Tag: Lookback

Optimism Backfired

Published on by Yinglan5 Comments

Daily Prompt: Tell us how your week went by putting together a playlist of  five songs that represent it.

Five songs? I can’t possibly put together a playlist that represented how my week went. One reason being I do not know a song that truly describes everyday of my week. The other is that I feel terribly embarrassed when it comes to sharing the books I am reading, the baby-oopsshows I watch, and the music I like. I’m afraid that if people know I still watch Disney Channel and listen to Disney Kids music (oops), they would laugh at me. Unfortunately, I’ve been watching the mouse network and listening to its music since I’ve arrived in America and I am not going to stop anytime soon.

Anyway, my week had been a total roller coaster, I think. I can’t remember most of it. I remember yesterday though and boy, was I pissed! My mom was urging me to finish the case briefs (which I’ve been doing all week) on the one hand while whining about her job order on the other. I mean how can I possibly concentrate with someone constant shouting and barging in and out my room?

Early yesterday morning, she went to the school to take the first exam for her class. She didn’t come back until around 2 hours later and the second she stepped through the door, she immediately started complaining about the air force dentist extracting two of her molars.

“I didn’t know you were going to the dentist.” I said to her.

“No!” She answered exasperatedly. It turned out her status had been downgrade the day before.  She’s in military, you see. Apparently when you’re downgraded, it meant your job was in trouble.

So in order for her to keep her job, she had to get two of her molars extracted at the last second. Ouch!

She told me her molars were rotten, that it was blacker than a plum when they pulled it. Her words, not mine.

The entire afternoon, she was complaining about her toothache. I got to the point that I was so darn frustrated at the sound of her and anyone’s voice. I just want to scream.

Then last night, we attended our last instructor-led training for VITA before I’m set to volunteer next week or maybe even the week after. This morning, we finally got certified to file people’s taxes! I’m so excited!

Oh, I think the biggest thing this week would be today, I have decided to drop my Business Law class. I just cannot handle it. There are just too much homework and with work and volunteering, it’s too overwhelming for me. Also, the teacher is kind of ridiculous. It takes him like a month to answer a single email. And I don’t even think he grade any of my homework!

Yesterday, I got my grade back for my last assignment, he gave me a 50! He said it’s because my assignment had 55% similar when it fact it’s only 16% similar. He looked at my first submission instead of my third. So last night, while I was sleeping restlessly, tossing around thinking of the pile of work I have to do today and I decided. I cannot do it any longer. This simply cannot go on any longer. It’s not really like me but I am giving up.

Two weeks ago, my mom had already asked me to drop and get a full refund but I was too darn optimistic that the class will only get better. Now, I can only get 80% of my money back. Oh well, it’s better than nothing. Ugh, sometimes, I really hate my optimistic spirit.

Oh, and since this prompt is about sharing music, I thought I’d this old favorite of mine. Actually, it’s not that old, I just haven’t listen to it for a long while. Embarrassingly, I have to say it’s teen music, Disney, and kind of hip pop but it’s a positive track unlike most of the music nowadays.

I thought to relive a little of my old simple life, back when I still lived in an apartment and something isn’t constantly needing fixing.  As for school, maybe after I dropped my Business Law class, it will free up my time just a little. Then my other classes won’t feel so neglected anymore. I will just have to try again in the fall. I guess just keep moving forward.

The Great Loosening

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Home…Soil…Rain…

It reminds me of Fall 2009, just about two months after we moved into our current home. To be honest, I still can’t see why my mom had purchased this house. Of all the houses we looked at, she just had to pick this one.

We spent almost two weeks after moving in painting and cleaning the walls. It was so full of fingerprints and grease that it’s disgusting just to talk about it. We also cleaned every nooks and corners of this house except underneath the range; we didn’t clean that until we replaced the range in 2011. You have no idea what sort of weird objects we found. Currently, the only place remained  uncleaned is the deck outside and I don’t ever want to touch that.

There are a lot of garbage underneath that deck. It used to be the previous family’s go to trash can when they did take-out every single night.

Anyway, back to Fall 2009. In our backyard, we have this huge plot of soil.

This wasn’t always like this. Back we moved in, this lied an above ground swimming pool. After the previous owner removed the pool, we were left with this awkward polygon shape plot of soil. My mom thought we’d turn it into a garden except the surface at the time resembled this:

Credit: ritavaags.blogspot.com

The summer was dry that year, I remember. We didn’t get a lot of rain and every commercial on TV was screaming at us, conserve, don’t water your lawn.

