Thessa white driver#

I liked it a ton better than the first season, which was mostly set up and backstory.

The Leftovers: (HBO) Season 2 gets crazy. More on the Year of the Fire Monkey can be found here. The amount of money inside usually ends in an even number and never involves the number 4, which is pronounced similar to the word for death.

The red color symbolizes good luck and wards off evil spirits. Giving red envelopes (lai see or hongbao) are a tradition of married people giving a monetary gift to children and those who are not married.The Chinese government instituted a weeklong public holiday to celebrate the new year. In recent decades the holiday has become more of a cultural celebration than a religious one. There is no raucous drinking and ballyhooing on the eve of Lunar New Year instead it is traditionally a time spent quietly with family. The animal is also paired with an element, and this year the monkey is paired with вЂњfire.вЂќ Apparently a Dragon girl is very auspicious. I am a Tiger (NOT a Tiger-mom), have married a Tiger and my children are a Monkey, a Pig/Boar, and a Dragon. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 years, and each year is associated with an animal.Of course, itвЂ™s now celebrated in the US as well, with San Francisco hosting the largest Lunar New Year parade. ItВ is celebrated in many Asian countries including Vietnam, Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. Spring FestivalВ is a synonym for Lunar New Year.This means that the holiday usually falls between Jan. Year of the Monkey: the Lunar New Year is based on the lunisolar calendar (not the Gregorian, as the US and most of the world does) which charts time based on the movements of the moon and sun.I researched the holiday andВ put together the Cliff Notes version (or IdiotвЂ™s Guide?)В for theВ non-Chinese folks: When we lived in San Francisco, the city shut down public schools and made the first day ofВ Lunar New YearВ a holiday. The tissue is a flaccid, unflying flag between us, stagnant in the humid air, and so I reach further, and as I do my arm jostles against the taut wire headphone, and with a sharp tug yanks my phone off the console and it pitches out the window, onto the concrete, smashing into splintery shards. Winnie startles, and exclaims, вЂњ Charles!вЂќ But I ignore her and dangle the tissue out the window, and the woman takes her cue and leans way over the passenger seat, reaching, grunting.

I pull out the tissue, roll down my window, and call out into the exhaust: вЂњHey!вЂќ The woman now looks my way, and our eyes catch. I finger the tissue that sits in its box between Winnie and I.

Thessa white driver#

The driver is a dark-skinned woman with tight curls, large glasses, pudgy arms, and as we sit unmoving I notice her tears great rivulets are racing down her face. The podcast ends and in that beat I look over at the blue Toyota idling in the next lane, so close, a stoneвЂ™s throw away. The twins are in the back seat, my daughter plugged into her Kindle and my son steadily swiping his mini Ipad, while I listen to a lecture podcast on my phone with a single earbud. Winnie, next to me, reads a novel on her Ipad. Enjoy!ДЇourth of July, and we are driving to the beach in a slog of traffic. Again, the only requirements were that it had to be 250 words. I thought I would print itВ here for anyone interested in a story squeezed into about four paragraphs. *Update: I ended up being one of two runners up in this contest! Yes, I won $100 but the confidence boost that recharged my battery was worth $1M. IвЂ™m honored and excited to be among the top 15* вЂ“ and a big shout out to Literary Death Match for sponsoring the contest. Woohoo! Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) is the judge, and IвЂ™m thrilled he has not only read my piece but chosen it as a finalist. вЂ¦to be a finalist for the 250-word short story contest byВ Literary Death Match.