Happy Birthday, Melissa

I've seen that I have not gotten this posted in time for April 3 (U.S. time). I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my youngest sister Melissa, who turned 25 yesterday. Ah, 25, what a milestone. I remember when I was 25, what a momentous year. That was the year I...hmmm....that was the age when I....


I'm not sure what the count is right now, but from what I last knew, Mel was working 3 jobs, one because she loves it, the other because she loves the clothes, and the other probably only because they really love her. For a younger sister, she's never asked jack squat from her older brother, except I think there was this one time a decade ago she asked to borrow 20 dollars.
Not having to worry about a younger sibling is a huge luxury. I never had to worry about Melissa, but to be fair, I'm not really sure any of my older siblings had to worry about her, either. She always possessed a remarkable precociousness from ever since I could remember, though precocious has merely evolved into wise, since she's an old lady now. Melissa had to grow up really fast in our family because as sharp as she was at such an early age, we expected her to mature as proportionally fast. We all took this aspect of her for granted and treated her as an adult ever since the birth of Amanda. 


That would have made Mel about 6 at the time. We corrupted Mel's Bible school values by asking her to participate in elaborate ruses to help protect her siblings from the wrath of our parents. I made Mel watch The Kids in the Hall with me while she was in 2nd grade, never balking when I was asked to explain some of the more scandalous sketches. I would threaten her when she persistently sang songs I didn't like, such as "Brother Louie" by German FOB gods Modern Talking. Maybe this sounds like typical bored-teenaged-boy-at-home-with-nothing-better-to-do type of behavior, but Mel was always cut very little slack if she did something childish, or heaven forbid, something on par with children her age, not just by me, but by everyone in the family.


It's time the tale were told
of how you took a child
and you made [her] old


Of course those lyrics popped into my head. If you know what that song is actually about, no, I'm not talking about that, I'm just talking about Mel's forced maturation, and to insert lyrics from a band that I probably approved her singing when she was 8. So now that Mel is a jack of all trades, super intelligent adult, we can all take credit for this, right family?


I love you, Melissa. Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoyed your Crawfish Shack and had a wonderful rest of your day. I'm sure Thomas had lined up rose petals from the doorstep to your car or something along those lines. 


I took this video of Linh, a boisterous teenage native of Sapa who just loves to correct my Vietnamese . She, along with her mother, sells skewers on the sidewalk next to the main square in town, and I would occasionally stop by to chit chat with her, since she always had her guitar and I was curious to hear her perform. She'd sing me some songs, but would never let me record them, because she figured I would put her on the internet and make her famous (ahhhhh, kids in Vietnam frown upon the pursuit of fame).


She swore she'd eventually let me record her before I left town, but that I still couldn't put it on the internet. I've left the title of the youtube video with its default file name in order for this video to remain as anonymous as possible. And I'm sorry Linh, but the 20 visits I get at allthephopuns.blogspot.com a day can't really qualify as fame, so I'm putting this up in the hopes that I am not violating any pact that we've made. 


She knows a few English language songs (I only recognized one, the others must be German pop from the 80s) but when I first met her, I tried introducing her to some tunes I knew she could play, and might enjoy. I made a playlist and let her listen to my ipod. Linh was very appreciative, but said she aged 10 years just by listening to my selection.  I guess I have that effect on people.


Here she is knowingly performing for Mel and Anh Vien, unknowingly performing for everyone else that might visit this page. Thanks Linh!

I'm watching this video and I realize I look a little flustered. If I do, it's because I was. I only had a little more than an hour until I had to depart Sapa, yet I hadn't packed up my room back at the hotel yet, and she had taken a while to get started with her performance. As you can tell from the look on my face, the clock was rapidly ticking.