In September or October, we finally got a decent storm and when the storm finally ended, I decided to take a shovel, go out into the backyard and start loosening up the soil. The day was wet and damp but the air felt fresh and breathable for the first time in a while. I set my shovel on the soil and effortlessly lifted it. The top layer resembled mud but the soil was drying up quickly, I had to work fast.

Finally, I managed to get the top soil loosened and then I began digging into the next layer and the next and the next. Of course, my mom came out and helped but after a short time, she gave up and went back into the house, leaving me out there to continue digging.

By the time I completed and went back into the house, it was about 4 or 5 hours later. My whole body ached but when I looked out at the plot of land, I couldn’t help to admire the result of my hard work. It no longer looked like a desert, it looked like a garden.

That year, we planted three plum trees (two on this plot of land and one in the front yard) and two blueberry bushes. The tree in the front yard survived but the two in the back along with the blueberry bushes died. We didn’t know why at first but we found out later that too much Chlorine had seeped from the pool water. The soil was toxic to plants.

We had spent the past five years or so neutralizing the soil with topsoil and cow manure. It’s worked so far but the trees and plants are still struggling, I can tell. You can tell too. The apple tree has been there for five years, yet it’s hardly grown. Not enough nutrients in the soil.

We planted cherry trees for the third time two years ago but it died after a few months. So last year, we decided on Asian Pear Trees and it barely survived the year.

The entire yard was covered in frost.  I had to be very careful this morning when I stepped out to marvel at the beautiful blue sky. Not for long though, spring is coming real soon and we’ll have to start planting again.

I wonder what my mom has in mind this year. I know snow peas are a definite yes. I know she’s already given up on corn. We probably won’t have blackberries this year, well maybe. As you can see in the above picture, my aunt’s went overboard with the trimming. I still can’t believe she did that. Hopefully this garden will flourish this year.

Have to get back to my assignment, so ciao for now. 🙂

That Mighty Long Chat

Published on by Yinglan7 Comments

I went on a camping trip for three days and two nights during the summer between 6th and 7th grade. It was fun and not fun as I pointed in this little walk through my adventures.

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The fun? We got to go to all these cool and amazing places. The not fun? 3 minutes cold showers and the constant teasing by my camp-mates and the camp counselors couldn’t do anything about it.

I didn’t quite enjoy the telling ghost stories around the bonfire either. The log wasn’t comfortable and not a fan of burnt marshmallows. Also the night was still chilly even with the fire burning in the middle.

That’s why if I want to have a long chat with someone, I would definitely not do it around a fire. If I am to have that long chat, I have no idea who, surprise me, I don’t care, I would most definitely choose some place comfortable and indoor, preferably some place with couches.

This looks comfortable, let’s chat!

 

Daily Prompt – Fireside Chat

Imagination Recharged

Published on by Yinglan6 Comments

Last week was both a great week and a bad week for me. First the new semester began and that came with a lot homework and reading. Continue reading “Imagination Recharged” →

Blogging 101: Be Inspired by the Neighbors

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I have been mulling over this post for a few days now. You know, homework, outings, lack of time, blah blah blah. Continue reading “Blogging 101: Be Inspired by the Neighbors” →

Amazed…

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You know, I’m kind of amazed at myself right now.

I finally finished this month’s work last night. I am so happy I get to relax and decompress during these last few days before the semester officially begins again.

Now I know I’ve complained about my work often because it’s so bored. I just sit at my computers translating stuff. Is that boring or what? So to take away the dullness, I decided to scour through my CD collection and listen to songs I haven’t listened to for at least the past 5 years.

When my stereo was still in the basement, I used to go down there and sing along to all the song I know. This week, I decided to do the same thing. That’s why I am so amazed. I still remember the words. All of them. It’s like when I want to sing along, the words just flows perfectly out of my lips and I heard these songs forever ago.

I don’t know how I do that because if you ask me to repeat it back to you, I cannot but when the music plays, I can sing the lyrics perfectly.

Blogging 101: Introduction

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In less than a month, this blog turns 2! Continue reading “Blogging 101: Introduction” →

To the Rescue!

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Daily Prompt: Tell us about the time you rescued someone else (person or animal) from a dangerous situation. What happened? How did you prevail?

