When Tet And Valentine's Day Collide

This is what you get when Vietnamese New Year and Valentine's Day collide!

It's almost Vietnamese New Year also known as Tet. This weekend celebrations will be taking place in various locations throughout Phoenix. The closest to us  being @ the Mekong Center in Mesa, AZ.  

If we find some interesting, note able celebrations I'll take pics and post them.

 My husband probably misses the big celebrations and hoopla of the Bay Area. He lived in and has a lot of family in San Jose. His large Vietnamese family would get together and have all night parties to celebrate.

I'm sure he must really miss his family. He tells me about celebrations as a child in Vietnam. The food the special lanterns, the street fair vendors.  He speaks sometimes about the war and how he and his family would hide. Mostly he tells me about how his family downplayed what was actually 

happening there in the war. He had an interesting upbringing there in Vietnam. His mother was an Olympic athlete in Asia. She was a tennis star. They lived a life of luxury with servants and a driver lol. He came to live in the states when he was about 13. His Mom married a Colonel in the U.S. 

Army who later adopted Howard and his siblings. He spoke Vietnamese and French as a child. He told me that it took him a long time to learn English. I have noticed a great difference in his speech in the 14 years that I've known him! He is so 

Americanized now. It's amazing. 

The cultural differences between us are many. So many rules about status, expectation, respect. Hard to tell if that is cultural or just within his thinking. It's always been hard to feel as if I measure up. No room for being comfortable, always feeling as if I have to jump through hoops. Many times my self esteem has taken a hit. Never feeling as if I am good enough. See, I'm much more laid back in ways. Critical... If something is good it could always be better. From the meals that I cook to how I look...it could always be better. As I said, not sure if this is cultural or just his thinking. I've learned to except 

this but, it's been hard at times. I am learning that what another person thinks and feels about you isn't  a true indication of worth. Make your own worth! Create your own self esteem! No one can take it, you have to make it for yourself! If nothing else, being married to him has made me a lot tougher. 

More confident and feisty... Push and I will push back harder. 

Now maybe you will understand my need to be heard and fulfill something within my spirit? I so wanted to achieve some degree of success in my own right. Disappointing as I have yet to achieve anything other than personal satisfaction in the execution of this songwriting effort. 

Something More Than Nothing. Click on the arrow to view my YouTube video. 

The upside to this is that our daughter has flourished academically. He is not nearly as critical with her and she receives a lot of praise for her academic achievement! He's very proud of her. I'm grateful that she has a strong desire to be successful. She took the school district gifted test recently. She was found to be gifted in math. She is already taking honors classes so not much will change for her course selection. She has been identified as "gifted" now. Can't wait to see what she ends up doing with this intelligence.

Have a good day!