Wednesday

A recap for the home audience: just two days ago I was talking about yesterday. I was in a hurry to finish with all this moving stuff we've been doing. Our shipment from México arrived the day after we returned from our Hong Kong Thanksgiving, and since then Sunshine has worked something like every night and weekend. The necessary labors of putting together our house have proceeded slowly, but I was on the brink of being finished. Certainly a goal in any event, but in this case a greater concern primarily because at some point our stuff from DC will dock in Ho Chi Minh City, and we'll have to go through the whole process one more time (but without the terrible flight and all that overtime). Shipments need to be twice in a row; our apartment is too small to do them two at a time. I likened my target relaxation period to the eye of the hurricane and I planned on maybe doing a little holiday shopping during that time. Enjoying my weekend. Or, you know, just going outside. That period--the eye--that was yesterday. Before yesterday, there were piles of books and DVDs in the corners, the kitchen was strewn with glassware, and the dining room table piled high with homey trinkets. My closet, not roomy, was stuffed floor to wooden bar with folded clothing. Some point late into Monday night I entered the eye. Yesterday was a dream--I live in Saigon! I walked outside in sunlight. I read mail. I visited Bún Việt, ate fish soup. I picked up the phone today and it was Sunshine tentatively telling me the second shipment had arrived and could be loaded into the apartment as early as tomorrow afternoon: the eye wall. That was fast. [Cavin]