Ha, ha, me rescuing someone? That’s hilarious. It’s more like people rescuing me. I don’t think I’ve been rescued by someone before. I’ve always managed to come around on my own. Even the time when I was squirming crazily on my bed, my body going into full spasm. When I came around, I was shocked to find my step-dad, the one who’s training to be a RN was the one freaking out.

But no, this is a story for another time. This is a story about how my mom prevented a major house fire. I know, the prompt said a person or animal but a house, to me, like most inanimate objects are looked at like a person.

It was September, 2013 (wow that feel a little weird to say), it seems everything happens in September. Anyway, an international student came to stay with us because the school had no host family available. I had just begun my job with my former boss, Mr. Li.

It was a Saturday, it was my first day on the job. I reported for work early that morning and my tasks that day were to assist on his trip to the accountants’ office as well as the supermarket. Basically, I was supposed to trail behind him like a puppy while my mom was his wife’s volunteering driver for the day.

When I finally came home that day, my mom said, “She almost burned the house down!”

“What happened?” I asked curiously.

“I just stepped out for a few minutes and she left the toaster oven on! If I didn’t see it, the whole house would have gone up in flames.”

After a few days, weeks, months and even now and then, she was still talking about it, telling about her heroic rescue of the house. Unbelievable! The story became horribly annoying after a while but hey, she did prevent a fire and saved the house.

Different Generation, Different Attitude

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I hope you all are having a Happy New Year. Continue reading “Different Generation, Different Attitude” →

Tears, can’t live without them, just have to live with them

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Daily Prompt: We cry for lots of reasons: sadness, pain, fear . . . and happiness. When was the last time you shed tears of joy?

Hmm, that’s interesting. I don’t remember crying for joy, ever or maybe I just haven’t yet.

Do people do that? Crying for joy just seemed a little funny to me because why would happiness provoke tears? Wouldn’t it provoke laughter and smiles?

Ah, I get it. It’s not the kind of joy that makes a person smile but the kind of joy that causes one to feel surprised, glad, or even relieved like right after a mother gives birth. I’ve seen it in the news and movies. Or when someone realizes that person’s been there for him/her all along and is grateful. I guess I just never had that kind of thing happen to me yet but I’m not giving my hopes up. Someday.

I remember exactly the last time I cried. It was tears of anger. It was at the end of September right after my aunt back my mom’s car into a pole. Then the very next day, my mom blamed me for it. My fists and teeth clenched and tears fell from my face while fire looked like it’s about to flare from my nostrils. There was this pull inside me rendering my ability to speak or fight back.

It’s not my fault, I wanted to say but couldn’t. Ultimately, I just had to ignore every hurtful my mom said that day.

The result of that event? 

It set off a domino effect and it went on for almost two weeks that ultimately ended with my mom buying two airplane tickets for my aunt and cousin to go home at once but fate intervened. And they’re now staying until February.

It was strange for me to cry because I don’t usually cry when I’m angry. Actually, I can say I’ve grown stony and hard ever since I’ve been living with my mom alone that it’s hard for me to cry any sort of tears. But tears are meant for cleansing, so I guess everyone has to shed some tears once in a while whether it’s for joy, sadness, or anger. Tears are tears and everyone needs them.

I Wish the New Year Would Arrive Already!

Published on by Yinglan11 Comments

For some reason, I am feeling very eager to have the new year come already but at the same time, I am Continue reading “I Wish the New Year Would Arrive Already!” →

2014 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,700 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Grown Up Trapped in a tiny body

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I just spent the entire morning shoveling ankle deep snow on my driveway and the incredibly long sidewalk. Oddly though, the only places aching are my shoulders and neck. At the moment, I do not want to move from this couch.

My mom said I needed the exercise and for once, I couldn’t be more agreeing with her. This entire holiday season had been nothing but eat eat and eat. Honestly, I can’t wait for this to end. The biggest consequence? I haven’t been able to get some exercise and I gained 2 pounds from all that hot pot. That’s the down side to eating hot pot, you keep putting food into the pot and eating more, never knowing when you’re full.

I wasn’t really going to write today. I’ve been obsessed over reading the Night World series. I began reading book one yesterday and finished it this morning. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Besides, today’s prompt feel kind of repeated, oh look, it is. It’s a recycled prompt and what’s point in writing when there are already 130+ posts waiting to be read?

But what the heck, I’ll answer it anyway. I can’t remember when was the first time I felt really grown up. I guess I’ve always felt like I was a grown-up trapped in a child’s body. I’ve never partied nor have I taken advantage when my mom left me in charge of all her credit cards and money when she went off to basic training. I responsibly spent and paid the bills. I think that’s the one thing she’s ever admitted to be proud of.

