I feel like I’ve finally accomplished something today. I have completed my assignment that’s due tomorrow after another round of Beat the System. Hopefully, my instructor will settle for a 3% similarities. It’s a different instructor than Business Law.
I’ve also completed the homework that’s due on Wednesday. Finally! Now if I can just finish yet this week’s Business Law homework, I’d be the happiest girl on Earth.
I won’t say much. I began scribbling down an idea that’s been stuck inside me for a few weeks now. I feel like it’s going to burst. I’ve finally finished the character list yet again for the novel I’ve been trying to write for about two years now. This will be my fourth possibly fifth rewrite as well as change of characters. Like most writers say, the first novel is always the hardest. I agree with them completely.
Before I go though, I like to share this photograph I’ve found on pinterest.
Song of the Setting Sun Print by Phil Koch Credit: Pinterest
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. 🙂
I do a lot yet I also do very little in those 30 minutes after I awaken from my long 6-10 hours slumber and none of those thing will ensure my day is off on the right foot. Continue reading “To Start the Day…”→
Well, I just had another adventurous day, this time, not on the road but on the sidewalk. Apparently, the university had decided to clean the parking lots but not the walkways. There was like a layer of ice in front of every building. It took me forever to get to my class.
I was surprised that despite the ice and slippery conditions, some people decided to wear their flats and high heels to school. Well, I would like to wish them good luck. Then again, I bet no one is as clumsy as I am.
Anyway, before I left this morning, I opened my browser and had a quick look at the prompt. Honestly, I thought it was worse than yesterday’s. But whatever, I need some inspiration.
My keyword for the google image search is “LANDSCAPE” and here’s the eleventh image.
This is beautiful, isn’t it? According to google, this is a painting of sunset in Montreal, Canada.
“LANDSCAPE” is often my search word in google because when it’s so gloomy and cloudy and the weather’s yucky outside, my inspiration meter would plunge and looking at beautiful painting or photo of somewhere tend to be able to squeeze something out of me.
You know, after going to my new classes today, I think I will look forward to this semester and this year. It’s looking bright.
I feel like today is going especially slow. I don’t know why. Last night, after suffering from a stomachache all night, I went to bed only to find myself sleeping and waking up repeatedly through the night and finding myself at a different place on the bed every time.
It’s weird, right? I wonder if I should be worried. Nah, maybe I’m having a strange week, that’s all. Maybe just some pre-semester jitters.
My aunt is currently downstairs cleaning the floors while I was supposed to wash my mom’s car. That’s not going to happen.
Outside is dark and cloudy again and it’s freezing cold, only 39°F. I thought there’s not supposed to be a storm for the next 7 days. The weatherman lied, wouldn’t be the first time. I checked the weather and it’s supposed to snow and rain on Monday. How am I supposed to go to Salt Lake City to pick up my paycheck?
On the bright side, after almost a month, I finally sold my mom’s statistics book and after two days, I finally applied for that summer audit position at American Express. I’m crossing my fingers and hope the HR will return my email soon, preferably Monday, and give me an interview. Until then, all I can do is cross my finger and not jinx it.
So we’re waiting for the rest of the house to wake up before we can get a move on. I feel so out of place here like my mom’s friend’s American husband. I wonder Continue reading “Out of Place and Stuffed”→
Last year, when my aunt from China came to visit, she brought along a whole boatload of goodies in her luggage from Chinese New Year decorations that are still plastered all over the house to this, just your plain everyday souvenir. I hung it in my car ever since. Continue reading “Lucky Charm”→
Oh my gosh, you won’t believe how ridiculous the weather has been. And you might not believe that I’m sitting at home at 8 in the morning doing nothing except huddling around a steaming cup of hot cocoa with heart-shaped marshmallows. Yes, there’s been a change in the weather and it’s ridiculously freezing here. Continue reading “Hot Cocoa in June”→
Spring Cleaning, that was how I spent my Memorial Day. I didn’t do it all at once though. Like those drawers, I haven’t got to them yet, sadly. All I did was clean the floors which thankfully, I didn’t have to clean the whole thing.
My mom dragged me out of my room and downstairs so I could begin cleaning the living room while my mom moved everything out of the shoe closet. The floor was seriously dusty, dust bunnies literally blew across the floor. I guess that’s what happens when you have to turn on the heat six months out of the year, dust accumulates in the vents and ducts and out it goes onto the floor.
There’s the living room, sparkly clean
We finally turned off the heat tonight, though. I feel so relieved to finally be able to open my window ’cause it feels so hot and stuffy with everything closed. And of course, my mom has zero patience when it comes to slow moving work. She wants me to clean but she wants it fast. Well, you can only have one of those, either slow and clean or fast and dirty.
