“What cha doin’?” George asks.
Continue reading “Friday Fictioneers: Just Another Day”
Friday Fictioneers: Just Another Day
Tag: Story
Share Your World – Week of December 28, 2020
Pick three words to describe this past year. (please keep them PG. Thanks).
Crappy, sucky, boring
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#WeekendCoffeeShare: Last Saturday of 2020 – No Regrets
Thank you for joining me on another #WeekendCoffeeShare. Come on in from the cold. It’s sure been bitterly cold this year. Not a lot of snow though which it’s a shame. It’s 2020, everyone’s working from home, having snow to look at would break the monotony. Anyway, what would you like? I have Hot Cocoa – the instant stuff I’m afraid – and instant coffee.
Continue reading “#WeekendCoffeeShare: Last Saturday of 2020 – No Regrets”
Letter to Self: 19 Christmases and Counting
My Dear 10-year-old Self,
It seems like just yesterday you landed at the terminal of the LAX. I bet you feel like an alien – unable to understand the language and the environment is certainly not what you’ve expected – but I tell you, you’re going to get through this. There are lots of adventures waiting ahead. There are obstacles, too, but I’m telling you, you’re going to get through it.
Continue reading “Letter to Self: 19 Christmases and Counting”
Friday Fictioneers: The Stranded Mr. C
Mr. C stares at the sign and sighs. Still gone as it has been for 50 years. He’s stranded in this desolate place as his brain kept wandering back to that fateful night. What went wrong? “I triple-checked that spirit-meter, didn’t I?” He muttered.
Continue reading “Friday Fictioneers: The Stranded Mr. C”
Share Your World – Week of December 21, 2020
What is your favorite type of cookie (they’re called biscuits in Europe I believe)?
There are two kinds of cookies I love – the soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies and the cakey cookies. My favorites are snickerdoodle and my homemade chocolate chip cookies especially if they’re still warm.
Continue reading “Share Your World – Week of December 21, 2020”
#WeekendCoffeeShare: This isn’t called Selfish
Good morning, thank you for joining me for another #WeekendCoffeeShare. I’m having a steamy cup of hot cocoa with lots of mini marshmallows. Would you like some? Here, we’ll sit six feet apart so we can adhere to the social distant law of 2020.
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Friday Fictioneers: Christmas Bedtime Story
“They call this the “Scrooge Farm”. Instead of Christmas decoration each year, around Christmas, there would be scarecrows dressed in rags and sandbags for heads popping up in random places ’round the farm. Now, no one has ever seen the owner as there’s no house on the hundred-acre property. “
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Share Your World – Week of December 14, 2020
What news event do you vividly remember hearing about as a child, and where were you?
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#WeekendCoffeeShare: Weird Dream, Potential Work Burnout, What’s Next?
Good morning, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? About 10 months since our last Weekend Coffee Share? Lots have changed to the point that our coffee share have become more virtual than it’s ever been.
Continue reading “#WeekendCoffeeShare: Weird Dream, Potential Work Burnout, What’s Next?”
Friday Fictioneers: Another Pandemic
Tossing his jacket onto the table, he sat down and sighed. He couldn’t believe it. Another pandemic. I’m 109, how many more events do I need to go through?
Share Your World – Week of December 7, 2020
Do you enjoy skiing or ice skating or if it’s warm where you are, hiking or enjoying outdoor sports?
In the recent years, I have become somewhat of an avid hiker though I’m still mostly sticking to easy and moderate level hiking trails – the difficulty is based on alltrails.com.
I would love to try snowshoeing in the back-country. I can imagine it’d be fun and different.
I tried skiing a few years ago. It was a painful experience because I haven’t had the calcium accumulation taken out of my leg which had caused a lot of pain walking in the ski boots. I would love to try again though as I’d think it won’t be as painful now as before.
Do you give to charities or homeless that you might encounter, during this time of year, more than you do otherwise?
I donate when I can – usually to either nature conservation agencies or World Wildlife Fund – it doesn’t matter the time of the year. When I have some spare change, I would donate.
What is the most enjoyable activity you engage in during December? Is it a tradition for you and your family?
