Writings and Travels of Lina Em
I have a dog that at the sight of a suitcase, he will have the worst explosion, of the stinky sort. He is absolutely notorious for getting sick, getting anxious, and sad and depressed, wallowing in the closet somewhere when he gets the slightest sense that I’m packing up to go somewhere.
So I had learned long ago that packing must never happen until he’s gone off to doggy camp. That, of course, leaves me with very little time to prep and organize.
Switzerland has never been on my list of countries to visit, since I don’t enjoy the cold. I prefer warm weather, old buildings, history and romance, or blazing sun on white sand beach with warm teal water. And since the country is in fact surrounded by the Alps, it didn’t seem like the most seasonable situation for me. Weather Channel is forecasting rain the time I’ll be there. Alas, temperature and precipitation aside, who could refuse a request to be a date at a ball in a palace?
Continue reading “Meet Me In Switzerland”
After attending the bookclub meeting, I had a craving for tea and cake, specifically lavender tea. Did you know lavender is used to treat anger and insomnia?
Continue reading “Lavender Lemon Cake”
Once long ago, the planet had two moons, rising and setting like a pair of needy tenacious lovers unable to spend one rising apart.
One was smaller than the other but unrelenting despite its diminutive size. Being red and dwarf-like, it fed off the larger blue one, as if envious and desirous of attention and love. Sometimes, the inhabitants of the planet below pretended to see sand floating between the moons and made up stories that it was a form of communication between other inhabitants on the moon. Others thought the sands were trailing fingers, caressing like that of lovers were wont to do during nightly excursions.
Continue reading “A Planet and A Girl”
One of the things I love most about my boyfriend is that he’s well traveled. I’m a traveler at heart, a dreamer by day, and a writer at night so I always knew the person I would end up with would enjoy traveling as much as I would. Traveling is not just about hopping on a plane and seeing some exotic location. It’s also about exploring your own backyard.
Continue reading “Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder”
It seems apropos that I read an article by Sasha Sagan on her father, Carl Sagan, the day before learning of the death of someone close to me and my boyfriend. I think, in part, we knew that her time was coming to an end. We both know time is not a fixed object, aging and death is part of a mysterious cycle that we’ve yet to explore. Is there an after-life? Is there reincarnation? Or do we disappear into energy, scattered back into the universe? With all the various ways we try to comfort ourselves by the passing of our loved ones, are we ever ready when the time comes? The real question is, must we be ready or do we play on with the age old rituals of births and deaths with tears, doubt, disbelief, laughter, and acceptance?
Continue reading “Are You Ever Ready?”
Ridged gourd is one of those vegetables I was completely turned off by as a kid. It has a strange bitter taste, it looks green, and it has spikes. Seriously, it is a not an appetizing looking vegetable. My mother used to make meatballs stuffing them into these ridge gourd and cooked them in a soup. I resented eating them for a very long time.
Continue reading “Meatball Stuffed Ridged Gourd”
Sure, flea market is not the correct term used for events like this. But calling it LIC Open Market for Expensive Food and Tinkeries doesn’t ring the same bell. It’s quite long and cumbersome to roll off the tongue.
From stall to stall, I enjoyed viewing different food, reading ingredients, looking at the colors, the richness and the beauty of all the food out for display. It takes you out of the city mode for a few bit of seconds before you have those annoying rushing-off-off-somewhere-New-Yorker pushing their way to get to something. I mean, what exactly are you rushing off to in Long Island City? It’s literally a ghost town.
Continue reading “LIC Flea Market Opening Weekend 2014”
This short story came to me after watching this awful Thai lakorn called Mia Jum Pen, way back when I had just finished year one of my first job post-college. The lakorn was so silly and quite horrendous; the type of soap opera you cringe watching but can’t get yourself to stop. But I loved the two actors that played the roles and feeling that the lakorn didn’t do them justice, I decided to write a better love story that was still about bitter love that took years to overcome that was a bit less dramatic and less angry.
Another inspiration to this short story was hearing this piece on a flight back from Copenhagen. I absolutely fell in love with the music and really wanted to write a story that was as sad, as longing, and as desirous as this piece.
As part of my new year’s resolution, I had decided to learn to control my anger and in turn, started to look out for ways to approach it: through reading, finding a meditation class, and taking time out from work. I’ve recognized that my anger comes from a direct contact with stupidity, ignorance, laziness, and inappropriate behavior. But we all know that these behavior exist and cannot be avoided.
Continue reading “Lesson 1: Recognizing and Acknowledging Anger”