On the other hand, I can say my aunt’s the opposite. She’s like a child stuck in a grown-up body. Over the years, I feel like she’s becoming more and more child-like.

I’ve written a post about a similar topic about grown-ups, you can read it by clicking here.

One is Enough, Two is Too Much

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DSCF9326_ts
The crappy house with the stairs

I am frustrated and that frustration is growing by the day.

Last year, my mother purchased two additional houses. She planned to use those houses for investment and rental. To be honest, both of those houses are a pain in the neck. After closing on the first house last April, we spent almost the entire month cleaning, repairing, and re-painting the wall.

When I say “we”, I mean my mother and her friend. Meanwhile, I am not allowed to touch or do anything, I am to just stand there and watch. I hated it. I mean, what am I doing there? I could be doing so much more at home.

Thank god that house rented out quickly and the tenant had been stable. A few months later, my mother closed on a house at the end of our street. This house is a bucketful of problems.

First it was the furnace, then the AC, and then at the beginning of this year, we found out there’s no return vent in the basement, making the basement of the house freezing cold.

It’s a crappy house. Well, what do you expect when the first owner of the house was a know-it-all handyman?

Anyway, in the latter part of 2013, after yet spending a few weeks cleaning up the place, we rented the house to a very nice family who was waiting for their house to be built in another city.

They moved out early January of this year. Thank goodness, the wife of the tenant was a clean freak and kept the house sparkly clean. We didn’t have to do much and within 2 weeks, the house was again rented to another family from Texas and that’s when the problems began. They built a bathroom in the basement without consulting us. The bathroom turned out awry and weird. Don’t get me started.

That family moved out suddenly before Thanksgiving. It was ridiculous. Not only they broke the contract but the house was a mess!

My aunt and cousin spent the afternoons in the days followed at the house cleaning and picking up dog poop in the backyard. It’s disgusting and I would never ever do it. I couldn’t be more grateful to have them here.

A few days after the advertisement for our rental house went online, two families came and browse. One family was so so eager to move in that they didn’t even cared if the carpet was cleaned. I wasn’t having a good vibe about this candidate. They seemed nice and all but there’s something off.

I told my mother to go with the other family, but she didn’t listen. I was completely right, by the way. The “bad vibe” tenant has an excellent credit score but he didn’t even had the money to pay the first month rent and deposit.

My mother got scared and turn them down. That left the “good vibe” tenant but unfortunately, they grew impatient waiting for our response and had already found another house. That house has been empty for past month. My mother’s incessantly worried about the furnace failing and constantly nudging me to go check.

Yeah, like I know anything about the mechanics of a furnace.

In the recent day, it’s become my dread to go into that house. It’s not haunted or anything. There are just too many stairs and the stairs are thickly carpeted. Did you know it takes more strength going up a flight of carpeted stairs than any other kind of staircase?

My consensus: that house is horribly designed and I would never live in it.

I still don’t understand why my mother had to purchase that house. Why couldn’t she be happy with just one rental home? This other house is going down the drain if we don’t get some tenants soon, I tell ya.

When she bought the house, she says my aunt wanted it but I highly doubt it. For all I know, my aunt could’ve said, “随便吧!” or “Anything’s fine.”

A Wrap-up of 2014: Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

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A few months ago, SUEJU TAKESHI nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award but as usual, my procrastination prevails. But since I am on my winter break, I thought what better time to publish this than before the new year. I like to give a big round of thanks again to SUEJU TAKESHI for nominating this blog for this awesome award. Continue reading “A Wrap-up of 2014: Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award” →

My Tight Little Corner

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Something has happened in my neck of the woods. I can’t figure out what but it’s making me feel singled-out, like I’m being forced into a tight little corner of my own. It’s like my spoken words are not being understood and there’s no one ’round here to clarify my words for me.