Office parties and the 12-days of Christmas hosted yearly by my department.
Is it sad to say those are the only things I enjoy about December? Being from China, my family doesn’t celebrate Christmas or any of the year-end holidays and my mom’s always bitter during this time of the year because there’s always problems with one of her two tenants during November or December.
What changes will C-19 bring to your festive celebrations this year?
All the fun holiday activities at work got canceled – year-end company party has moved to virtual, 12 days of Christmas is canceled, and departmental Christmas dinner has become ordering from DoorDash and virtually sharing meals over some unpredictable and limited internet bandwidths.
The Thing with Wi-Fi Extenders
Did you know Wi-Fi Extenders don’t speed up or slow down internet? It merely boost the router’s signal so all the nooks and crannies in a house get great wi-fi signal.
Try telling that to my mom.
*rolling eyes and shaking head*
It was a long work day yesterday. I worked for almost 10 hours, encountering problem after problem while my head was still on holiday mode even though I didn’t really experienced any holiday spirit this past week.
The moment my mom found out I’m off the clock, she stomped out of her room and yanked the wi-fi extender out of the wall. I didn’t even hear it. All I heard were stomp, stomp, stomp, a dull thud, and a door slam. Next thing I knew, my wi-fi extender was on the floor.
The night before, like almost every night since I bought the extender, she had complained, “Your damn thing is making the internet slow. I can’t even watch my YouTube videos.” Wah wah wah…
Do you know why I had to get this extender in the first place?
Because the wi-fi signal in my room stinks. The connection is dropping unpredictably during work days – on my laptop, on my phone, even Alexa ignores me as the result of a dropped connection.
Is it possible mom’s taking up my bandwidth. On a typical workday, she’s got 4 devices connected to wi-fi, all streaming videos at the same time. My internet usage app says she spends an average of 15 hours a day streaming YouTube.
It’s crazy, right? Yeah, it’s crazy.
Meanwhile, I’m stuck in my room with my laptop and phone listening to downloaded stuff from Audible, anxiously anticipating the next time my wi-fi connection drops while praying it’s not during a call.
Oh yeah, my internet dropped during a very important call last month. I lost 5 minutes of important conversation trying to get back online. That’s 5 minutes during which I could’ve discussed work stuff that’s been on my mind but instead, by the time I got back online, my boss informed me he’s late for another meeting and gotta go.
And she has the guts to call me selfish. I pay all the bills even though she uses a majority of the utilities. You know what she told me last week, she’s not helping me with the bills (not that she has), she’s putting 65% of her paycheck into retirement. This will probably mean I need to work more overtime hours to give my meager paycheck a boost.
Friday Fictioneers: Crapulously Fabulous
Great, fantastique, awesome, super.
Just how many more different ways can I exaggerate this situation?
I don’t know what gave anyone the idea or the impression I can single-handedly put together a Thanksgiving dinner in 4 hours.
4 HOURS!!!
There I was, slaving away in the kitchen – turkey, vegetables, and stuffing in the oven, potatoes ready to mash, and all there was left to do was dessert.
“Marge!” Came a holler.
I must had turned too quickly because next thing I knew, I was on the floor. “Ow,” I moaned. My leg was turned at an awkward angle. Crapulous.
“Marge, you okay?”
(100 Words)
Please note: the word “Crapulous” in this story does not mean what it actually means if you define this word in the dictionary. In this story, this word is the antonym of Fabulous. Crapulous, Fabulous, get it?
So Random: Pencil vs Mechanical Pencil
So I have recently started writing on paper again. After such a long time of just typing my thoughts out on a Word document, I was surprised that my hands still knew how to hold a pencil or how to write with one.
It was, as people say, just like riding a bicycle, which is a poor analogy as I don’t know how to ride a bicycle – poor hand-eye coordination, blah blah blah…
Anyway, as I said, I began writing with a pencil (just a good old pencil) and it made me wonder why I ever switched to a mechanical pencil. The simple answer would be pencil sorta became outdated in the mid-90’s (around the time I was in elementary school). I guess all the sharpening and lead breakage got on people’s nerves.
