A happy Tet [Because I promised a friend not to write a sad entry this time]

A happy Tet is when you feel foreign in your own home.

A happy Tet is when you try to stop your tears from coming down in front of your aunt and her family because you do not want them to know that you envy their happiness.

A happy Tet is when your grandma and your mom yell at each other on the day of the New Year’s Eve. And things might even get worse the next day.

A happy Tet is when you realize that someone you care about just simply don’t have time to care about you. Oh, and this New Year’s Day happens to be St. Valentine’s Day by the way.

A happy Tet is when you sit alone in your boring room, blogging about how happy you are while people are cheerfully out on the street watching fireworks.

A happy Tet is when instead of your family or friends, you say cheers to your painkillers on New Year's Eve, because without them you will not be able to fall asleep.

A happy Tet is when you know that it might just be your last Tet on earth.

The handy man

Since I am now on a special diet – no high fiber food whatsoever, only fruit juices and vegetable broth, my mom decided to get a new and nicer fruit juicer for me. But somehow it did not work. My grandma suggested: “Call Uncle Chi! He lives nearby, and he’s a man, he will know how to fix it”. But he had some guests over at home, so he could not come help us. We tried to call some other people, but they were all busy as well.

I remember thinking to myself: my dad could have fixed it - he is quite handy. But he is no longer living with us. He is still a handy man, but he is just not OUR handy man anymore.

So we are still waiting for my uncle to stop by to fix the broken fruit juicer. Then it might take him a day or two to finish the job. I can’t help but wonder how long it will take us to wait for a handy man to come fix our broken home, and how long it will take him to do that?

Wait - I think my mom just decided that we should just get a new fruit juicer. So I guess we’ll just build a new home then. We don't really need a handy man, do we?