Hello, welcome to #weekendcoffeeshare! It’s a cold one today, so come in, grab a steamy hot drink, and get warm.

This week has been long, all right, but I wouldn’t call it uneventful. I still took walks around the park and watched the haze build up day by day, causing the mountain to fade in the background.

I drove through an un-forecast snow storm on my way to work on Tuesday. The snow was concentrated in a single county. By the time I pulled into the parking garage at work in the next county, it was like nothing ever happened. No snow, no rain. It made me question myself, did I really just drive through a snow storm? What in the world!?

I mentioned at the end of last week’s post that this will be a long work week for me. It was and I was surprised I made it through at 53 hours even though I wasn’t satisfied with my progress through my work pile at the end of the week. There’s always next week, right?

I finally got my work email inbox cleaned up this week, replying to emails dating back to the end of December. Woo Hoo! There were around 60 emails at the beginning of this week and I got it down to 4 by Friday.

Next week is officially month-end, so it’s going to be another long week.

Work aside, I still had personal problems.

My bottom gum began hurting earlier in the week. At first, I thought it was a sore throat because I had a few potato chips last weekend and mom is suddenly making delicious fried foods for upcoming Chinese New Year.

Although, how can a sore throat only hurts on the left side?

It was not a sore throat. It turned out to be something sharp scraping against my tongue. A small jagged piece of bone was sticking out from the gum, bone from the bone graft from my surgery over a month ago. So I had to call the dentist despite he said we wouldn’t see each other until my next oral surgery but I have a feeling I have to see him anyway to remind him of my next surgery.

Next thing I knew, he put on a surgical glove, pressed a finger on the pain point, and then as if presto, it doesn’t hurt as bad anymore. I can once again swallow without pain. I am crossing my fingers that it stays that way because other than work, this has been occupying my mind all week.

My frustration of the week has once again been with mom and her family. I don’t know since when my aunt sends every piece of mail and voicemail to my phone via text message. Doesn’t she have a son who can look at this for her?

I also vaguely remember mom telling me this aunt scoffed at mom for having a daughter and that she was overly-proud to have a son. I used to be constantly lectured by her about not being like my male cousins and basically getting punished for being a girl.

I told mom I should block her number on my phone but mom said it wouldn’t be right. This wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last. Sometimes, I get this thought creeping into my head where I move to somewhere no one can find me, change my name, number, contact information, and then see how mom handles being bombarded by mail and voicemails.

I’d bet she’ll start kicking and screaming about how my male cousins are absolutely useless, how they can’t even help their parents look at a simple letter or listen to a voicemail, how they’ve been spoiled rotten all their lives like how my cousin convinced my uncle to buy him a Tesla after wrecking his BMW sports car or how my other cousin has 2 cars.

I have a feeling I’ll be smiling wide on the day when mom unleashes her wrath on her family.

Thank you for joining me for this #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we will both return next weekend.