My early experience with a mechanical pencil was a frustrating one – NO ONE told me I was supposed to insert the lead from the side with the eraser, not trying to jam the lead through the tiny opening of the lead-clamp (the small metal piece that was supposed to clamp the lead in place. Let’s just say I broke a lot of lead and ended up with black fingers most of the time.
After I learned (finally) to operate a mechanical pencil, I never went back to the pencil (even though I was strangely gifted with a lot of very weird-looking and sparkly pencils) until these last two weeks, which leads me to this post.
What I like about using a good old pencil:
- No hand-cramps – for some reason, my hand cramps up after about 10, 15 minutes of writing with a mechanical pencil
- Nice and light – if you hold a good old pencil in hand and a mechanical pencil in the other, you’ll notice the difference in weight
- Lead doesn’t break easily
Compare that to a mechanical pencil:
- No need to sharpen every 30 minutes – a piece of lead can be used for quite a while but definitely need to watch out for the type of lead as not all pencil lead are made equal
- The tip doesn’t become blunt which, in turn, makes the color of the writing lighter in color.
- It doesn’t get shorter like the good old pencil – it can literally last forever if you treat it right
People may ask, “Why not use a pen, like a normal person?”
Well, unless your thoughts are perfectly clear and not jumbled like mine, go ahead with a pen. I am sticking with the pencil so I don’t have to use a whiteout on every other word I write.
Stress Talk #1: I Don’t Know How to Relax
After speaking to my dietitian/therapist this week, I decided to start this weekly series as a way to de-stress from everyday life, to scream at my inner voice and so forth. It might be very random things and some might be humorous. I’ll try to keep it light.
I don’t know how to relax. Is that a weird thing to say? I don’t know how to relax. There, I said it. Can you blame me though even though I’m sitting here now writing this, feeling stressed to the brink?
From what?
From work, family, life.
Do you sometimes feel like you’re being rushed from place to place and never have a moment to just stop and look around you or contemplate on the present? That’s been me for the past twenty-some odd years. My mom wants things done right away. When I was living with my step-dad, he, too, wanted things done in the moment. When I was living with my relatives in China, everything must be done in an instant. It was what was expected of me but it’s never reciprocated.
You know what’s strange?
I never really noticed it until the recent years when I began working multiple jobs while going to school and then I’d come home and my mom would want me to do this and that. Maybe my internal stress meter has been slowly peaking and I didn’t realize it. Or maybe my age is catching up. I’m not as young as when I started this blog 7 years ago. I sometimes would look myself in the mirror and would find crow’s feet at the corners of my eyes.
I recently watched a documentary about stress. In it, eating was mentioned. It turned out sugar is less sweet when a person is stressed and foods are more delicious when one is stressed. Really? I decided to do a test and it’s absolutely right.
Maybe it’s why I’ve been overeating again, even being on an anti-diet. I think I am overeating because I’m stressed. “I feel like pulling my hair out,” I told my dietitian and honestly, I feel like I’m about to break down into one big sob.
I’m overeating because I’m constantly working excess of the 40-hour standard work week. My mom was saying, “the more overtime you work, the better.” I overeat because of the constant disruption. Everybody wants something from me and it seems like that’s the only time I worth something to them. Other times, I’m just a “silly” girl.
My 24-year-old cousin needs help registering from college classes, guess who he turn to? My uncle needs to shop for a car, guess who’s going to do that for him? The family needs health insurance, who will help them buy insurance?
ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!
Everybody Needs Me
It is so incredible the other 7 individuals in my mom’s clan think I can bought with money. “Here, take this $100.” One of them would toss an 100-dollar bill in my direction whenever they want something done for them.
What am I? I would often wonder. I’m certainly not a dancer at a strip club.
I am someone with two college degrees and a steady job, making more money than them. I don’t need the money. I don’t want the money. It would screw up the accounting of my money. Besides, I am a person, not an object. Why do they think I can be bought?
For the last two years, ever since my mom’s entire family immigrated to the U.S and re-entered my life again after 15 or 16 years, I feel like I have been under constant stress. There were some days, especially during the last few months, I’d find myself feeling down because not only my family doesn’t respect me and constantly trying to change me but they only come to me when they want something.
