i was just looking in my wallet and saw that i have three dollars cash. that's a rare occurrence - seeing cash in my wallet. many of you already know this about me, i rarely ever carry cash on me. i mainly just use my debit card to pay for the things i need on a daily basis. works for me. i don't like being bothered by having to get cash out of an ATM or what-have-you.
i guess it was a couple weeks ago now - my grand parents were up from florida and mike and i went to see them at my aunts house. my mom-mom gave me two things for baby lillian; a wonderful hand-knitted blanket and $50 cash.
now, giving cash as a gift is something of a vietnamese tradition for many occasions (actually many asian societies do this - not just the vietnamese). and more often than not, they give it to you in a little red envelope that is adorned with intricate asian art as seen in the photos below.
you can also read more about red envelope gift giving at this wiki page, if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_envelope
on this particular day, mom-mom didn't have any little red envelopes with her to put lillian's gift in, and i could tell she was bothered by this. understandably so, i guess... but i am not going to go in to details for why she was upset. though you might be able to formulate your own guess after reading the wiki page at the link above. be it as it may, i told her it was okay as i put the cash in my wallet. i assured her that mike and i would put it to good use for lillian... probably by depositing it in to some sort of account that we will eventually open for her for when she is older. something like that anyway. and i also told myself that i was not to touch it!!!!!!
well - wouldn't ya know - i spent it! i left it in my wallet longer than i should have. one day i needed cash and that $50 was there. neatly tucked away in my wallet. i used it :-/ i know. shame on me. now i owe lil' lill' $50.
after reading that wiki page, i'm sort of glad it wasn't given to me in a little red envelope. if it was, i'm certain i would be in for some serious bad luck. i just know it. but since there was no red envelope, i'm hoping that null and voids the whole "good luck" part of the asian tradition of red envelope gift giving. i guess i can sort of chuck this up to me being a silly american. a born and raised mixed race that never quite fully understood, till now, the whole tradition in the first place... perhaps mom-mom could have better explained that to me some time in the 31 years i've been alive.
whatever the case, i owe my baby $50. stat.
...........jfk..........
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