We set off at 9:40 in the morning and returned around 9:00 in the evening. The cell phone ran out of battery and we were still fully charged, because it is a very refreshing day trip to the beach! The sound of the ocean waves washed away the distracting murmurs in my mind and the dense negative air (oxygen) ions along the seaside replaced the heavy things on my mind…

We drove and stopped freely along the way because we didn’t have a fixed schedule.

After seeing the roadside advertisement of “Five avocados for one dollar”, we agreed to stop and get some bargains before continuing on our way.

We stopped at the roadside vegetable stand which had ample parking space, walked to the stand to look for the five avocados for one dollar sign. We only saw green shiny avocados the size of mangoes for $1.99 each, then we each bought a few very fresh local sweet potatoes and tomatoes, just $0.99 a pound. Ann said she would steam the sweet potatoes, and I said I would make sweet potato porridge. I asked the cashier if she accepted credit cards, and she replied, “Credit cards will add a 79 cent handling fee, cash no fee.”

After getting the goods, I told the casher unwillingly: “I didn’t see five avocados for one dollar as saying on the roadside advertisement.” The casher lady pointed to the store upstairs behind her and said, “Inside, seven for one dollar.” I asked: “So cheap, is it good?” She raised her thumb and nodded. We walked up the stairs and entered the store, where we saw black bumpy avocados that were slightly bigger than eggs with a sign of: seven for one dollar, limited to 14. Since I was here to get a bargain, I happily bought 14 avocados for 2 dollars. As we paid in cash, I made a mental note always bring some cash when going out.

Today’s temperature and wind speed are very pleasant, perfect for a topdown convertible ride on CA Route One along the oceanside! We smelled the scent of canola flowers in the wind and saw a big field of yellow canola flowers. We could also smell the strong ocean salty air in the wind before we even reached the seaside.

We stopped at a viewing point which overlooked the coastline view and the mansions. The azure blue water was beautiful and the sea breeze was refreshing without any chill. Ann, a skillful photographer, captured many of my happy moments. Thank you, Ann!

It seemed like Point Lobos State Natural Reserve was having a big event today, as many cars were parked on the roadside. While driving past the long line of pretty parked cars, I constantly saw people walking towards the gate of the Reserve and I started to feel that many people are also not working on a workday.

The Bixby Bridge is a must-see for me. Today, the parking lot at the corner of the bridge was closed for construction. The parking spaces on the roadside were also full. Again, I felt that many other people are also not working today. From a distance on the roadside parking spot, I saw two young couples facing the Bixby Bridge and taking photos of themselves on the roadside close to the ocean, I felt sweet air floating nearby and quickly took photos to keep the memory.

Walking near the bridge, I remembered seeing a romantic newlywed couple leaving messages on their car window asking for a congratulatory drink through Venmo. I also remembered the time when I jumped up and down more excited than my son here. These are special spiritual tonics that come from revisiting a familiar place and I felt these tonics were silently nourishing my soul.

When I stood at Hurricane Point, which I am familiar with and like, I remembered the scene and mood when I saw a cage of strong little flowers here for the first time after my mother passed away in 2018… In my heart, I comforted my mother in heaven that everything is fine here!

Today’s strong wind that could blow people down was not cold at all, which was rare. I deeply enjoyed the layered and spectacular scenery between the blue sea and the sky: the curved coast, the surging white waves, the steep cliffs, the green grass, the undulating mountains, and Bixby Bridge. Thanks to Ann for suggesting we go out today.

On the way back, we stopped by a roadside that already held many parked cars. After getting out of the car, we followed the people walking along the narrow path among orychophragmus flowers, weeds, and shrubs towards the seaside. We soon went downhill and came to a narrow valley and saw many calla lilies blooming on both sides of a stream flowing down the hill. We had arrived at the Calla Lily Valley!

Personally, I think the calla lilly scene was too small to be worth a special trip, but it was a worthwhile surprise. When I was admiring the beauty of the Flower Valley with a middle-aged lady, I said: “This is my first time here. It’s beautiful.” She replied: “Is my first time too.” Before I could say a word, she smiled and said: “I’m from Colorado.” I didn’t say anything, because her first time was not at the same level as mine, and there was no comparison.

