Tran’s America

It tastes like lemon-lime and the fortune says, “Paco says, ‘The end of one thing sparks the beginning of another.’” The “Learn Spanish” word on the back is Martillo (hammer).

Can “Jello Shots” be a summer theme?

I’ve been married for almost a year. Hell is still frozen over.

Last Saturday, Shohrae passed away from cancer.  She was intelligent, witty, funny, and beautiful.  All together, she intimidated the hell out of men.

We barely knew each other in high school.  Her cousin and I entered first grade together and the three of us graduated at the same time.  A friend of mine from orchestra wanted to date Shohrae and somehow got her to be his Homecoming date though she wasn’t interested.  To me, she was the pretty girl in the Flag Corps and since then, she is one of the only people that I will allow to call me “Pauly/Paulie.”

In college, we were both in student government and I’m guessing that it was there that we became friends.  In medical school in Houston, she went on to be the president of their version of student government and I was so proud of her.  She liked government.  When there were protests over the Iranian elections, she was scared to go to one alone and ended up doing it.  She did a couple more after that.  We were in opposite political parties but she wanted to do campaign work with me when she no longer had cancer.

I have no idea how many times I met her at the airport when she flew into Dallas but for her, I would drop whatever I was doing to get her.  A year and a half ago, I stopped picking her up from the airport after she learned she had cancer.  She was so positive throughout a lot of it.  She had her down times but I tried to keep my promise to her when she first texted me that she was sick.  She wanted me to tell her that she was still pretty when she lost all her hair.  Every time I saw her, I would tell her that she was beautiful.  She was.  I have good group of friends in Houston that I used to see regularly and whenever I was in town, I had to choose between seeing them or seeing her.  She won every time.

I don’t know the specifics around the cancer.  I tend to not ask those kinds of questions.  I won’t ask how you’re feeling.  Instead, I want to know if you’ve seen the latest episode of “Top Chef.”  Shohrae and I were really into Top Chef.

We talked about men a lot.

Nobody wrote a text message like Shohrae.

She said things like “Fo Sho” as a play on her name.  As a consequence, I would send her photos when I saw “Sho” in public.

We had a lot of tequila, especially margaritas.

She loved my husband, Michael.

A friend called her “Such a light in our world.”  She was.  I loved her and I’ll miss her.

This was supposed to be a pretzel roll croque embouche with Dubliner cheddar but we ate most of the rolls. Maybe it would have been pretty art if it wasn’t so tasty.

Those round things in the back will be a triple-layer chocolate chocolate chip stout cake (made with Storm King Imperial stout) with a rich chocolatey frosting. Happy birthday, Eileen!

Apparently, the people at 24 Hour Fitness in downtown Dallas would leave it where they found it.

During my warmup at the gym, I realized that my ring still rested on my finger so I slipped it into my pocket.  I did my workout and was wrapping it up in a side room with push-ups and leg lifts.  I did them, left the room, used the Roman chair, then hit the showers.  During my workout, I periodically checked my pocket and felt for the ring.  For whatever reason, I didn’t do it at the very end (probably because of exhaustion) so I looked for the ring in my shorts pocket after the shower and couldn’t find it.  I checked my bag, the changing room floor (disgusting), and retraced my steps.  Luckily for me, it was sitting on the mat where I did my last push-ups and there were three other people working out in that room.  I’m so thankful.  Michael would have been so sad.