Help with Sunscreen

Living overseas finds sneaky ways of making regular distance relationships into long distance, even if only temporarily.  Travel for work, to visit family, to be in friends’ weddings is that much farther and, therefore, warrants time apart for that much longer.  With JD gone for a few weeks I am once again in Vietnam by myself.  My sad, little self.  All by lonesome,  just like when I first arrived.

Only not.  Unlike when I first moved to Vietnam by myself, this time I am not alone.

I was lucky enough to meet great people here right off the bat.  A real landing of butt in the butter situation.  In the last two years these fun acquaintances have become friends, then good friends and now a semi-nomadic, highly dysfunctional family abroad.  They proved their familial title when they rescued me from a power outage and convinced a neighbor to let me crawl across his roof so I could go to get my nails done.  They’re the ones who drove me to school every day last year when I was too scared to drive myself.  They’re the ones who gave me a cool creepy painted face when I didn’t have a Halloween costume and who throw parties as an excuse to huddle together when typhoons come.  They’ve come by with medicine when I’m sick, invitations when I’m bored and bottles of wine when I’m just about anything.  They’re the kind of friends who can put sunscreen on your back without things getting weird.

Of course it’s better when JD is here to share the adventures.  But worry not, dear readers (aka: my mom), I am well taken care of.  I have help with sunscreen.