Then I was secretly happy: California is really a good place to live and travel! The ocean waves at the seaside in front of the Flower Valley hit the rocks hard and roared violently, I thought I felt the roughness of the wilderness.

Afterwards, we went to the beach with silver sand at Carmel by the Sea. While sitting on a big wooden trunk on the beach to rest, I thought the scenery of the seaside is really rich and diverse. The silver sand of the beach came with a calm wind and gentle waves which were full of relaxing people and happy dogs. It was a very peaceful scene. I couldn’t help but think of the sweet scene when my grandson Ben was still a single child and he came here to play. Ben is a big brother of a year and half old sister now. I wrote the names of Ben and his younger sister Sue on the silver sand of the beach using my barefoot slowly and joyfully, feeling the happiness of being a grandmother.

After leaving Carmel by the Sea, we stopped by Lover’s Point Park where the purple flowers had not yet bloomed. I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful picture of “pink clothes”: an old couple sat on chairs facing the sea, the lady wore a black wide-brimmed hat and a pink short-sleeved shirt and the man wore a white hat with silver hair and a blue short-sleeved shirt.

This sightseeing made me think that pink clothes are suitable for women of any age, because a little story of pink clothes had recently surfaced in my memory. In February, on a Saturday morning, after my daughter and I took my two grandchildren to play in Happy Hollow Park, I squatted and watched them playing in a miniature metal car. My daughter suddenly said that the pink sweater I was wearing was pretty. I was very happy to hear this and felt that this saying was familiar but couldn’t remember where I heard it before. After returning home, I checked my past messages and photos and found that my daughter bought me a very beautiful pink sweater cardigan for my 50th Christmas in 2015 and also wrote me a famous saying: “Women over fifty should always have at least one pink shirt in their wardrobe. It’s much cheaper than a facelift.” In the spring of 2016, I wore that pink sweater went to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with my daughter: eating my favorite fried sweet potato at Stow Lakeside store, visiting the Japanese Tea Garden and climbed the hill behind the artificial waterfall by the Stow Lake. I also discovered that red quince flowers also come in white, pink, and light green variations! The memories evoked by the pink shirt made me realize that my daughter’s constant love and care for me. I am grateful!

After leaving Lover’s Point, we went to an Italian restaurant by the sea for dinner. Ann noticed that during the dinner service tonight, there were only waiters and no waitresses and that the other diners also did not look like locals. We ordered today’s seasonal meal: freshly caught fish (with vegetable and rice) and fresh scallops (with vegetable and pasta), and one fried squid appetizer. Oh, the free bread was very hard. Tonight’s rice had lots of butter, the pasta had a lot of olive oil, and the fried lemon in the fried squid was very unique. These were all
dishes that we usually did not make at home so we enjoyed them a lot.

We happily returned in the dark and cold with the convertible top up. While chatting about family matters and unforgettable events in the past and seeing the faster cars speeding by, I remembered my daughter had said to me, mocking me for driving slowly: “Mom, you should buy an ‘Asian woman driving’ sticker to put on your car.” Despite this, Ann encouraged me to drive slowly. She also ensured I was on the right path, as I tended to misread the GPS map . I sent Ann home, and she waved goodbye to me in the night. It was a warm and sweet scene, I felt grateful for having Ann as a long time good friend!

Yesterday, I went on a planned day trip with my son and daughter-in-law for the first time, and I had a great time. In the evening, while reporting to my daughter, who was far away in China, about my day trip, she suggested: “Mom, you should write a story about this trip.”

Planning

Last Saturday, my son texted me: “Do you want to go Mystery Spot with us around next weekend?” I immediately replied: “Yes” He then texted: “On Sunday, April 21st, around 12. I bought the tickets.”

