Today was a chaotic day. But receiving some good news in the afternoon left me with a story about babies, wine, and our cat princess Kara.

Yesterday was Tuesday, which was Ben’s school day, Ben is my first grandson and my daughter’s first born baby. Because there was no car at home for me to drive to pick Ben up in the afternoon, I asked my son to pick me up and then for us to go to school together to pick Ben up. I told my son who was driving: “Ben is very cute now. He started to make sounds, clap his hands, cover his eyes to play peekaboo, and sometimes bow and wave good bye. You come to play with him tomorrow, as he will stay home.” My son asked: “What time is good?” I said: “Ben usually takes a nap at 10:30 in the morning and gets up around 1 in the afternoon. You can come at 12 o’clock, have lunch with me, and then play with Ben for two hours after his nap.”

Ben usually wakes up at 8 o’clock in the morning and starts talking to himself or crying and making all kinds of noises to ask us to get up and serve him. But this morning at 8:30, Ben’s room was still very quiet. Although I was awake, I didn’t get up. Alex overslept and was late for his 8:30 online meeting, as he was hoping that alarm clock Ben would ring at 8 o’clock.

Today, Ben didn’t wake up until 9 o’clock, and his nap time was postponed from 10:30 to 11:40, so the regular schedule was disrupted. After Ben took a nap, as I was under intermittent fasting, I didn’t take a meal and went to lie down for more than half an hour. I didn’t get up until my son came over.

Then I experienced a familiar reaction to hunger: easily getting sad or angry.

While looking at my son who was playing with his phone at the dining table. I felt that he was very tired and suddenly felt very sad… I knew that this was a loss of composure due to hunger, so I quickly ate an apple to calm myself down, but I still didn’t feel calmed down. I took out the wild rose liqueur from the refrigerator and drank a sip before I felt better. I sighed silently in my heart: “Wine is really a good thing!”

It was almost two o’clock when Ben woke up. My son who was now an uncle said he felt sick, so he just fed Ben 7 ounces of milk, took some home-cooked dishes, and went home earlier. Seeing his back as he left, although I can no longer be around to take care of him now, he and his wife can care about each other and love each other more closely, I felt happy that this round of my life relay was smoothly.

My mood improved significantly in the afternoon also, because of news from New England.

Marta, the new owner/slave of our Cat Princess Kara in Rhode Island, sent my daughter a photo of Kara along with news about Kara. Kara is a cat babied by my daughter and myself. My daughter and I were worried that Kara who was born and lived in the East Coast would not be comfortable during the long-distance migration to the West Coast. Because of this, before we moved from Waltham, Massachusetts to San Jose, California, my daughter interviewed several cat lovers and ended up giving Kara to Marta to be taken care of.

The details of giving Kara to Marta in August are still vivid in my mind. Today, the news from Marta that Kara is doing well in Rhode Island, far away from us, brought a happy ending to my chaotic day, because I felt the sweetness of the successful relay of love.

Good news really makes people happy. Thanks for my daughter who adopted Kara and found Kara a good care giver.

Today, our happy Kara in Marta’s home:

(Kara in 2020)

（Kara is babysitting my grandson Ben。2022-05-13）

A story of Wine is really a good thing in 2021 in Waltham Massachusetts.

On Wednesday, we, a group of people born in the 1990′s and I, celebrated Professor A’s birthday. This was the first time we had met with the professor indoors after more than a year. We were very happy!

While drinking the champagne brought by Professor A, we listened to his stories about teaching, studying, and writing in universities for the past decades. He spoke very freely and we listened very attentively.

“After the age of 70, I started to tell little stories in my class, things I didn’t do before,” the professor said.

I thought that is a kind of mellowing-out brought by life, because I also liked telling small stories now, although I’m still far away from the age of 70.

After the professor finished saying: “When I had an idea to write an article, but I felt it was difficult to start it, I would drink a bit of single barrel whisky, then I would write more smoothly”, the audience started to share their own drinking experiences.

Grace said happily, “My doctor also said that drinking some red wine in moderation is good for my health, so I’m drinking it sometimes now.”

“There was a very famous poet Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty who wrote many famous poems after becoming drunk,” Lou added.

Alex joked, “Thanks for your story. I’ll remember to have a drink when I can’t write in the future.”

It’s easier to feel drunk while drinking plus chatting about happy drinking experiences at the same time. I felt that being “drunk by oneself” had a higher chance of occurring than being “drunk by alcohol” in such occasions. Wine is really good at lightening up the atmosphere!

While we were clapping after singing “Happy Birthday to You” in English, the professor said seriously, “Could I ask you to sing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ in Chinese again?”

After singing “Happy Birthday to You” in Chinese, looking at the very happy professor, we were also very happy! I experience the joy of the saying: “giving a rose to others, leaves a fragrance in your own hand.”

Drinking wine can stimulate inspiration. There was Li Bai in ancient times, and here is Professor A now.

Little Episodes

1. Wednesday’s birthday dinner with light and sweet dishes.

Two sweet cold dishes:
Eggplant + bean sprout + carrot,
Sugar tomato.

Other dishes are:
Onion fried beef,
Shanghai XiaoBaiCai fried chicken breast,
Steam cooked blue fish
Simple fried salmon

2. Hu Shi’s story of “drinking to cure heart disease”.

A long time ago, I read a biography of Hu Shi ( 1891 – 1962), a famous Chinese scholar. Today, everything in the book is blurring, but I still remember the story about Hu Shi’s drink alcohol: the middle-aged Hu Shi was diagnosed a heart problem, and his doctor suggested that he should carry a small bottle of strong wine, so that he could take a sip quickly whenever he felt bad, because wine has the function of dilating blood vessels and improving the strength of heart and blood vessels.

Today’s health expert also said: “For a man who is at moderate to high risk for heart disease, a daily alcoholic drink could reduce that risk”

3. Weekly Alcohol intake

From May 2021 to now, in this two months, I was struggling between drinking and not drinking, because I learned online: “Heavy drinking maybe related to severe pain in several joints: such as thumb joint, ankle joint, hand joint.” A typical symptom of the well-known disease gout. After hearing “100 grams of pure alcohol per week is a very small amount for human body.” I started drinking again. It’s great to have this knowledge while enjoying drinking, as I know my drinking style is safe.
From CDC（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）: