So, there is absolutely no connection between this foto and Victoria's Secret...or is there? Actually, there's not; I just needed to put some image in to fill in space on the page. Also, my wife is simultaneously sitting on the floor and exchanging some clothes that I gave her for her birthday to none-other-than the title of this blog. Cause giving ill-fitting clothes and gift-certificates to my wife for her birthday is the kindof class-act, gift-giving guy that I am.
Anyhoo, there is a story behind the picture above: I went to Beijing, China after I had come back from Thailand and while I was living in Taejon, South Korea. The women on the beach at Ko Pagnan bugged me everyday about having my hair done in corn-rows and finally I caved in and had them do it on the last day. After I went back to Korea, I decided to leave the doo in for the next journey, which was a "waygook" (or foreign) teachers' expedition to China. The photo was taken in the Forbidden City, where the emperor housed his 3,000 concubines. Just look at that peach-fuzz nimbus under my weighty braids: maybe I'm resonating with the emperor's studly ancient Chinese mojo!
I wonder if I should delve back into my journal entries from that trip. I ran across them the other day in that bookcase in the closet. I wasn't a prolific writer during my world travels, but it always seemed that each day was a new adventure and offered ample experiences to write about. Often, the experiences would happen so quickly that I wouldn't be able to write more than a few keywords for days. Later, it was as if the few keywords that I had jotted down would become a sort of mnemonic, memory-retrival device in terms of the experience, fleshing out various situations and characters.
For example: "Wivat-Comfortable Bar-Ko Chang" might be a semantic portal into a whole rich package of memories. Or another: "The Louvre-Mint Ice Cream-Mink Fur in July" was another stargate on the same world tour....the Two-Thousand Zero-Zero Party Over, Ooops Outta Time 1999 Summer of Love World Tour. Ok, here is one more for my wife's perusal (my first and only reader, at this point). Mee Kong River-Ginger Chicken-Plain of Jars. Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe I will just call it "Buffpiper's Secret" and retire to my life of world-adventure and ease in the land of Celtoria!