I’ve been searching and wondering far and wide and I have arrived with these three explanations:

  • Language barrier
    • I know, we all speak the same language here. But they seem to forget that I just know to speak everyday language, slang. My education level for this language is only up to the 4th grade. Still, they talk to me like I graduated college there, saying politically related college-level term that I probably will never understand.
    • And if I say the wrong thing, they’d just burst out laughing and it’s not just in the moment, they laugh for days and it’s really frustrating sometimes. Like yesterday, I accidentally mispronounced the word for Mount Everest and they laughed and laughed, making fun of me, making me feel like an idiot. Yes, I know I said the wrong thing but don’t forget I never went past the 4th grade.
  • Ethnic culture differences
    • Yes, there is a tiny or huge ethnic culture difference here, depends on one’s perspective. For example, my aunt doesn’t like to use the dryer. She hang wet clothes in the laundry. I hate that. When the clothes dry, it becomes cold, stiff, and wrinkly. It’s like wearing cardboard.
  • Too many personalities
    • Yes, I understand everyone has their own personality, no people are the same but my aunt’s personality is driving me nuts. She is so childish sometimes with her silly clothes. Yesterday, when it was snowing, she didn’t want her hair to get wet, so she wore a husky hat. I don’t mean a hat that looked like husky fur, I mean a hat that was an actual husky (dog) head. It’s the stupidest hat I’ve ever seen.
    • Often times, she’s been sitting at the kitchen counter watch funny babies video on her ipad. If you like watching babies so much, why don’t you have one of your own?

Meanwhile, my mother is not helping with my situation, she laughs along and her teasing had been increasingly irritating. I wish I can just tell them that but everybody in this house feels super intimidating and it’s making me feel frightened.

Just two more months, I will tell myself from now on. Just two more months and they’ll be gone.

Resolutions

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I spent yesterday celebrating my yet another year in the U.S. I arrived in the U.S. on December 21, 2001 and so yesterday was a special day. I began a post yesterday morning but my mom insisted on heading out. She wanted to show my cousin how far far away the community college really is and that him wanting to go to the community or any colleges and universities in the state of Utah is a naive and unreasonable plan.

To be honest, the community college isn’t that far. It’s a 45-minutes drive and the route is incredibly slow and boring but isn’t far. But if you want the fun 😉 or long route which my cousin has to do since he can’t drive, it can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours. Anyway, I tagged along in case she got lost.

We went home after going one round about the college and lunch at Costco and then I spent the afternoon watching movies and shows on the TV and writing a post just slipped my mind. Besides, I was having a hard time writing it since I had no clue what the prompt meant. Today, however, I have a slight idea.

I don’t do New Year resolutions, I used to but not anymore. I don’t see the point in making one since every year, I have the same two goals for myself and every year, it gets harder and harder to achieve those goals especially this year. So why make it?

The best part about this year has been getting this job but with my mom rushing me to complete the job day after day, I haven’t been able to keep up with my health. I’ve rarely seen my doctor or gone to the gym. It’s always just school and work.

Another reason for not going to the doctors was because of my insurance. When the insurance got switched to a new company at the beginning of this year, it started having problems. Most of the time, it wasn’t paying anything for me and I had to spend countless hours calling, trying to resolve dumb problems. Even a month ago, I was trying to resolve something that happened in June. I’ve already had enough to do. So you can see why I stopped going to the doctors.

I promise myself that once we’re in 2015, I will go to the doctors as well as the gym regularly. I’m not sure how well I will be able to keep the gym part going but the doctors, definitely, since I’m paying for my own insurance now.

Also when my mom’s away at training during March and April, I will try a self-controlled diet. Oh, and once January comes, I need to go see a doctor or a cardiologist or whatever to get my heart checked out. Let’s just say I haven’t been kind to my heart and it’s a little angry.

Other than that, all I wish for is to just get through the year as safe as possible. No casualty. No jitters and ignore my mom’s attempt to creep me out about the year of the goat thing. Apparently, she believes that if the current year is your Chinese Zodiac year, i.e. I was born in the year of the goat and next year is the year of the goat, bad luck will come to my door. I won’t say more otherwise I’d be jinxing it. Just wish me good luck in 2015, no more accidents or terrible news of any sort.

Anyway, my aunt wants me to take them downtown today. So hopefully the storm will stop soon and the sky will lighten up just a teeny bit.

Happy Winter Solstice everyone!!!

Here’s a beautiful painting to admire.

The Sun Stands Still by Becky Vigor, 2010.
The Sun Stands Still by Becky Vigor, 2010.

Christmas Trees, Presents Delivery, Time Off, That’s the Holidays

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That's just about the only thing festive in the entire house.
That’s just about the only thing festive in the entire house.

I have been trying to write a post all day today but for some reason, I haven’t been able to finish it. This morning, I woke up, washed my bedding (finally!), and had breakfast. Then I went back up to my room, trying to write something about the prompt today but somehow, I was feeling rather frustrated and uninspired. I mean, it’s not that difficult of a prompt but at the present moment, this is my third and possibly fourth attempt at writing anything today.

