I missed sitting on the back stairs with Melinda, drinking beer, smoking, and talking. It sounded so good to me yesterday morning as we were on the phone. I've been playing with dates in light of my employment changes coming up, and there is now an end date to international travel. For now.
I have to set foot on American soil in August to reapply for my previous position and maintain all of the pluses of having stayed with PETA for six years (and they're good pluses!). In a way, I'm relieved to know when that is, that I am homebound at a definite time and can now start saving up for that ticket. Along with that knowledge of a time limit comes the myriad of thoughts that my Thai experience is indeed limited. As I drove my motor scooter today past the moat and the vegetable market that clogs traffic for a quarter kilometer as folks measure millions of melons and compare kilos of galangal, I started making mental notes: I must take pictures of these moments.
I have my first hangover in weeks, a product of a valentine's day dinner with a retired Bobby who spent a good portion of our later evening together, texting with his Thai ex-girlfriend to reassure her that she's lovely. A fellow classmate in Thai classes, Richard has a wonderful dry humor, the strong sense of right and wrong inherant in a good cop, and an attention to detail that came in handy as he worked the Police Intelligence Department (or Oxymoron Department as he quipped).
We covered work, love, life and brushes with fame as we downed beer, my morning feeling like I'd swallowed three liters of Elephants (Chang Beer). I woke in a familiar haze that I haven't missed, with that singular hangover thought that is typical of most mornings like that - "why?" I slept through class and was slow to get out of the room, finally getting onto my motorbike with a backpack full of stuff to ship, and headed down to Ban Taiwan.
The shop where I got Randy's birthday present was where I had mentally mapped it, deep down an alley adjacent to Soi 1. The lovely young women who work there where busy crafting as I pulled up. Pah and I discussed some more pieces to add to the pile, after I reviewed the finished products of the birthday pieces completed. She brought me cold water and we sat for a while at a tiny table and chairs and discussed our names, her de-pu-ying (daughter), how we're both trying to learn the other's language (poot pasa Thai dii nit noy), and snow. Pah had never seen snow, asked if you could eat it, and on discovering that it is edible, she asked if it was like that stuff in 7-11 (her hands formed a swirling shape). Ah the universal Slurpee.
The next hour was me sitting on the floor of the shipping office methodically writing notes (for Dad, for Me, old journal to use as scrap paper) and taping them to the items in a huge box. I had about 8 inches at the top when I was done, an impressive pile of loot that despite the temptation to fill it completely, I had spent any extra baht on additional pieces from the shop and on the unexpected additional 750 baht for shipping. I put on mental blinders as I drove out of town, past innumerable deals and temptations.
A day passes, a day of really nothing notable. I watched True Blood episodes, got some freelance work done, and instead of taking a nap when I was tired, I skipped the alarm and slept 12 hours straight. Now I'm off on my Sunday drive, armed with my usual to-go kit for the road.