Month: July 2007

I was downtown trying to sign up Edda for some benefits from the county’s disability services agency. It used to be grungy and dark and deserted when I was a kid, now it’s all fancy, you have to pay for parking and there are hip condos and look! there’s a bar. Who knew there were enough bar goers around here to support a Gordon Biersch?

And speaking of benefits, there are a number of agencies around here that help out with equipment purchases, respite care, etc, but they aren’t well publicized and I have to hunt and peck to find them.

Tonight I hung out at my friend, Jaching’s place in Mountain View. I had done some tech support for her, and was going to do some more tonight, but she got her problem fixed yesterday. Anyways, I still went over to her place, where she fed me dinner, and for the second time, she made these amazing blueberry muffins. I met Jaching’s new roommate and later on, her old roommate and her boyfriend came and joined us. It was a fun night talking about dating, men, women, with a muffin in one hand and a wine glass in the other.

But there was a funny moment when we realized that all 5 of us had met each other over the internet. I met Jaching over Match, Jaching and her roommies found each other off of Craigslist. And her roommate’s boyfriend was off of Match too. There was a moment of like, “Oh wow. Damn.” … and then we were back to talking normally. Laff.

Michelle, a friend of ours from grad school, flew in today from sunny CA to attend a conference and she came over for dinner. One nice thing about living in the Washington DC area as opposed to Austin, Taiwan, upstate NY or Singapore, is that a lot of people we know often come by on business or pleasure and they stop by to see us! It’s nice.

Here we are posting sentry for the school bus.

We didn’t miss the bus today. Woo hoo! 1 point goes to suburban mom!

Also, I’ve been slowly clearing out the overgrown garden in front of the driveway. I’m using small 2-inch hand clippers. It’s suppose to be a zen/meditation thing or else I’m just crazy.

Before:

After:

I stumbled onto another nest – also motherless. I’m waiting a bit before I remove it because I’m just sentimental in that way.

Job-wise today. I’m trying to apply for various government jobs and I found one that I might or might not qualify for depending on how much I sell myself and my previous work experience. Every government job is listed online and there is a corresponding phone number to call if you have questions. Now this job that I’m thinking about applying for has a one-year training component and there are many vacancies and so I called asked her very general questions like – is it competitive? How many people apply and how many positions are there? She said that she couldn’t give out that kind of information. Then I asked when the training would start, mainly so I would know what kind of time frame I was looking at – you know if they said the training started in September, I would know that if I hadn’t heard by the last week of August, blah, blah, blah… Anyways, she was also not allowed to give that information out as well. Sigh, those HR people. Always so helpful.

Wow. Okay, so I’m taking a swimming class in prep for my pending tri attempt. Honestly, I’ve gotten decent at the freestyle. I manage to keep my head underwater for most of the stroke. I breathe out thru my nose so I don’t get a pool full of water in my nasal passages. I can tilt my head a little bit to get some air. Tho I do need to work on the path my hand goes thru the water, I can confidently say that I’ll probably make it in my swim. Breaststroke not bad. Backstroke I can do.

But today we tried to learn butterfly, and man oh man. it is hard. Dolphin kick? um… yeah. I just didn’t get it. Your arm motion is supposed to be exactly the same as freestyle, but I find the timing of the kick and the pull to be a bit weird. I guess I can safely say that I suck in the butterfly.

I’ve always been a pessimist. I like to think that bad things will always befall me. The cute guy won’t like me, no one will hire me, no one wants to call me, that test result will come back positive or negative (depending on, you know, whether you want to be pregnant or not pregnant).

These days, I’m really trying to learn to be an optimist. So everyday, I get up and I tell myself that I have to take Ruby for a run because she has to poop and I don’t want her to poop in the house and I have to take her around the neighborhood anyways so I might as well put on some running shoes instead of some flip flops and walk for a while and then run for a while and then go back to walking. Then I come home and take a shower and I try to convince myself of a few things:

1. Edda will someday be able to read and communicate in some way so she can tell me anything that she’s thinking and that she will find friends who aren’t her parents/teachers/therapists. (Actually, the second part might be true already).

2. I will find a job which is interesting, uses my talent (whatever those are) in good ways, allows me to meet people who are smart, funny and good at their jobs. The organization I work for will have some redeeming quality (for example, perhaps I should not work for a company that makes weaponry even though I think I would be pretty good at it.) and will have at least 1 person in a position of responsibility who I believe in and respect.

3. That Jeremy find a job that meets whatever requirements he has.

4. That Vince will not put up such a battle at mealtimes. One would think that since Edda can’t use her hands to feed herself, she’d be the hard one at mealtimes, but often she opens her mouth wide for every spoonful like a baby bird and Vince squirms and refuses to eat anything except white rice.

5. That someday I will not feel awkward at parties.

6. That we will all be happy and healthy together – forever.

Today we went to Edda’s school for the fall to meet her teachers. This was the school that all of Edda’s private therapists recommended. It’s the only private school that has been approved by the county for preschool kids. So apparently it’s kind of hard to get into, but we didn’t have a problem and I was pleased at the IEP when the school committee readily agreed to this placement.

But I was bummed today, because they want to start all the way back to real object choices because perhaps she doesn’t understand an abstract picture represents a real object. Edda had been pointing out body parts and colors and transportation in Singapore, but she had this special rapport with our beloved Ranjit, who, as I watched, could get Edda to respond in ways that neither Jeremy or I have ever been able to replicate. How am I suppose to convince anyone else of Edda’s abilities?

Oranges are out of season and Edda’s poops have turned into golf balls. It’s pretty much like giving birth, quite painful, takes a long lead time, and then finally, a pop! and out it comes. Finally, we had to break down and go to the expensive market (Whole Foods) and buy the super-duper oranges, she ate three today, hopefully the poops will go back to normal.

In some ways this is the most glorious summer ever. I am finally back home where the weather and the roads are as familiar to me as the birthmarks on my body. I have my little family around me and we are spending lots of time running in sprinklers and “washing” the car and running down hills in parks. Eating sweet farm corn and peaches and grilling hamburgers in the driveway next to our car. Seeing the familiar thunderstorms pass through after a hot and humid day, it’s all good.

In some ways, this is the most stressful summer ever, neither of us has jobs, we’ve moved into my parent’s house, Vincent is the littlest one and perhaps a tad emotionally sensitive and vunerable at his camp and Edda has plateaued on her communication and hand skills (and the potty training, don’t even ask me about it). And we keep missing the damn bus.

We went to Silver Spring’s downtown to get wet in their fountain.

Made chocolate sundaes.

Driving back home on the Beltway past the Mormon temple.

Hello, we are at Zhang Jia Jie. Will spend three more days here before heading to Chen-tu.

I went to see a movie with a neighbor! They have such a beautiful lawn that they maintain all themselves, I hope they give me a few pointers.

done.