My first attempt was kind of awful, talked about how I’ve grown to somewhat fear the end-of-year holidays. I’m not sure if anyone wants to hear anything that negative today.

My second attempt was a list of my love and hate for the holidays. That list was going successfully until my mother interrupted and said she wanted to go out. I’ve been stuck at home all day and thought that was the culprit for my lack of inspiration. So I accepted and we all went out. First, it was to the air force base to pick up my mother’s medicine as well as to get some groceries but then it turned into a 30-mile road trip to Morgan, Utah, a rural little town just beyond the canyons.

Okay, this is completely misleading, it did NOT look like this!!!

It’s a beautiful town, quiet and serene. The moment we exited I-84, my mother saw the sign to East Canyon State Park and immediately wanted to go similar to a child wanting candy. Am I the only mature one in the family?

The sign said the park is just 12 miles north. So northward we went. The road was narrow and twisty like riding a slow boring endless roller coaster. My mother’s patience was running short and after 5 minutes or so, she began to wonder if we’ve gotten lost. No, we haven’t. I began to doubt too  but on the other hand, I was sure we were on the right route.

Okay, is this it? Is this what I’ll see if my mother kept going?

When we reached mile post 7, my mother decided to turn back. “I’ll bet you anything that the park is when you reach mile post 12.” I told her but as usual, no one listened to me. So after 40 minutes or so, we’re home.

To be honest, I enjoyed Morgan, it seemed like one of those places I like to see myself living when I finally move out of my mother’s house. It’s quiet, quaint, and just rural enough for my taste. Best of all, there are no planes!

Anyway, I’ve returned to my computer to try to compose my daily post again. When I finally got two paragraphs done, I was interrupted again! Now what?!

I went downstairs to find out what my mother had wanted. Apparently, she suddenly want my aunt and I to play Santa and deliver all the presents to all neighbors, ugh, one of the things I dislike about the holidays. Every year, it’s always me who had to deliver presents and never get anything as nice or anything at all in return.

I just came back a few minutes ago, delivering presents to one of our tenants. My face as well as my hands and legs are still freezing cold and I’m feeling a tad dizzy. I need to go see a doctor soon to make sure I’m still as healthy as I used to be. But for the rest of today, I have no wish to go anywhere else. I wish to rest a bit in my room while waiting for a little inspiration to struck.  Until then, I think I’ll leave you with the list from my second attempt at the prompt.

Things I love about the end-of-year holidays:

  1. Time off! Oh yes, definitely the time off. For one thing, no homework and no school. The thing I don’t like though, grades. The end of semester grades are coming out and that is my fear for every year. Thankfully, I’ve done alright this year. 
  2. Pies, pies, pies! The only time of the year when my mother buys pies. I’m a pie lover and so that’s good. 
  3. Family gatherings! I used to love this back before my mother and I left Texas. 

Things I dislike about the holidays:

  1. Lack of things to watch on TV. All my favorite shows wrap up with its mid-season finales and won’t be back until mid-January. What does that leave me to watch? Not much but reruns and Christmas specials.
  2. The holiday music on the radio. They all sound the same, just sang in a different way. The jingling, joyful-themed, as well as some of the sad-themed songs just feels a tad annoying.
  3. The cold winter and the inability to go out and not get a red nose. This year is especially worse. There’s no snow and it’s incredibly cold. It’s like being stuck in an ice chest. 
Orange

Pumpkin Pies for Lazy Cooks

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I made a pumpkin pie yesterday! It’s the first one I made in 4 years. Read about it to see how it turned out! It’s beautiful, isn’t it?

Yinglan's avatarCrazy About Food

So on Tuesday night, my mother came home announcing her office at work was having some kind of get-together on Thursday and they had asked her to bring something. She didn’t know what until she got home. A pie, she insisted. But where can she get it? She didn’t want to drive 20 miles to Costco. So instead, she requested me to make one.

Fine, one Pumpkin Pie pronto.

We took a trip to the commissary up at the Air Force Base and gathered the ingredients.

  • 1 Large Can of Pumpkin Pie Filling
  • 1 5 fl-oz of evaporated milk
  • 1 pie shell
  • Along with that, I needed 2-eggs.

DSCF9596

DSCF9597

Yesterday, during my small break in between work, I went into chef mode and worked on the pie. The last pumpkin pie I made was more than four years ago, Thanksgiving eve, 2010, when a blizzard hit and I was snowed-in from school. My attempt…

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Can I relax now?

