It’s Monday and that means it’s back to work! Continue reading “Back to Work”
Tag: Writing
Tips when choosing your college major
Having just finish my first degree, I think I can say I know a few things about choosing a college major. Continue reading “Tips when choosing your college major”
Last Day of May
It’s hard to believe May just flew by and it’s June already. May has been an over-productive month for me Continue reading “Last Day of May”
To buy or not to buy?
I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep because this land fiasco is scaring the crap out of me. My mom is having second thoughts again about the little piece of land I mentioned in my post and this time, she’s managed to dragged me into it as well. Continue reading “To buy or not to buy?”
Thank god for the cooler day
This past week has been so crazy! At the beginning of the week, the temperature suddenly jumped from the 60’s to the 80’s and yesterday, 90’s! Continue reading “Thank god for the cooler day”
The light at the end of the tunnel
I just got back from the orthodontist. Continue reading “The light at the end of the tunnel”
An Epiphany
Last night, as I tossed and turned, kept awake by the lack of air conditioning and wind, I had an epiphany. Continue reading “An Epiphany”
Spring Cleaning
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.
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.
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.
Are Drawers for Organizing or Disorganizing?
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.
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…
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?
You snooze, you lose
You snooze, you lose. That is just the lesson I learned today. Continue reading “You snooze, you lose”
My Journey to Blogging
This picture is so right, blogging is a journey. After more than a year and 50 posts later, I think I should dedicate this single post to tell about my journey to blogging.
It all started with an idea…
One day, I was in the university’s coffee shop having lunch. I noticed the guy sitting next to me was eating a bagel. Of course, at the time, I thought about food and eating more frequently than usual. Then a completely unrelated thought hit me. My mom always said that bagels are the most traditional American food she’d known.
At once, I opened my laptop and googled “bagels” and clicked on the wikipedia link. As I read the article, I was surprised that bagels came from Poland and not what my mom said at all. I immediately opened Microsoft Word and began typing. I didn’t know what I wrote at first but after a short while, it was starting to come together like a jigsaw puzzle.
After researching two more different foods (Fish and Chips and Pizza), I became convinced that this was my 7th speech for my Toastmasters Competent Communicator. The different varieties of foods influenced by different cultures. (Need reference? Look back at my very first article from last February!)
I was beyond excited and believe me, in those days, I don’t get excited about writing. So I finished my speech about two weeks ahead and all of the sudden, I wanted to write MORE!!! But what should I write about? Also, I wanted to not only write everyday to improve my writing and communication but I also need some feedback from someone other than myself, from total strangers perhaps? 😀
A few days later, while I was doing my homework, my mom came in and asked me about microblogging, you know, what it is, how to set it up, and whatnot. The term blogging collided into my brain like a meteor. This was it! This was how I was going to get my feedback. I’m going to share my writing with the world!
As I waved my mom away, promising her I would research it later, I quickly googled “blogging websites.” A bunch of links came up but the one that caught my attention was wordpress. It sounded familiar like I used it before and I was right. I had to turn in a blogging assignment more than two years ago for my American Economic History course.
I signed a blog and posted the essay I wrote about food. Within a couple days, I noticed people were liking it and some even became my followers. Not a lot, I might add but it was progress because I never had anyone like anything I did before. I’ve been told I’m flawed at many things but maybe I’ve finally managed to find something I’m good at.
The bumps along the road…
However, with my busy full-time schoolwork and two-hour exhausting commute trips between home, school, and work, I didn’t have the time to keep writing. So I went into a long blogging hiatus until last September when I suddenly thought of blogging again while sitting in my empty classroom. I began writing again.
Since then, although I’ve been spotty with posts, I managed to keep up, writing about my observations, my daily life, and most importantly, about what I know. As I posted my own articles, I was reading other people’s posts to get a sense of how can I improve in my blogging and writing.
It was a good journey for me to be able to reach 50 posts and more than 100 followers in a little more than a year. For the past three weeks, I have been persistent with my blogs and writing almost daily even though I’ve hit many bumps along the way. Like work and slight writer’s block now and then but I have fun though and I’m looking forward to reaching my next goal.
Next goal: 100 posts and 500 followers!
Fear of snakes or just don’t like the view
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.
