I had only a few days to read a pretty beefy novel for class— "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places"— about the Vietnam War. Pretty depressing. Really made me appreciate my warm bed and regular meals over this last weekend. I finished the book today, and got some work done for other classes too. My roommate and I are both going home for the holidays this coming weekend, so we had a stogie night today. I had bought a Java Mint on his recommendation, so that's what I had, and he had one too. We were just standing in the parking lot, talking about our homes, and our siblings, and plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and laughed about the raccoons climbing around in the trees. He just left with his girlfriend to grab whatever at Starbucks. So now I'm just hanging in the parking lot, drawing on the last of the Java just as the air is starting to get cool. Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday.
That all sounds rather wonderful. Or at least well put. :-) Okay, maybe not the Vietnam War part. But that's long behind us - or so I hope (does the book suggest otherwise?).
Enjoy your youth, your now. Your "hanging out in the parking lot" reminds me of good times having a smoke while waiting for my first wife to get off the train in White Plains, NY, from Manhattan, so many lives ago.
Wish to fuck I had me a stogie this moment...
Well, the book is kind of about the woman's experiene during the war: She lived right around the border of North and South, so ended up caught up in a lot of issues with the Viet Cong and the southern government. Half her family killed, the rest displaced. She ended up in the US after the war, and returned to her hometown 20 years later, so a lot of the book is about her reconciling with her family. It's crazy how much love she has for humanity after all the war did to her and her home.
Thanks for telling me to enjoy my youth. I've been trying to kill my procrastination habit so I can do what I need to do and enjoy the rest of my time rather than half-enjoying the procrastinating time.
I just looked up where West Plains is... never really occurred to me just how big the NY metro is. Honestly, sounds kinda relaxing to smoke and wait for a loved one.
Sounds like a remarkable woman - certainly a far better person than I.
Oh, yeah.. those smokes back then were quite relaxing. We're talking what seems like half of forever ago. Maybe something like 1986 or 1987? Seemed as though every other song on radio was Madonna: "Crazy For You", etc.
There was a heck of a mall in White Plains that I believed was called "The Galleria". Three stories worth, so several sets of open-air escalators.
I'll never forget getting off one on the third floor, and walking into a music shore ("CD's"..) *just* as "Walking on the Moon" by The Police started to play, leading to a purchase of whatever CD that was on. It's still easily my favorite Police song.