Published on by Yinglan2 Comments

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Well, this week has been fun. Not really. Monday was my first day off for my Winter Break and I mean real day off where I have the house to myself for a few hours. I thought I’d write a lot this week, perhaps work on story I noted on my other blog but unfortunately, my week was ruin by my project manager and her stupid concern email. After working for such a long period, my creativity meter’s level fell to zero.

Thankfully, I just finished my work, just a few minutes ago actually. Hmm, I wonder if I can finally let out a breath and enjoy my holidays. In the last 3 days, I have worked 20.5 hours and translated over 5000 words. I woke up at 4 am yesterday and 6 am today to complete this annoying and boring monthly deadline. Yesterday, I’ve check and found out next month, there’s more. The deadline? January 12, the first day of school. I do hope I can complete it.

Anyway, now that I’ve done this month’s work and ran out of “me” time, I think I’d spend the last measly hours today, aside from going to the orthodontist and do the impression for my retainer, I think I’m going to blast the music on my stereo and sing. Ha ha, maybe but I think I have some other matters to take care of first:

  1. My AAA card will expire, got to call and take my mother’s name off it and pay the bill.
  2. I received a gift card two months and I think there’s a problem with it, so got to call and wait and wait.

After that, I hope people would chill for a while and cool it with the deadlines.

Art and Coil Pots: Major Disappointments

Published on by Yinglan1 Comment

Object of My Dejection, huh? Hmm, I don’t think I have any. Oh, art maybe?

I suck at art. I can’t draw anything, well, except straight lines with a ruler or circle with with a compass. The thing is in middle school, we didn’t get to choose what class we take and so aside from the fundamental classes (math, language arts, PE, science, and history), I was randomly placed in other classes.

My favorite and least favorite class was Art. It was my favorite because I didn’t need to take anything out of my backpack and I didn’t have homework in that class. It was my least favorite class because I sucked at it.

The most disappointing thing I made in that class? Two super-sized coil pots.

I found this on google and it looks like it belongs to another wordpress site. I give you full credit for the picture, whoever you are. Great job on the coil pot! It looks like mine but yours looks way better! 🙂

It’s disappointing because of all the things to make with clay, I can only make coil pots and very ugly ones too. When I made the first one, I thought to make a coil cylinder to hold my pens and pencils on my desk. Instead, I made an odd oval shape coil pot that can hold nothing. Ugh, it was heavy, ugly, and horribly glazed. Still though, I remained somewhat proud of what I achieved.

A few weeks later, I was given a second chance. In the least to say, I failed again. This time, it was the same thing except it’s purple instead of light blue. These two were in such odd shapes that it couldn’t hold anything.

When I moved from California to Texas, my mom forcibly threw it away along with my dearest blanket. So unfortunately, no pictures of mine. I think I was young at the time, maybe too young and un-creative to create any sort of masterpiece. I think if I’m given another chance now, I believe I can do better.

*****

Oh, I can’t believe how early I got up this morning, 4 am. I’ve been working since then and I’m just getting a break now. Anyway, I have to get back to work if I supposedly want to finish this today.

Why A Simple Life…

Published on by Yinglan8 Comments

I was updating the About page and noticed it’s been about six months since I changed my blog name and I never bothered to introduce how it came to be A Simple Life. 

So since I’m done for the semester and have few short days alone by myself, I thought I’d take the chance and do this late introduction to my blog. Oh and you’ll notice I’m playing with colors here, that’s how bored I am. 😀

F.Y.I, the underlines are links to ancient ancient posts, I thought I’d let you re-live them as part of looking back this year.

My blog is call A Simple Life. I changed it recently from My Simple Life after realizing I don’t have a simple life anymore. So now, this is A Simple Life and it reads in the heading, Tales and Life of a Simple Girl.

That tells a lot, doesn’t it?  This blog is a tiny bit more stable now than a year ago. You see, this started out a nameless blog and then I went, “Oh, heck with it.” and named it The Random Blog. 

Then I forgot about it, from February to September. How do you forget you have a blog? Shrug. I don’t know.

How did I come back?

I got an email one day last September saying someone likes my post. It was this post like that somehow inspired me to come back. After I came back, I didn’t know what to write at first but then I working three jobs and my boss was driving me insane. Also I had no one to complain to. So I wrote this post and several others.

