Author: Doris

We are on the road again this weekend. Jeremy loves to pack – he is usually in charge of packing for the kids and for himself and I swoop in at the last minute and shove my clothes into the space that he’s saved for me. We’ve been together so long that Jeremy knows that I always pack too light and he needs to add an extras of his own boxers/undershirt/sweatshirt that I’ll need to use as PJs.

I don’t know what happened this time, but I was trying to be “helpful” and co-packed the suitcase with him. As a result, neither of us knew exactly what the other person had packed. As a result, one of the four of us is going commando today.

It is easier said than done. Recently, my high school class President passed away. He was very smart, intelligent and precise. I guess his passing away had not much to do with his illness (ear infection) but rather, in seeking his perfection, he tolerated less on his less-than-normal (not even perfect) conditions and refused to take good care of himself properly. His wife, a nice lady, probably couldn’t persuade him to change his self-destructive mind either.

In his memorial service, I overheard someone said that his doctors always were not that good. I think that any illness needs good relationship between patient and physician. He, probably, wasn’t patient enough to be a good patient. May be far from it.

Coming back to Edda, I think, she is improving a lot based on what I have observed. And this is a result of hard working of you and Jeremy on a 24/7/365 basis. But, even put a lot of work on her, being realistic and most likely, she will be far from self-sufficient. Of course, this itself will be very discouraging that is quite nature and understandable. If I were you or Jeremy, I would feel very despair too – but, it is okay and normal. Don’t keep that feeling all by yourself, all the time.

But, doing your very best under difficult or impossible conditions is a big accomplishment itself and one should pat on his/her own back just for that. Not only that, one should be very proud. Everyone around would agree and appreciate. The desire to make thing bit better in one’s mind then would become a huge reservoir of fuel that will carry a lot of heavy stuff (tangible or not so tangible) much further and farther.

Due to my childhood experience, I always see thing more positive than it should be since it can’t go lower. I hope you and Jeremy will see that too – she needs a lot of work constantly but she is lovely.

Let me say that you are an excellent Mom to conclude this posting.

Love Always, Dad.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going through (again) the Kubler-Ross model, aka the 5 stages of grief about Edda’s disability. I felt like since I did it once already – cycling from denial, through anger, bargaining, depression and then acceptance over the span of 2 or 3 years, I thought I would never need to go through it all again at least not with the same intensity. But, (woo hoo!), I’m cycling through it all again. Going through depression in late January and early February and now I’m firmly entrenched in the anger phase. Grrr. Let me say it again. Grrrr. I just walk around wanting to kick people in the shins. Grrrr. (PS, I’m never in denial. I’m a pessimist, so I don’t go through that stage.) One of my co-workers says I’m the most cheerful grumpy person they’ve ever met, so I guess I’m holding it together…

Enough about me.

After the sing-a-long, we celebrated Emy’s 29th birthday! She’s almost 30! My youngest sibling-in-law is almost 30, which means I’m almost too old. Woo hoo! Have you met her dog, Bozito? He’s missing more teeth than Edda which means that his tongue pokes out of his mouth all cutely.

Here are her birthday cupcakes. The oven at Kiki and Kappa’s died, so Emy had to take the uncooked cupcakes back to her own apartment, bake them, and then bring them back.

And you can witness the death of the 50 mm lens.

Well, we are plannning things to-do while heading west & afterwards. A few things already in my minds.

1. Would like visit my brother and sister in the Chicago area.
2. Promise Rena to have BBQ in Kansas City. I have to dig out the name of the restaurant that I visited before.
3. Buy some furnitures for the house.
4. Fix the dish washer.
5. Install telephone and Internet.
6. Hike along the Columbia River and fishing too.
7. Visit friends there.

…

Work continue in the house in preparation of heading west – painted the front door; put a glass window in the laundry room; washed all the windows and sidings at the back of the house using pressurized water; installed a vertical blind in the basement door; wall-mounted some of Donald’s woodwork in the family room and first floor bath room; cleaned up the exhaust duct of the dryer.

And there are still a lot of things need to be done in the house. Still have time, I think, to finish most items on the to-do list.

After sleeping in NJ, we headed to upstate NY. This was a special trip to celebrate the birthdays of Kiki and Emy.

Kiki, who’s birthday was in early December, coordinated a sing-a-long. It was a lot of fun, we sang a lot of rounds and then ate a nice vegetarian Indian dinner. Yum!

After the aborted dental surgery and the Valentine’s day party, we immediately packed up the car and headed to upstate NY to visit Kiki and Kappa, via my parent’s apartment in New Jersey.

In case you missed it, my parents (who are nuclear engineers) were laid off from their jobs in NJ a few weeks ago (which they did accurately predict would happen if Obama was elected since he did not include as part of his platform the building of 45 nuclear reactors by 2030). After they were let go, they moved back to MD, (it’s been nice having them around, they get to go to the aborted dental surgeries and the valentine’s day parties and we get some wonderful weeknight dinners). They still have a few more weeks left on their NJ apartment lease and we took advantage of free lodging on the way.

My parents did warn us that the only thing left in their apartment were 2 twin sized beds. I wondered if we should bring an air mattress or some sort of sleeping bag, but I was overruled. FAMILY BED was the consensus. Was it comfortable? Not really (I had not expected that Ruby would take up 35% of my twin bed). Was it worth not spending the 70 dollars on the Comfort Inn? Questionable.

Donald – the 50 mm is totally busted. The glass in the lens closest to the sensor is now tilted out of place about 30 degrees! I actually heard it go clunk when I held the camera in my hands and rocked it gently back and forth. Ack. What am I doing…