58028--Twenty-nine and beer lao

[zyzyly]

Before I went back to school to become a nurse, I was pretty much convinced that I didn't have a chance in college. I had just turned 29, and had nothing going for me other than having a friend named Joe. One night I met a guy who had just completed his graduate degree, having started from circumstances similar to mine at the time.

I took him aside and asked him how he did it. I expected him to talk about all the studying and hard work and all that. Instead he said, "Well, I went down and signed up for some classes." He put it in a step so simple that it gave me some hope.

The next day I rode my bike over to Sacramento City College and waited in line for a counseling appointment. When I got to see a counselor, we talked a bit about what I had done in my life so far, and when she heard that I had been a corpsman, she suggested nursing, which was what I was thinking about anyway.

She pulled out the catalog and started making a plan for me. As things were in that semester, the only class I could start with was chemistry. I told her I didn't think I could do chemistry. She told me that I might as well give it a try, and see what happens. I asked, "What happens if I fail?"

I'll never forget her response. She smiled warmly and gave a little laugh. "Darlin' they ain't gonna take you out back and shoot you--you just try again." So I agreed.

I left her office to get in the line to register for classes. As I was standing there, she came out of her office and said that the space shuttle had just exploded. 29 years ago this morning.

**********

Malida and I ate at a thai-laotian restaurant earlier this week that is about 15 minutes from our house. It's not one of our regular places. We tried it a few years back but never went back. The reason we went back this time is because the place we were going to is closed on Mondays.

She really enjoyed the food this time around, and I did too. She commented that the papaya salad tasted like they make it back home. Generally the Thai food here is not the same as back home, and it can vary from region to region even.

She called the place today to make a take-out order. She started out in english, and eventually switched first to Lao, then Thai. She talked for a while, and then I heard her say where she was from. Well, it turns out the guy who owns the restaurant is from the same town. That's why the food tastes like back home.

I went to pick up the food for her and talked to the guy for a while. He taught me a few Lao phrases, then started talking about Beer Lao, which is my favorite beer over there. I didn't know you could get it in the US, but he has it!

It reminded me of my first visit to northern Thailand. I was wandering around down by the Mekong, and came across some guys sitting under a dock drinking Beer Lao. I asked if I could take their picture and they let me, then gave me a glass of beer and let me hang with them for a while as they talked and sang. They offered to take me across to see Laos, but I had to meet up with my group. It was one of my favorite experiences of that trip.

Comments

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder about the Challenger. That was one of those "Where were you when" moments that I think I'll remember in vivid detail for the rest of my life.

That looks like a fun party; I always love your photos.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

Do you own the Airstream in your icon photo? We have a '67 Tradewind Airstream.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

No, it isn't; I love them but don't own one (yet).

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Would love to see pics sometime.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

I can not find the photo I have of our airstream where it is shining in the sun but I did find this one. This is while my husband was renovating it.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Cool, thank you; would love to see more if you ever come across 'em. I saw one for sale not long ago and felt hunger pangs. I don't have a vehicle that could move it, nor could I justify owning one, so I think if a RV is in my future it will have to be much lighter, but I love them, and two have featured roles in my never-to-be-published novel.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

We bought an old used Uhaul(F350) to tow the Airstream. It was what we could afford. We were moving across the country and the military had stored our household goods so it was good to have room to bring the necessary things we needed. It would be nice to have a newer F350 to haul the Airstream.
A small RV would be nice, some friends used a type B and traveled around the country.

Think positive you might get published.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

It was fun--I always feel at home in Thailand.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

I love this post.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

:)

[susandennis]

On that day, while you were in that line. I was on the floor in my condo in Charlotte, NC watching TV while the moving men moved my stuff to a truck and then on to New York where I was starting my IBM Communications career.

New beginnings. 29 years ago.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

yep--I am about to read you today post about your careers.

[creactivity.livejournal.com]

I love that you go to the other side of the world and have a beer with people you don't know.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I was a different person over there--it was like I could be whoever I wanted.

[howeird]

Love the photo. Except for the Somtom, pretty much none of the food from Isan has caught on in the rest of Thailand, let alone the American Thai restaurants. That seems to be changing as NE Thais pour into Bangkok for the protests and Phuket for the jobs created by the tsunami disaster.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

There is a great hole-in-the-wall place down in LA that my wife likes, but mostly she tolerates. She is very food-oriented. Months before we go back, she starts talking about what she will eat. I wonder if I will be the same way after I spend an extended time over there.

[howeird]

I suppose it depends on where you live and whether you learned to love the food there. I never liked NE food, except for sticky rice and BBQ chicken. Central Thai food I got to like during my year in Bangkok, but southern was my favorite after about 9 months in Haad Yai - Phuket - Northeast Malaysia. Salapow in Pangnga was to die for, when I came back to the States I discovered it was actually Chinese steamed BBQ pork buns. :-)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Great stories about going to nursing school and about Beer Lao.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

this is what I like about LJ--there is plenty of room for a story or two.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

It's a small world. It's neat that the guy at the restaurant comes from the same town as Malida.

I like your college story.

I had gone out to lunch with my neighbor on that fateful day the Challenger exploded.
The restaurant had tv's on their wall. We stood there dumbfounded.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I went back to work in a blood lab, and everyone who came in was talking about it. 

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I was about to start my first state job the following week. I was in a beauty salon, probably just getting a trim.

Great stories, both of them.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Funny how we remember these things.

Good story for a bad day

[fletch31526.livejournal.com]

I read quite a few "where was I when the Challenger exploded" stories on Facebook. I think yours has the others beat! Since you were 29(!) in 1986, I feel obligated to say that I was in the second grade when the Challenger exploded. Even though I was young, I think it carried much more weight with schoolchildren -- just as it did with the rest of the country -- because of Christa McAuliffe. Although shuttle launches had sort of become common, it seems like every school was watching it when it happened. It stuck with me enough that I did my senior high school research paper on the explosion 10 years later.

Re: Good story for a bad day

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Oh for sure--first teacher in space. Every classroom in the US had the tv on. Yeah, they had become so common that they stopped televising the launches unless there was something interesting, like the first teacher in space.

ps--good to see you!

Re: Good story for a bad day

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

This post prompted me to post on our alumni Facebook page asking people if they remembered what they were doing. I was in high school and we were not watching the launch... as you said, they had become pretty routine and I think the country was getting blasé about it. Quite a number of people chimed in.

Now of course, don't ask me where I was when Columbia exploded, because Challenger had already made it possible in our minds.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I have always loved your travels and your photos. And now your happy memories.