Quickly, I took out the in the title and this became just Random Blog. It didn’t attract a lot of attention though 😦 no matter how many post I published. Hmm, I wonder why.

I didn’t find out until about six months ago. I was tagging too happily. 🙂

I still didn’t like the name though because I thought it was too misleading, perhaps make the readers think maybe I just re-blog other people’s material or maybe just post some random stuff. Nah uh, that’s not me. I’m a storyteller.

So on that hot summer night, while I was lying on my warm bed, kept awake by the F-16s and the heat, out of nowhere, a name hit me, Diary of An Optimist. For that short month (June and July), this blog was known as the Diary of An Optimist. I thought I liked it but then I was like, “Nah, too thought provoking.” I’m not into that.

So I changed it again. I kept thinking and thinking. What to name this darn blog? You see, I’m terrible with naming things.

What is the thing that simply described me and what this blog entailed. Life! That’s one word to put it. It’s about real life, my life, full of ups and downs, happiness and sadness, troubles and chaos. That still doesn’t give me a name though.

Simple! My aunt and cousin were coming soon and once they arrived, I would have to cook for them, teach them, help them. Even the months before they came, it was becoming complicated, with me stuck at home daily waiting for the man to come everyday to work on the basement. Meanwhile, my mother’s temper flared every time she spoke of their arrival. Not to mention my life will no longer be two-some but four-some. I just wish that life could be as simple as what I have now.

That was it! Simple Life that’s the name for the blog!

A Simple Life is about my life as it is. I am a person who strive for simplicity in life. I’m sure I’m not the only one. As you can see, everything about the design of this blog promotes peace, tranquility, and simplicity.

I’ve always wanted to become a graphic or web designer, either one, no preference there. So making my desktop backgrounds look good as well as playing with web design is kind of like my second hobby aside from jigsaw puzzles.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this how my blog came to be post and I do hope that I will still make it a habit to blog everyday in 2015. That’ll be my goal and hopefully, I’ll have some juicy stories to share. Oh and please follow, follow, follow!

Gotta get back to work. So ciao for now. 😉

Proving my Generosity

Published on by Yinglan6 Comments

I thought about doing the daily prompt today. Then again, I’m only in my early 20’s. And because of the wonderful doctors who somewhat cured me of my genetic disorder, okay, not cured specifically, more like prolonged my livelihood past my 30’s. My point, it’s a little too soon for me to have a bucket list let alone an anti-bucket list, if I even decide to have one.

Anyway, I got into a small argument with my mother on Friday because my aunt was whining her clothes got ruined from painting the rental home. My mom said it’s because I wouldn’t spare some of my clothes. Well, I’m sorry but I never said to buy this house, my aunt did and I’ve got plenty of clothes ruined from painting houses. Does it mean now that she doesn’t get to sacrifice some of her clothes?

I lost my temper and screamed at my mom because she kept calling me selfish. What made me lose my temper wasn’t what she called me but how she said it, in that mocking tone, like a tease. I don’t like to be teased or mocked.

I kept telling her I don’t have any clothes to spare. It’s not because I’m sentimental and selfish either, it’s because I really don’t have any. Most of my clothes are brand-new, purchased in the recent months, less than a year old. Besides, most of my clothes are short-sleeved and twice as big as what my aunt owned and my aunt’s like a Quaker, I’ve never seen her in anything less than a long-sleeves turtleneck, long pants, and childishly colorful socks.

So my aunt wore one of her turtlenecks and jeans that day and she and my mom spent the whole day Friday painting the rental home while I spent the day running around town on my own. Her turtleneck and jeans were slightly ruined (splattered by paint) but she was reluctant to throw it away unlike my mother. So it’s currently soaking in a large bucket of water downstairs in the laundry room.

It was completely wrong of my mom to call me selfish. I am not a selfish person, if anything, I’m unselfish. If I’m selfish, I would’ve kept all my food to myself instead of sharing it with everyone else. I wouldn’t have allowed anyone else to watch TV or use my internet.

So I spent the entire day yesterday proving to everybody I’m not selfish. We went out for dim sum and morning tea for the first time in months and I paid for it with my own money. I even threw in a generous 20% tip because we occupied the table for so long.

Then when we went to the Chinese supermarket and bought enough grocery to hopefully last more than a week this time, I once again paid for it out of my own money. I felt kind of gut-wrenching when I swiped that card because I’ve never spent more than $100 a day except when I get my course material for school and tuition payment due date. But it proved my point. I am not a selfish person. End of discussion.