Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

端午节快乐！

I’ve always loved this holiday as a kid when I got to watch people row long dragon boats down the river while eating 粽子, sweet rice, beans (or peanuts), duck egg-yolk, and meat wrapped in a bamboo leaf. It is so delicious. I didn’t have any last year because my mom was too busy to make any but this year, she made 38 of them. We are going to have that for a while. I wish I don’t have to go to school today but it’s the last day of my GMAT prep course. So anyway, that’s all I’m going to say in this short “real-time” post. Now read onto the pre-written part.

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So I guess I haven’t really written a “real” (real-time) post this week. Most of the posts this week had been written in advance and they are all either fiction or photograph. I should also point out that even this post is written three days in advance. I think I should explain myself now.

I’ve been slightly depressed and not feeling well lately. I am depressed because life has yet cast a few curve balls in my direction. Due to my grandpa’s passing, I now have to plan a trip to China for next Summer to take care of some unfinished business and looking at my bank account at the moment, not only I cannot afford a Chinese visa and plane ticket but it also brings me to tears.

That and mom’s constant reminder that I have to pay my tuition in a couple of months and the $250 exam fee for the GMAT. I mentioned the low balance in my bank account to her, hoping for a little aid or perhaps, just a teensy sympathy. Nothing and instead, she said, “I am almost unemployed. I have nothing to offer you either.”

When she said those words, it made me want to cry even more. With that, my strength to write anything seemed to have vanished. It is not a writer’s block. I just don’t want to do it. Not even the fun of flash fiction can bring me out of my funk. To write this post, I had to buckle myself down on a chair to do it. I even lost the will to write for the daily prompt even though the prompts this week seemed okay. At least I have plenty of photographs and pictures to post. Sometimes, they’re louder than words.

I haven’t been feeling well lately either. I asked mom what she thinks is wrong with me. She took one look at my purple-ish color lips and told me I’m probably lacking oxygen which is probably the cause of my frequent headaches, dizzy spells, and exhaustion. She thinks it’s because of my bad liver. My liver went bad a few years ago because of some thyroid medication but it got slightly better after I began taking milk thistle. I stopped two years ago because I felt I was too loaded with medication at the time. Then I decided to stop taking everything and now, she thinks my liver’s gone bad again.

“Without adequate oxygen to the brain, doesn’t that put me at risk for a stroke?” I asked her.

“Mm hmm,” she answered.

“Well then, you better check on me then and if I have a stroke, it’ll be your job to take me to ER.” She looked surprised, like shouldn’t concern be the other way around? Hey, you’re the one that said my family is cursed. Great, she jinxed it.

“But you’re all the way down in the basement, how am I supposed to check on you?” Oh did I mention, I moved into the basement since my room was becoming unbearable with the sudden rise in temperature. It’s just about the best thing that’s happened to me in the last two weeks. Check out my new room.

Cool, huh? Now, what was I saying? Oh yes, mom saying she can’t check on me because I’m three floors below her. “Aren’t you worried?” I asked. She turned and stared at me with an expression like, oh please.

I’m certainly worried but for now, I’ll cross my finger and pray that nothing happens to me, at least, until I see my doctor appointment on Tuesday.