Tag: Reflection

I have been undoubtedly asleep the entire morning. Not physically but mentally. Either that or my brain’s fried. I’ve been in my GMAT class all morning and haven’t been getting a single question right. I got home about two hours ago, made lunch, and drank a cup of green tea. I needed the slight boost of caffeine. About half-way into green tea, aw, it’s like slamming into a wall. My entire upper body itched like crazy and so many other things jolted me at the same time.

Like the fact that mom had been nagging me to charge the camera for the entire week so she could take it to training this weekend and I’m just now realizing she had forgotten it.

And it also hit me that today is somewhat of a significant day. It is exactly 9 years since my father’s passing. Mom told me two days ago, June 4, while she was noting that it was the anniversary of the student protest at Tiananmen Square.

This was how the sky looked about 1 hour ago, right before it started hailing and raining, right before I was interrupted by a loud bang at the front door. I was surprised I heard that despite the hail. I opened up and saw a half-naked man demanding money. “What for?” I asked.

It turned out he was the shady handyman mom hired to fix the spouts for the rental property. He wanted $169. I looked outside, it was pouring. “Does it have to be right now?” I asked, realized immediately I had just asked the stupidest question ever. That question is like asking the cashier at the grocery store’s check-out counter if I can pay later. Inside though, my anxiety was building up and I don’t do well under pressure. My heart pounded as my thoughts hurled at me at 100 mph. Is this guy serious? He could’ve done it all afternoon and he chose now? “Can I write you a check?” I proceeded.

“No, I need cash, like now.” He answered. I don’t have $169 on me. I gave $200 to mom a few days ago to fix something else and I remember mom telling me someone’s going to do some work today but she didn’t say anything about paying. Have I been scammed? Please don’t tell me I’ve been lied to. I’m not in the mood for craps.

So I got in the car and drove to the ATM machine to get $200 out of my account. The inside of the car got completely wet as I was trying to working the damn machine and I hate getting wet. Then, instead of coming home to do the transaction, he insisted we do it right then and there in the pouring rain. I was super irritated but consider I’m a tolerable person, I didn’t go off on a temper tantrum. We just exchanged bills and receipts and I drove home. I just hope I didn’t do anything wrong.

Great, now I have to do this in two posts because it’s too long. Oh well, the more the merrier. Read the next post! It’s a lovely story related to the apocalypse (my own experience).

An hour later, I texted mom and told her. She texted back, “Do Not Pay.” Instantly, I knew I fell for one of those things she expects me to do even without told. You know, I’m not a mind-reader. I don’t know your expectations. When a half-naked man is standing outside my door demanding money, what am I really supposed to do?

Minutes later, she sent another text, “Tell him to call me.”

Um, okay. So I called the shady handyman who answered the phone blasting me with a creative bunch of swear words. I told him who I was and that my mom wanted to talk to him. He cursed some more and hung up.

I ended up calling mom, told her what happened and got a big fat lecture, calling me stupid, blah blah blah. I swear, at that moment, stuck in the middle, dealing with both of them, I wanted to cry, to run away, to drown myself, something. I don’t want to deal with this. This is scary and crazy and suddenly feel regret of not sticking to my original day plan. My day plan was I was going to spend the afternoon downtown. I think if I did that, none of this would’d happened.

I’m scare for what will happen tomorrow and I don’t want to find out.