Mommies on the Move

Last Saturday, while we were waiting for our kids having the birthday party, I had a little chat with a mom. I found out that she is yet another Chinese Canadian woman like me who is following the US election news in China. We wanted to get together and talk about more American politics.

As we met today, we ended up exchanging our life stories in a quiet restaurant. Over the course of the year, we met a number of times, always with our kids in tot. Never enough time to get to know each other. Again, the time ran out soon today before we ever started talking about politics. We had to rush over to our kids’ school to help the Halloween decoration. Kids were pleasantly surprised to find their mom appear on the hallway during the recess. Good fun.

Export from America

When someone is down, you would expect him to reflect why and how he’s gotten there. This takes courage to do. So Kudos to Greenspan, the former US Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who came out a couple of days ago and basically admitted frankly he is having a second thought about the interest-driven free market mechanism that has led to the global financial melt-down.

Collectively it’s hard to do. And this is reflected in a NY Times editorial that basically urges China to spend as a way to get them out of the mess. It’s the very habit of spending without limit that got them into this mess in the first place. They still don’t get it. So easy to find others flaw. In this regard, I hope China knows its own virtue and stick to it well.

Popularity Upgraded

I have mentioned how Sienna got invited to everybody’s birthday. This is getting even better. She was invited to her friend’s sister’s birthday party, a skating session following by a feast at Pizza Hut. And she was the only one from her class that was invited. The mother told me that Sienna is more mature and independent for her age. “Other kids sometimes turn moody, I won’t know what to do with them. Sienna is hassle free,” she said. “She has already given us all the hassle,” I responded.

The Best Place to Practice Patience

I have never been out of the house until today. Two presents are needed for Two birthday parties that Sienna was invited to go to tomorrow. I made her ask the birthday girl in her class and she did come back with a singled-out item from her wish list. And I was to travel about 10 miles to get it. It turned out to be a very long journey.

The traffic in the city is a constant jam. It’s Friday. A central part of the city was blocked because a summit meeting was taking place for some world leaders to solve the current financial crisis.

The taxi driver started swearing at the drivers in front of him and around him. This is his job. How could he not have put up with it already? Besides, other drivers cannot hear him. I am the only one who is getting all the swearing sound.

As usual, the better side of me shows when I am in a not so good bad situation. I make myself feel like I am sitting on my own living room couch. And I dozed off. “Where the hell are you going now?” I am waken up by my driver. Still half asleep, I saw the mall near our house and I responded reflectively, “Oh. Keep going straight.” He said, “The BMW is crazy.” I then realized that he was mad at yet another driver but not me. Of course he didn’t apologize for making me feel like I was scolded for direction. Nor did I expect him to.

Sticky Chopsticks Situation

We had a chance to entertain our friends’ visiting parents in a nice Chinese restaurant. They requested that we use public chopsticks. Everybody obeyed. At one point, I found the husband sticking his private chopsticks into the public dishes. At another point, I found myself managing a piece of duck meat on my own plate with the public chopsticks.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward, to say the least. Seriously, I don’t feel particularly apologetic about our behavior. Instead, I found their habit a bit, what's the word, "paranoid".

If you think about it, the way we Chinese share meals around a round table is pretty gross. It looks like the most effective way to spread gems and transmit disease. But there is no data showing Chinese have higher risk of getting sick via meal/gem sharing. It's in the air and everywhere. It’s easier to eat in a more "civilized manner" in a Western meal when you have only a couple of bowls where you to fetch the food to your plate. It’s a lot more work to go around over 12 dishes every mouthful, like today.

The point here though is not about the eating habit in a culture. I would eat with bare hands or with knife and folks depending where I am. In this case, it’s about how you choose to have your personal habit as you grow old. It’s about the resistance to forming habits that are not convenient for your own mental well being. It’s the balance between being civilized and being ridiculous.

After I extended my goodwill with my hosting of the dinner, I reserved these thoughts.

A Glimpse of How Making a Living is Done

I was sitting on my north-facing room browsing the web. This worker descending outside of the widow and started the cleaning. Hours later, I was in the kitchen to make myself some tea. I saw another guy getting ready to for round on the opposite building. I spent most of my adult life without having to engage in the effort of making a living. I do always prepare mentally when the need calls upon me. I will be ready to go begging on the street if the other option is to put myself in the middle of the air like this. That’s comforting when I did up my mind.

She Bangs

It was not an intentional make-over. Sienna came home last week with her forehead covered with a “bang,” a work done by her craft scissors. She always wants to keep her hair long and down. I insist that she has a pony tail when she goes to school. Then ever since we explained to her that her name in Chinese also means “a hair bang,” she wanted to have a bang. I didn’t want to go there because it’s an added trouble to keep the bang the right length. Now she took the matter into her own hands... I had no choice but take her to the hair dresser right after she got off the school bus.

Now this turned out to be a very nice change. She looks so cute with the new hair do.