Story #28 - On Foreign Ground

It always felt like an ordeal going to a doctor’s office in Japan. Only one smiling male nurse could speak a few words in English. A team of nurses would always come to my rescue because I was the foreigner. The office felt like a hospital with individual cots all in a row in a room separated by curtains. No matter what ailment I had, they would start me off on a machine where I would breathe through a tube for half an hour - even when I had foot pain.  I never found out the purpose of that machine... 

Story #27 - Old Habits Die Hard

When I was in college, I told my parents I wanted to eat healthier food. My family tended to eat a lot of meat and deep fry everything. That Christmas, they bought me a deep fryer, with loving thoughts about saving me time on deep frying all my food. When I recently became a pescatarian, I was surprised how supportive they were about it. They went out to grocery stores to buy me vegetarian food and cooked meals full of fish and greens. But at the end of every meal, they’d bring out a meat dish they’d insist I’d eat.  

Story #26 - What Dreams May Come

My mother fled with my family to Vietnam in the 1970s during the Cambodian Genocide. She was separated from her mother, who soon passed away from falling ill without readily available medical resources. Without knowing that my grandmother had passed away, my mother dreamt about her a few days later. She told my mother that she was pregnant with a girl and told her what to name her. Unbeknownst to her, my mother was pregnant with my sister at the time and gave her that name. That was the last time my grandmother came to my mother in a dream.

Story #25 - When It's Over

Every time I saw Silvia in our office, I was magnetized towards her. She would come to each floor of our high rise building and do a little cleaning. Sometimes, she’d proudly show photos of her grandchildren on her old silver flip phone. Other people said she spoke about retiring soon, after having been working at the building for 25 years. Yesterday, she was found on the 12^th floor of the building and Paramedics tried to revive her, but she had passed away from a heart attack. It felt so unfair that she passed away at work just before retirement.

Story #24 - The Comforter

On a dark street, I quickly pulled into a driveway to back up and turn around when I heard a loud crunch like I had rolled over a tree branch. I shrugged my shoulders, drove forward and then there was a man thrown over the hood of my car. I jumped out of the car and screamed hysterically at the man, “ARE YOU OK?!” He spent his time comforting me that he was fine in a thick French accent and blamed himself for not having a light on his bicycle. He hobbled away with his bent bike into the night.