Saturday

It was still gray all day yesterday. There was thunder and wind. It rained intermittently, but lightly. When Sunshine returned from work Thursday, I asked her: "is this the beginning of the new rainy season?" and she answered with a confident "yes." I'm a little skeptical because it hasn't been six months since the last one, though I know it ran late and this one's affected by La Niña. Today, when Sunshine went to work, she asked the Vietnamese office staff. They, too, voiced their confident affirmations. Who'd know better? A-ok then, ten-four; it's the new rainy season. The first-quarter tenant party in our building's lounge was tonight. By seven, I wasn't all that keen on going; but I had to because the lounge staff has been inviting me daily all week long. This party was Hawai'i themed, according to the blurry ink-jet sunset-n-grass-skirt clipart on the invite received under our door last weekend. Luckily, I have several Hawaiian shirts. Even though these parties are quarterly, the last one was four months ago. That one was Christmas themed.* I wore a Hawaiian shirt to that one, too. The leis we were given tonight were made of actual flowers, which I imagine is even cheaper here than the ubiquitous fake lei of tiki parties back home. It got lost in the camouflage of my shirt but smelled nice. The lounge was decorated with colorful balloons and grassy fringes, the standard Filipino band was banging-out overloud surf groove covers, and the buffet was mostly skewered. Outside it looked like rain. There were very few people we knew, so we mostly talked to a house-sitting Fulbright student we'd met once at a Halloween party six months ago (to which I wore a Hawaiian shirt). We drank free sangria. We left early. [Cavin]