Then, there have been some days, it makes me so angry I want to punch something or someone while some days, I just want to curl up in a ball and cry. Unfortunately, after so many years of breaking down and getting back up again, I can no longer shed tears as easily as I could a few years ago.
Stop acting like a dictator!
After two years of formally getting re-acquainted with my mother, my aunts and uncles have all developed a kind of fear toward my mom that is associated with dictators. So they mostly come to me when they want something, instead of going to my mom because according to everybody, I don’t get angry. Oh, but I do, just not on the outside.
I bluntly said a few months ago, “Stop acting like you rule the world. You act like a dictator sometimes, you know that?”
“Oh, I’m a dictator now?” My mom replied, half-jokingly.
“That’s why they’re afraid of you. You’re so controlling.”
When I went on a solo hike the day after, she had her entire clan call me to check on me. My phone might had blown up if I could receive those calls but no service. That day was heaven.
Everybody needs me
There are days when I want to bang my head against the wall and it’s not because of work stress even though I do work 9, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Work is actually more relaxing than dealing with family matters.
The phone calls, blood work reports, doctors bills…sadly and annoyingly, none of those are mine.
Several things would happen during work days:
Mom would come up and ask, “What does this sentence mean? How would you translate it?” or she’d complain, “this makes no sense to me” or “what a horrible grammar this is?”
Then my aunt would trudge over from the next door, “Can you take a look at this text and reply for me?”
Shortly after that, my mom would stomp in and request I look at my other aunt’s lab results and tell her what it mean. “I’m not a doctor.” I’d tell her. “Consult Google.” Okay, maybe that’s worse but at least I won’t be blame or maybe I will still get blamed (for not taking a look at the report). My mom loves to blame me whenever anything goes wrong. Whatever.
A wise man named Google once said it takes a person 20 minutes to focus again after a disruption.
I can’t remember how many minutes I spend each day staring at my work inbox before I realize I was working on something that had nothing to do with writing emails.
I’m not made of steel
After a 2-mile hike last weekend, I arrived home, craving to sit down and enjoy a glass of water. My mom had other plans. “Your lettuces are dry as a bone. You need to go water them.”
“Give me a minute, let me take a breather.” It seemed like she wanted it done at that moment because there she was, filling a plastic bottle with water and marching to my mini-greenhouse to pour water on my growing lettuces. “Geez, I just hiked 2 miles, let me have a break” I also drove and listen to you criticize my driving again, I wanted to say. “I am human, not made of steel.”
“I never said you are.”
“Then stop demanding things, I will do them when I’m good and ready.”
I have been hearing people say this, “Oh you’re young, you can do anything.”
WRONG!
It doesn’t matter how young or old a person is, he or she is still human, and humans have limits. I don’t believe in such thing as “limitless.” Nobody can do everything and just like all machines, humans break down too. It’s just a matter of time.
I tried Intermittent Fasting and Why it didn’t work
This has been on my mind for a while now ever since I began my balanced diet lifestyle but I’ve been too preoccupied to write it all down. So here it is, my experience with intermittent fasting and reasons it did not work.
I have been on many diets throughout my life – limited-calories diet, low fat diet, low sugar diet, and clean-eating-to-the-extreme diet – so intermittent fasting was just another diet to lose enough weight
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One of these days…
One of these days, I am going to get back on a writing schedule. I don’t know how but one of these days, I’m going to get back to writing. Continue reading “One of these days…”
What have I been doing? Why I haven’t written?
Can you believe we’re already at the end of July? Continue reading “What have I been doing? Why I haven’t written?”
Tell Me a Lie
I got a haircut at a professional salon recently. When I got home a few hours later, my mom began to pick at my hair. I shooed her away. “What are you doing?” Continue reading “Tell Me a Lie”
I Need to Calm Down!
I was startled awake by a nightmare three nights ago – bolted upright in bed, hands around my neck, checking for the wetness and blood before exhaling the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
Continue reading “I Need to Calm Down!”
5 Months into 2020…
So we’re now 5 months into 2020 and I think you’ll agree with me when I say this, “2020 sucks!”
Continue reading “5 Months into 2020…”
This is Another Story 