This Friday, I texted them: “On Sunday, after visiting the Mystery Spot, do you like to have dinner at home?” My son replied: “It is close to Santa Cruz Beach so we can go to there and eat something.”Later he texted: “Tomorrow we’ll arrive around 11 to pick you up.”

before Leaving Home

I started to dress up at ten o’clock on Sunday morning. The weather is warm today. After trying floral skirts with light-colored tops several times, I felt that black was better, so I wore a knitted black long-sleeved shirt with a black and white pattern short skirt. I also wore additional things, a necklace with the word “love” written in more than a hundred different languages which was a Mother’s Day gift from my daughter-in-law last year; a pearl ring, which was given to me by my daughter many years ago; and a silk scarf, which was given to me by Ben’s grandma last year. After getting dressed up, I felt happy even before going out.

My son and daughter-in-law came to pick me up at 11 o’clock. I specifically recommended them to inspect the peach tree that was now bearing thumb-sized peaches, as my son was the one who labored to plant this peach tree in our backyard last year.

the Mystery Spot

“The Mystery Spot is a gravitational anomaly located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California. It is a circular area of effect around 150 feet or 46 meters in diameter. Within the Mystery Spot you will be stunned as your perceptions of the laws of physics and gravity are questioned.” The admission fee is 10 US dollars. It is an extremely short tour so the tour guide needs to slow down the tour to make it a 40 minute long experience.

My son booked our tour at 12:20, with a group of more than ten tourists, our tour guide was an eloquent pretty young girl. While following her around, our group enjoyed spending time at this nearby small scenic spot. After the visit, I felt that language is also very mysterious, as the tour guide often made fun of herself to amuse us and by changing her cadence to pique our interests to prevent boredom on this very short tour around this small place.

I’ve been to the Mystery Spot many times and never felt sick before. Today, while climbing uphill to the cabin, I felt that my legs were heavy and my chest was so tight that I had difficulty breathing, a bit like the altitude sickness I experienced not long ago in Cuzco, Peru. This sudden physical discomfort made me think that it would be best not to come here often.

When we walked into the tilted wooden cabin, the visual illusions immediately intensified, our group crowded into this small space and became excited, I felt my surroundings were very noisy. Looking at the familiar layout of the cabin, I asked my son: “Do you remember you have been here?” My son said: “I don’t remember.” I said confidently: “You have been here!” My son replied: “You said I’ve been here, XXXX?” Because it was so noisy here, I didn’t hear clearly what my son said, so I asked, “What did you say?” Zelene, standing next to Duke, said, “Duke is talking in Chinese. “I said to my son: “I didn’t hear it clearly, could you please say it again?” My son repeated it, but I still could not pick up what he meant, so I started to suspect that the altitude sickness had made me slow. Zelene smiled and said, “I think Duke said it very clearly. He was saying if he had been here, there should be photos of him here.” I laughed and said to Zelene: “I really didn’t catch it. You know Duke’s Chinese best.”

My son was hanging on the doorframe of the cabin to show us his feet tilted to the right noticeably.

After visiting the Mystery Spot, I suggested we go hiking a bit, but my son said: “Sorry, my shoes are not good for hiking.” I looked down saw he wore a pair of slippers and I asked, “Are you comfortable walking in these slippers?” My son said: “I’m used to it.” Zelene said, “Oh, I suggested that he wear these slippers to get some air for his feet, because he has sweaty feet.” I laughed and said to Zelene: “I have sweaty feet, Eileen and Duke have sweaty feet, Alex also has sweaty feet, Ben already has sweaty feet. Do you have sweaty feet?” “I don’t,” Zelene replied. I smiled and said: “Your baby will have more chance not having sweaty feet.”

Actually, my own father does not have sweaty feet, but my brother and I both have sweaty feet. In the past, when we didn’t change shoes and socks every day, I really wished I didn’t have sweaty feet, because sweaty feet are very uncomfortable and shoes of the sweaty feet smell bad.

There is no cell phone signal at the Mystery Spot, so we can’t use GPS navigation. At the first fork in the road leaving the site, my son made a right turn sign. Remembering he turned right into the Mystery Spot, I reminded him: “You should turn left.” My son said, “We are going to the beach, which is on our right.” I looked at the big map in the car and sure enough, the ocean is on our right. I suddenly felt very happy as I really don’t need to worry about the route and direction when going out with my kids. While my son was driving, Zelene was looking for a restaurant for lunch. Though we were near the ocean, my son doesn’t eat seafood and I don’t eat fast food so there were very few choices. She picked a Korean restaurant.

