Monday, February 26th, 2007
Under the staircase storage, I found boxes upon boxes of paper. Papers from the first day of school in the US until the last day of college! That’s a lot of years. Book reports, quizzes, tests, class notes, report cards, elaborate research papers, short funny stories, mandatory journaling… on and on it goes. WHY did I keep all these crap!
Chuck’em all you say. Ah that would be very easy, except a few fancy schmancy teachers and professors along the way thought that it would be a great idea to use social security # as the ID. So I painstakingly went through several boxes of crap, crap that I don’t know how to do or understand anymore, like organic chemistry or calculus or mass transfer, just so I can keep my ssn out of the recycling bins.
I scanned through some of the papers. Throughout the years, I wrote about (breast) cancer, teen suic!de, teen pregnancy, (human) cloning, IRC. Topics that were and still are very close to my heart. In one of my “leisure elective” classes, Human Development and Family Studies (where they talked a ton about sex), I wrote down that eventually I would like to have 4 children. Yea. We’ll just have to see about that.
It’s very interesting to skim through my previous lives and see how far (or backwards, if you’re looking at the mass transfer and lab reports) I’ve come mentally. I have 2 or 3 more boxes of papers to go through before I move onto the bedrooms stuff. Ugh.
One of the remaining boxes contains all the letters I’ve received from my friends in China in the years following my family’s immigration to the US. I was unable to speak or comprehend any English. There were no other Chinese at my school. My friends back in China were lifesavers; they literally saved my sanity, having moved to a strange land on the opposite side of the globe and need to adapt immediately. I know I couldn’t and wouldn’t have gone on without them. Friends are very important, but in the teenage years, friends are all there is in life. I am wondering what I should do with all those letters.. It’s a huge file-size box full. I am still keeping touch with 2 of my friends, interestingly both of them have left China to other countries as well, and thankfully now it is communication via e-mails and phone calls instead of writing letters. My Chinese writing skills have found a permanent vacation spot somewhere else unheard of.
When I was a kid, I thought time went really slow. Now that I’m older (30! I used to think 25 was old!) the years seem to be going by faster and faster. Pretty soon we’ll all be white haired and toothless old farts looking at our school yearbooks wondering what the big fuss was all about.
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Is it still February only???
After we had what seems like never-ending subzero temperatures, we had a couple of “nice” days. Nice meaning it was about 20 something, and it even hit low 40’s! But it’s not long lived, in fact, we’re heading into a big snow storm. Reportedly we will have lots of snow this weekend and for the next 10 days we will have nothing but wintery mixes and snow and rain and sleet and yuck, combined with temps in the low 20s and teens. Yay.
I suppose it could be worse. Like 98F every day of the year with a 150% humidity, while battling haze and rain on almost a daily basis. At least we will be able to build a snowman or two, while the other adult packs all the belongs inside the house feverishly.
Saturday, February 17th, 2007
A lot has happened in the last week. In a nutshell, we’re moving.
If all goes well (read: decluttering, cleaning, packing, more decluttering, etc etc etc), the house will go on sale within a few weeks. *deep breath* I will exhale when we have settled in the new place. But first, we have to find that new place.
Yea. Yeap.
Meanwhile, Happy Chinese New Year (this year it is Feb 18)! It will be a GRRRRRRRREAT one! Good health and prosperity to all!
Saturday, February 10th, 2007
Today I made a little bit of money. The first in 2 yrs and one week. It felt pretty good, until I came home and explained to my husband what it all entailed (without going into too much detail). Now I feel as though I might have participated in some moral wrong doing…
The gig was to participate in a discussion thing about some lawsuit and supposedly both sides were presented to everyone (some 30+ people) who were there. And then smaller groups were broken up and we had group discussions on the arguments we heard. Deliberations took place and then we came up with answers / opinions based on the presentations and evidences given by both sides.
We all had to sign waivers of this and that, confidentially papers and surveys and lots of other writing. We were told these lawyers who made the presentations represents respective defendants and plaintiffs in the case (the case is still ongoing). In our smaller group, I specifically asked whether these lawyers are actual lawyers representing who they said they were, the moderator’s answer was “yes.” I’m not sure why, but no one asked whether this was a legal thing they were doing or this was practiced in many lawsuits - to ask the average Joe to participate so they — whoever “they” are — to “gauge/anticipate” questions and answers. In hindsight, this could very well have been all orchestrated by only one side of the case to “test the water” so to speak in the hopes to gain a little extra upper hand in the lawsuit.
Everyone was paid for their time and participation.
Am I wrong to think this? Do these kind of ’surveys’ happen all the time, with both parties involved? Why not just wait until the real court case? Why would a survey thing (mock trial) be done to a case that is still ongoing? What purpose does it serve, and to who’s interest? Whoever paid for the entire event, right? I’m feeling anxious thinking what I might have aided unknowingly.
Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
So I was on our local craigslist site listing things and generally dicking around, an expression that one of my close friends likes to use, and I came upon a listing that says “crotch rocket”
Do you know what a crotch rocket is?
I sure didn’t! And the images that flashed in my mind when those 2 words came into view certainly wasn’t anywhere close to this. Hehee. It’s more of a glorified motorcycle or scooter or something rather. Hrm.
Off to bed I go. Trying not to giggle about a crotch rocket. Coz I’m silly like that.
Monday, February 5th, 2007
That last post was a downer eh.
First of all, I’d like to say that I was so hoping for a Desperate Housewives show tonight. Screw ABC.
Secondly, with the weather so bitterly cold, one can only imagine what it was like to be walking bare-footed with sand in between one’s toes and soft salty breeze gently touching one’s cheeks. Or green trees and fresh cut lawns.
Worry not. The mosquito season will come soon enough. Or will it, considering tomorrow’s high will be zero F?
It is perhaps a good thing to be confined to the indoors because there are lots of things to be done around here. First and foremost - declutter. Gosh I wish it was summer time so I can have another garage sale again. Crap I’ve done it again. Sorry. Summer will come.. summer will come.
So we have to declutter. I’m marking boxes with “donate” and “sell” and “keep” and it will probably take until summer to finish it all. Sorry, no more mention of the S word. I cannot believe how much stuff we’ve accumulated, I mean I‘ve accumulated. In this household, I’m the hoarder, the pack rat, the buyer. I’m sentimental and I have this “what if I need that again” school of thought, which is what all pack rats will tell you and what all you sensible people will say is “you haven’t even touched it in 5 years” or “you didn’t even remember you had it until you saw it.”
Ugh. This is yet another pathetic post. Will resume to silence now until further notice. Meanwhile, I’d like to invite you to view my dream vacation destination in pictures.
Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
Time: 8:23 p.m.
Kids: one asleep while the other one negotiates and using all sorts of tactics to delay his bedtime
Actual outside temperature: -8F (or -22C) minus, negative, subzero, colder than your freezer, my-ears-will-fall-off-if-I-stay-outside-even-2-minutes kind of cold
Real Feel: -23F (or -31C) after factoring in the wind chill, humidity, and all that whatnot boring stuff
Number of people who are sick: 2 out of 4 (yours truly included)
Number of times noses were wiped and blown today: 3 billion X 3 trillion
—
In other useless facts, Hubby has decided he wants to become a stay-at-home parent, too. Meanwhile, yesterday was Ground Hog Day which is also known as my 2-year laid-off anniversary.
We’re just doing great. In fact, down right peachy!