I wasn’t even done with the living room when she took over. Then she almost flew through the house, cleaning at the speed of superman, colliding into every furniture I could think of.
the Swiffer mop, it has been some tragedies during the times my mom used it
My mother used to be a housekeeper when she first came to the U.S. and a housekeeper needs to clean everyday at a record rate. The house she worked for just so happened to be owned by a family of slop. So I can imagine how she became the clean freak as she is today. I’ll bet if there’s a Olympic event for cleaning, she’d be the first to win it. 🙂
Anyway, she didn’t let me mess with her cleaning but while she went out to change the water, I took the sweet opportunity to snap some pictures. I know, it’s stupid but she tends to make me watch her while she cleans so I can learn how to do in the future. I would never get it anyways. Cleaning is cleaning.
She finished the job in half of the time it usually takes me although I am still questioning if her efforts is the same as mine. I opened the window to blow dry the floor while taking another chance to snap more pictures. Then it was done, it was all the cleaning we can manage, I can at least for today. It is hard to imagine that before my neighbor introduced me to the Swiffer mop, I actually used a cloth, got down on two knees, and scrubbed the floor clean like Cinderella.
As I sit here at my desk tapping my nails on the desk trying to decide what to write for my next post, my mom is downstairs loudly rummaging through the kitchen drawers looking for the nail clipper. “Where’s the nail clipper?” She yells. Immediately, I know that is my queue to go investigate. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
I take a few steps out of my room and shout back, “It’s in the first drawer.”
“It’s not there!” I groan and drag my feet down 10 steps down into the kitchen and start rummaging through the drawer myself.
The topmost drawer
I look down into the drawer and my eyes popped out like Spike the bulldog. Didn’t I clean this drawer just a few weeks ago? Or was it a few months ago?
I shuffled through the content looking for the nail clipper and I too cannot find it. “It’s not here! Maybe it’s in your room.” I yell while wondering, could it have accidentally fallen into the garbage? Both of us are a little forgetful these days what with our work and our GMAT exam’s coming up. One of us could have used the nail clipper and attempted to put it back into the drawer but missed it and landed in the garbage.
As my mom finished rummaging her room, she came back down while I went back up to rummage through her room some more. The second I arrived on the landing upstairs, she shouts triumphantly, “I found it!”
Whew. Now I can finally go back into my room and write that blog post. Given what had just happened, a light bulb lit up in my head. However, after seeing that mess in the most used drawer in the entire house, my head begins to pound. Because this means that within the next two weeks during my mom’s time off from work, I’ll have to spend a day reorganizing the drawers. Throwing away any expired coupons, no longer usable receipts, and other scraps of paper.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Seeing the picture above is just the topmost drawer. You don’t even want to see the bottom three drawers but here’s just a little sneak peek at the next drawer down…
This is as far as it can open right now.
It is filled with used/unused plastic bags from grocery shopping for storing meats, vegetables, and wonton/dumplings, potentially important invitations and other unimportant mail, and all kinds of junk I don’t even want to know. Then there’s the two more drawers which I don’t even want to know what kind of mystery is hidden there.
Really makes you think about the purpose drawers serve, doesn’t it?
Aren’t drawers suppose to provide some sort of organization? To help us find things more easily? So we don’t have to run all over the house looking for the thing we need right at the moment?
For about three weeks now, I’ve been looking at this piece of land with my mom. For some reason, she can’t make up her mind about purchasing the land. For me, it doesn’t really matter since I may or may not live there.
In these three weeks, she’s been coming up with excuses after another.
Don’t like the floorplan. My solution for her: Choose another one, after all, it’s a house that’s about to be built, not one that’s already built. You get to make all the decisions.
That house is blocking the view. Her recent solution: just move the house up the lot.
Too expensive. That none of us has come up with any solution. It’s a brand-new home, what did you expect?
After once again going out to the piece of land a few days ago as well as looking at a model home, another set of excuses were made.
It’s too small of a house for such a big lot. I have to agree with that. The model home was even smaller than our current home but it’s not an excuse to not get the land. Just choose a bigger floorplan.
The latest excuse and this one was the ultimate deal breaker. Snakes!!!
After her colleague/potential neighbor told her that there are snakes in that part of the neighborhood, it scared my mom out of her wits. She has been terrified of snakes ever since her high school classmates placed a tiny snake in her dresser as a prank. I don’t know if that’s the true story, although I doubt it, her classmates are way too serious to pull any sort of pranks.
Anyway, I think that’s the silliest excuse I’ve ever heard. There are snakes everywhere, does that mean you’re not going to live anywhere?
I also don’t believe in snakes just popping out from nowhere. There has to be something that lures the snake to its destination (i.e backyard, garages, house). I told her, if you see a snake in the house, you would’ve been the luckiest person in the neighborhood.
That turned out to be the ultimate deal breaker, right after she demanded the agent to lower the price. I think the agent might have a melt down after he tried so hard to negotiate the price. She doesn’t want it!!!
I feel a little bad for the agent now. 😦 On the other hand, I kind of have a feeling from the get go that this wasn’t going to work out no matter how gorgeous the view is and I have no interest of getting in the middle. The middle man always gets blamed whenever something goes wrong! I remembered how well that worked out when she purchased our current home.
More or less, I think her latest excuse is just the same as excuse #2. She just might not like the view no matter how high the house goes.
This is Another Story 