Korean lunch

It was already one o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the restaurant. The restaurant was very empty, I sat face to face with my son and daughter-in-law at a table next to the window. I’m not familiar with Korean food, watching they discussing what to order, I joked: “Eileen said that nowadays we need to ask you for good restaurants as you eating outside often.”

After ordering a today’s special of stewed beaf rib and a typical Korean fried rice noodles, we ate the free Korean cold dishes and chatted while waiting for our dishes to be served. I told them about Ben’s trip in China: “Ben’s grandma is teaching him how to speak Chinese and Ben can count one, two, three, four and five in Chinese now.” I also told them a story of Ben’s behavior change: “After Ben turned two years old, he started to cry and got up to open the door to get out as soon as we put him on the bed in his room. Eileen asked Alex to install a door lock, so Ben could not open his door from the inside. Then Ben stood by the door alone in his room and cried for many days, finally he stopped crying and stopped trying to open the door. He stays on his bed playing until he is tired, then falls asleep.” I concluded: “When raising a baby, you have to be firm sometimes.”

The two dishes were not small. Zelene likes vegetables, my son likes meat, and I like everything. The stewed beef rib also has rice noodles and very big carrots. The noticeable red carrots in the stew reminded me of my late aunt’s saying: “Carrot is the poor man’s ginseng.”

As my son started to teach high school students, in one-on-one classes for math and economics, I asked him: “How is your throat?” My son said: “I drink more water now, and it’s fine.” Zelene added: “I asked him to bring chrysanthemum tea and honey to his office, so he often drank chrysanthemum tea now.” I was very pleased to hear this. Zelene added: “Duke likes teaching. He often talks to me about his students.” I asked my son curiously: “How many students have you taught now?” “More than twenty.” he replied. I asked again: “Are they all taught face-to-face in a classroom?” He said: “Some students are still taking online classes.” Zelene smiled and said: “Duke has DaBaiTu candy in his office, and some students asked him what it was. I told Duke, if students ask you, tell them they are candies and let them taste it. ”

I also chatted with Zelene about her job and very happy to hear she is doing well.

The stewed beaf rib and the fried rice noodles were delicious and we finished them all, only the rice was not finished. Today’s lunch plus tip is $100. After lunch, my son drove us to the beach for a walk.

Walking along the beach

My son drove to the Santa Cruz Board Walk and saw the parking lot was full. I said： “I always park my car on W Cliff Dr near the Lighthouse. Let’s try parking there.” Unfortunately the parking near the Lighthouse was also full. Not long after driving pass the Lighthouse, the road to the Natural Bridge Beach was still closed for cars and only bicycles and pedestrians were allowed to pass. My son parked the car on the roadside in a residential area not far from the beach. We walked to the seaside in a few minutes. Smelling the unique saltiness in the seaside air, I shared the reason why I like to visit the beach: “I specially like to go to the beach during the pollen season because there is very little pollen in the air at the beach.”

We walked towards the lighthouse together and passed by the beach for unleashed dogs under the cliff. Watching the dogs having fun on the beach, I asked my son: “Do you remember us coming here before?” My son said: ” I remember we went to a beach with dogs, but I don’t remember where.” I smiled and said, “We came here after Eileen went to college. After seeing a lot of dogs playing happily here, you said you want to have a dog too. I told you: ‘Okay, if you get straight A’s on your final this year, you will have a dog.’” After hearing this, Zelene said, “Oh, I didn’t know you wanted a dog when you were a kid.” I continued: “Duke didn’t want a dog too much, as he didn’t get straight A’s that year, then he never mentioned wanting a dog anymore.” Duke said, “I thought it’s too troublesome to have a dog, so I was not interested anymore.” I asked again: “We were excited about getting a dog. Do you remember that we already named the dog?” Duke said, “I don’t remember.” I said, “We said we would name the dog Eileen, because Eileen always orders us around at home. Now we can throw a ball out and command the dog: ‘Eileen, go fetch!’ Later I told Eileen how we named the dog, she joked we were so mean.” Zelene was very happy to hear this story. I told her: “When I went out with Eileen’s family, I often told stories about Eileen on our way back home. Alex enjoys listening too.”

