Getting ready to head back down to Wichita this weekend for the purposes of celebrating the new year. Not the piddly Euro-American version with that big lame disco ball, Dick Clark, and guilty resolution-making; but the awesome Vietnamese-style bacchanal of ridiculous amounts of food, money, lottery games and people running around in paper dragon costumes.

There are stories and rituals associated with the new year, but being an ignoramus assimilated kid, I never learned any of that, except for the most important part. As part of the celebrations, kids collect little red envelopes stuffed with $1 - $2 dollar bills; the earnings add up quite a bit when you have a lot of aunts and uncles. You are supposed to hold on to your lucky money as long as possible, but I never did and always blew it right away on whatever stupid things I purchased as a child (seriously…what did I blow money on back then, before I could drive myself to a yarn store or Urban Outfitters? Toys? Candy?). At some point, my status switches over from being a kid and on the receiving end of this exchange, to being an adult and having to bestow lucky money on my little ingrate cousins in turn. I think I haven’t reached that point yet, since I’m still in college and don’t have a real job. I hope.

So “chuc mung nam moi”! It is the year of the Dog, so in the spirit of things, I leave you with a picture of some celebratory puppy-wuppies:

-edit - and no, we are not going to eat the dogs We have better things to eat, like pho and bird-flu infested chickens.