A Blogging Sweetie For Monday Memories

The lovely Gayle from Planet M Files asked me for my address a couple of weeks ago and I obliged. As time passed, I forgot about it. I think the snow really slowed down the mail.

Last week, this cute little hand made bookmark showed up in a card. I was so touched. It was so cute and…did I say hand made? Well it’s hand made.

I put it in a book that I received from Neighbor Susan called Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen. It was about a Vietnamese family who immigrated to America and it followed the lives of two sisters as they struggled to assimilate into American society as first generation immigrants.

As I read it, I was struck by how much the characters mimicked my own life…or rather how much own life mimicked the characters.

My sister and I had a relationship similar to the girls in the book, our families both struggled with the language, there’s the conflict between Asian culture and American culture and always…the trying-to-fit-in as much as we can so we don’t seem “different.”

And weirdly so…my sister’s husband’s name is Gary, like in the book…(cue Twilight Zone music.)

And both of us are short.

Except that Gary is her husband, not her lover…and he wasn’t married when they met. He was already twice divorced.

Except that we have a brother.

Excpet that I’m still married, unlike the character in the book.

And I’m Thai, not Vietnamese. Don’t say it, we’re NOT all the same. Neighbor Susan is first generation Chinese by the way. So there.

But other than that…

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, though I’m glad I wasn’t the main character, geez.

Gayle, thank you so much for the lovely lovely bookmark. It made reading the book so much more enjoyable. And the gesture was so sweet. I don’t “know” you but I sense that you have a heart of gold. And I love hearing about your family and your dog Timmy.

Posted on YOUR site, Planet M Files.