I told another story about Duke when he was little: “When Duke started eating solid food, he ate Gerber’s canned baby food. Those foods were saltless, tasteless and very unpalatable. We had a neighbor who was a stay-at-home mother with two children, her daughter is younger than Eileen, and her son is younger than Duke. She often makes delicious noodles for her children. One day when I came home after work, I saw several children playing outside, and the mother was feeding her son noodles. I saw Duke really wanted to eat the noodles. The mother happily gave me a bowl of noodles to feed Duke. I felt so sad and full of regrets because I didn’t have the energy to make delicious noodles for Duke at that time.” I paused a bit and said: “I now feel that it is not bad to live with regrets. Making up for the regrets brings deeper satisfaction, this is why I often make soft noodles for Ben now.”

While walking along the beach, I was mostly talking, they were mostly listening. We also watched the people surfing on the sea for a while.

We took a group photo before leaving the beach. On the way home, I fell asleep because I was very tired from the fun day today.

Little Episodes

04-11-2014, two photos of the beach for unleashed dogs under the cliff near the Lighthouse:

It’s sunny and cold outside today. Although Thanksgiving has passed by for more than a week, the Thanksgiving flowers are still in bloom in the living room vase. The red rose from the last day of November is still lively in the December dining room. The impatience in the kitchen will bloom again. From the dining room to the living room to the kitchen, the flowers in the vase and the flower buds in the pot make me feel refreshed, because the joy brought by flowers is always a very real sort of energy.

The impatience bud was eye-catching. Watching the red-rose-colored impatience bud gorgeously set off by the green leaves, I remembered the impatience was given to me by Rachel before the cold weather this year after she had transplanted it from her garden to the pot. She told me, “The impatience likes sun so placing it by a window with direct sunlight is good”.

I put the impatience by the window above the kitchen sink after we moved to our new house. The impatience seems to enjoy the new place as soon after it settled down, it started to grow flower buds, in red-rose-colored single-layer flowers which would bloom occasionally. Whenever the impatience is blooming, I always tell Rachel, “the impatience blooms again. It’s beautiful!”, because Rachel cares about the flowers she gave me. I joked with my daughter: “Rachel is one of my favorite people because she likes to send me flowers. She sent me a pot of dahlias in summer and a pot of purple chrysanthemums in autumn. The impatience she gave me in October is so lovely as it is the first flower to bloom after we moved to our new home.”

I always thought the impatience bloomed only in the summer so I was very happy to see it blooming in the winter. The impatience will always remind me of Rachel and our many sweet gatherings in 2021.

In March, we had homemade dessert in her new house.
On Easter Sunday, we hid eggs in her garden and played games together.
In May 16th, we had a Garden Recital to celebrate the end of the 2021 Spring Semester in her garden.
In June, Rachel invited me to attend her twin children’s school concert recital and to celebrate her eldest daughter’s junior high school graduation.
We had my favorite crepes in her home when my son visited us in July. Homemade crepes were so delicious.
In September, she gave me the zucchini grown in her garden and a pot of purple chrysanthemums.
In October, I chatted with her in-laws who came from Seattle to visit her family.
At the end of October, Rachel’s family came to help us with moving.
She made crepes on Thanksgiving Saturday in my house.
In early December, Rachel took time to go shopping with us so we can enjoy her 20% employee discount.

Looking at the impatience quietly, I also remember my childhood past time of smashing the impatience petals and painting them on my fingernails to dye my nails, the impatience was multi-layered on a long stem at that time.

People love flowers, flowers are pleasant. Human love can be nicely passed on via flowers.

Little Episodes

Blooming impatience:

Flowers at home today：impatience, the Thanksgiving flowers, the November red roses.

09-25-2021，purple chrysanthemums

07-09-2021，my son was preparing the crepes filling sausages in Rachel’s house.

