Today decided to walk from home to the Noi Coffee shop I would always go to. Walking in I’m warmly greeted in Khmer and English and they know the regular. Do you have a regular that remembers?
Actually I have another story about this too. Way back in January I went to Hanoi for the first time in almost 2 years. I visited coffee shops, cafes, bia hoi places and my favorite places of them all. When I visited Goc Coffee the manager rushed over to greet me in Vietnamese and give me the same table I had spent so many mornings at. The ca phe sua da came. The manager smiled. I was in coffee home. Another time I took my Vietnamese friend V to bun cha. Right on the corner from where we lived. The women rushed to meet me. V told me they were so happy to see me back. Down the river for a finale are two little cafes. One I would do coffee and sometimes a banh mi. The next door one was evening Hanoi beer. Both places remembered me. I felt like I had come home truly. I also knew though it was not home and could not be. Little did I know in just weeks I would meet alin.
So all the little stories always warm me. The remembering sets me to flashing back on Cheers! when Norm walked in. That same neighborhood. The same stories. People may not know my name but I feel that here in Cambodia and Vietnam I am treasured with the best.
I’m sweating still. The iced latte waits patiently. I have this big soft chair and a fan whirs and pitches it’s sometime nudge of cooler air.
It’s been some challenging days at the house. Seems like by moving we brought out the best and worst in people. Me included. Alin has been nervous and irritable. Turns out the kids bothered her. So they went to her sisters in the province. She tells me,
I am not happy love. I feel mad or angry. It hurts my heart to hear my mouth sometimes say things.
I feel it is the house and the change. Change can happen immediately but acceptance sometimes takes awhile. It matters not if accepted though because it happens regardless of our whims.
So settle in the big chair with the latte. Sit quietly. My solitude wraps around me. The latte is cold and warm both. I walked 2 miles to get here. Now is now.