8 pounds of ham and a whole lot of toothache
My mom loves ham and all sorts of other meats. When I first arrived in the United States and was in a car the very next day driving two days to my grandparents in Texas. Continue reading “8 pounds of ham and a whole lot of toothache”
Title and Hook – Ways to Capture Readers’ Attention
Everyday, millions if not billions of internet articles, books, journal articles, etc. are waiting to be read. However we don’t have time to read so many while some is just not appealing to us. Therefore, as a writer and an avid reader, the first ten seconds is the most important. Continue reading “Title and Hook – Ways to Capture Readers’ Attention”
The Unwinnable War
This was it! For the past week, just about every other night, my mom and I have fought and fought leading up to last night’s little rounds of slamming doors. Continue reading “The Unwinnable War”
The ups and downs of speaking your mind
Some people are highly opinionated while some is strongly against speaking their minds in a public setting. Those are two polar opposites while some of us lands in the middle where we open and restrict ourselves depending on the situation. Continue reading “The ups and downs of speaking your mind”
Tantrums
Tantrums. In my opinion, a risky thing to have especially around love ones. Continue reading “Tantrums”
Most Memorable Nights of a Lifetime
Graduation is one of the most memorable days or nights in anybody’s life whether you are graduating from high school or college, the ceremony itself just somehow makes you feel like for just this one day, you are the most important person and nothing else matters. Continue reading “Most Memorable Nights of a Lifetime”
My Conversations with an indecisive friend
Over the years, my mom has turned to her friend, Christina, for advice especially regarding my education since Christina has three successful daughters. Continue reading “My Conversations with an indecisive friend”
Moving on
Every parent dreads the day when their son or daughter is leaving home to find a life for themselves. They may try every way possible or maybe even give up everything to get their children to stay a little longer but sooner or later, they know they have to move on. In fact, I believe that is exactly what is happening to me right now. Continue reading “Moving on”
A world without color
Sometimes, I wonder, what it would be like to live in a world with no color? Would it make picking clothes out of a department store easier? What about daily outfits? It’s just black and white, right? No need to decide between a rainbow of colors. Continue reading “A world without color”
A Life of Endless Learning
Yesterday was officially the last final of my academic career. I could feel my brain sagged just a little the minute the TA collected the test papers from my hands. I was like, “Yes! After 20 years, I’m finally done.” Continue reading “A Life of Endless Learning”
Losing Weight
My weight has always been a big issue for me but it wasn’t until the recent years when it became the problem of my life, the rock that’s keeping me from being happy. Over the past several years, I’ve been trying to get back to the normal weight I’ve had when I first moved to where I am about 5 years ago but the weights just kept piling on.
When I first set foot in the United States 12 years ago, I was 4′ 3″ and weighed 85 pounds. At the time, I was already considered “fat” by my family and my classmates but to people here, I was considered tiny. That made me feel a little better because for once, I wasn’t called fat. However, as the years passed and 6″ later, my weight went up dramatically and it didn’t do me any good. You see, I was born with small veins and because of my Albright’s Syndrome, I have to go get my blood checked every 3 months or so.
With the weight gain, so did the difficulty of drawing blood grew. Last May when I had the surgery in my leg, I was 115 pounds and it took the anesthetist almost 30 minutes to do the IV on me and in the end he still failed. They gave up and had to use gas to knock me out. This was just the beginning. Since then, I gained another 4 or 5 pounds and the last few times I had to do lab work, it took at least 3 technicians before one of them could nail me.
I told my mom about it and she blamed me for not consistently exercising and gain weight. That made me feel even worse than before I told her. To be honest, I’ve always wanted to exercise but due to the pain I suffer in my legs and the lack of motivation, I gave up after a week or so. My mom didn’t motivate me at all. I mean if she had exercised with me and we did some fun activities together, maybe I wouldn’t get so bored and quit. No, we both did our own things and before I knew it, I was about 120 pounds and sitting at home all day doing nothing.
About a month, I finally had an epiphany. I was on my way to my doctor’s appointment, it was 40 degrees out and I had to walk two blocks or so from the bus stop to the clinic. When I finally arrived at the clinic and climbed the two flights of stairs to the doctor’s office, I not only was sweating and breathless but my heart was beating like a helicopter. By the time the nurse called me into the little room, my heart was still pounding and she put that little clip on my finger to check my pulse. It was still 100.
I leaned back in my chair and thought, damn what’s happened to me? I was never so out of breath climbing stairs before. Then I knew that it was time for me to commit to exercising again, to slip back into the routine I had two years ago when my mom made me go exercising everyday.
But how?
I need motivation, a reason to keep going. Then I thought of one, my future. I need to be in better shape in order to find a job, work, and even start a family, maybe. I also thought of writing because writing was the first long-term commitment for me. So I thought if I can keep writing for this long, why not commit to going to the gym for just as long?
Since the end of March, I’ve been committed to go to gym five days a week while taking a break on the weekends and let my muscles rest. Since then, I’ve successfully gone back to the weight I was over a year ago and I’m still on my way to lose more. Now, I’m not only feeling better than before but by exercising, I feel like I’m thinking more clearly and doing better in school.
This is Another Story 