Leslie Roberts, I Have Your Wallet

This is one of my favorite finds. 

Leslie Roberts was a childhood friend of mine, but I have no clue as to why I have her wallet. I found it in an acid-washed denim purse. If she had left it at my house you'd think I would have returned it since I saw her everyday at school. Or, she would have asked for it back. We probably moved into different friend circles and then forgot about the wallet and each other.

It feels a little wrong to be looking through the wallet. I'm not used to possessing childhood photos of white people since everyone in my family is Chinese. It's like I've mugged a little white girl! No, I don't remember mugging Leslie.

A wallet has a personal logic to how it's organized. You look at it and immediately it reeks of someone else. The things inside don't mean anything to you. They're just clues. 

There's a school portrait of Leslie, pictures of siblings (?), and a Girl Scout ID card. 

My favorite are her parents' business cards. Next to their names Leslie wrote in "my mom" (also Leslie Roberts) and "this is my dad" (Frank Roberts). I can imagine a kid carrying these cards in the event that she or the wallet gets lost. Not that it helped this wallet get home.  

Love Is A Pac-Man Notebook

Love is Pac-Man, rainbows, and bunny rabbits according to my six year old self.  

This is love and I love you! I really do.

By Invitation Only

Use of the lounge is by invitation only. This map will show you how to get there. 

Light refreshments will be served while you're waiting for your flight departure. 

Passes to the Sakura Lounge, Japan Air Lines and the Discovery Lounge, Cathay Pacific, 1974. 

Music Monday: Dimpled Lady

The Dimpled Lady turns to her side with a shrinking smile. 

From my grandfather's record collection. For more music, look here. 

Fashion Friday: One Afternoon

First they went to the sea by scooter,

then to the restaurant for some laughs. 

Forever Orchid

The living room used to be littered with silk flowers. My mother would buy them from Michael's and arrange them in vases on every available flat surface. She liked the colors and that they looked alive.

But the fake flowers reminded me of being in a mortuary. The paint-on color and the stillness were unnatural. They didn't bloom, wilt and die. The worse thing about them was that they gathered dust, which doesn't seem to happen to real flowers. When she died I threw most of them out. But I missed a few hiding in the master bedroom closet. These were meant to last forever.

Judging from the blue chintz vase, the Forever Orchid was from a Chinese goods store. The Chinese believe plants are good feng shui, so it makes sense to sell forever lucky charms.

The are shrink wrapped and ready for your home.

Chinese Calculator

I swear that not all Chinese people know kung fu or how to use the abacus. It's a big stereotype. But I admit that one summer I did take an abacus lesson.

(Read about the abacus lesson here.)

Fashion Friday: You're Late For A Very Important Date

In the belated spirit of Halloween and Fashion Friday, the White Rabbit and my dad at Disneyworld, Orlando