05-16-2021， Rachel and I in her garden:

03－13-2021，Dessert made by Rachel:

Our many sweet gatherings in 2021.

This morning, I translated a story about an ordinary Friday when I was working in 2016 into English. Rereading the story, I felt it was actually very interesting because it happened five years ago. So I decided to write a story about today’s ordinary not-working day.

Thursday is our weekly shopping day, I went out early in the morning and was surprised to find that it was very warm even though the windows were frosted last morning. After I finished shopping, I went jogging. I’ve been jogging for more than half a year and I can jog more than three miles an hour now. After jogging, I was sweating, taking a shower felt great!

At 1:00 pm, I had my first meal, because I’m on intermittent fasting.

At 2:00 pm, I drove my daughter’s friend to school to get her third dose of the covid-19 booster vaccine. Young people can now get the third dose of the booster vaccine, preferably six months away from the second dose. I heard that the reaction to the third vaccine is relatively small.

Before 5:00 pm., my son texted us: verbal 165, quantitative 170 (Full Score), right after he finished his GRE test. I was so happy to hear this news, as his score is above 90 percentile.

Thursday is the last day of my shift for cooking every week, so Thursday is a bit like Fridays when I was working. Therefore, it is my Happy Thursday looking forward to relaxing for three days.

At 5:00 pm., I went into the kitchen to start cooking. While cutting vegetables, I felt that the kitchen knife needed sharpening and opened all the drawers in the kitchen but couldn’t find the grindstone. Then I asked my daughter, “Do you know where the grindstone is?” My daughter immediately replied, “The grindstone is in the drawer behind the plastic wrapper.” After finding the grindstone, I sighed casually: “Wow, the kitchen has a new owner!” I suddenly realized that I was “retreating to the second line” and felt relaxed and happy.

Today is one of the milestones in raising my children: my son got good scores on GRE and my daughter took charge of the house now.

The dishes I cooked for dinner: onion and tomato with fried egg and ground beef, second cooked pork belly vegetables, fried green pepper, and home made wonton in red oil. At dinner, Alex told us a good news, which gave me a excuse for drinking: Congratulations Alex! Dinner with wine, meat and interesting topics was fun.

Little Episodes

My off-duty cooking dinners:
11-14-2021，Sunday’s dinner:

11－07-2021，Sunday’s dinner:

11－06-2021，Saturday’s dinner:

11-05-2021，Friday’s dinner:

Today is Tuesday, we got up at 8:30 a.m to drive to Six Flags amusement park which is more than 90 miles away from us, because we chose the 10:00 am time slot to enter the park online in advance.

When I arrived at the amusement park, I soon realized that COVID-19 had quietly changed our old habits: now we need to make a reservation to enter the amusement park and the shops only accept credit cards. I met two dissatisfied tourists who had no credit cards with them in the store, one was annoyed but accepting of the conditions while the other was taken to see the boss with greater annoyance. Although “consumer is the king”, consumers also have to keep up with modern trends to stay king.

Nowadays going to the amusement park, I don’t need to recommend any activity in terms of fun, safety, or waiting time. I just follow my two adult children or watch them play their favorite amusement activities. Following my children among the crowded tourists, I savor the ordinary fun of ordinary people.

Walking around the wet and splashy playground under the hot sun without any shade, I watched the visitors rushing into the cold water and then returning to land under the hot sun, although I had no interest in playing in water pool, because “heatstroke” came to my mind. I also felt that the pores on my arms and legs have opened because of sweating.

When I was a child, Yeyi, my nanny, told me: “Under the hot sun in the summer, suddenly getting into cold water can easily cause heatstroke.” This advice was naturally deep-rooted in my mind. The symptoms of heatstroke can be sweating, blushing, fatigue, headache, dizziness, thirst, panic and so on;in other words heatstroke is very unpleasant.

I sat by the pool watching my children climbing up to the top of a water fall while carrying a double seat yellow tube. When them gushed out of the pipe orifice with the torrent from the closed and curved pipe and fell into the water that is three feet deep, I heard their scream happily. I also overheard several riders who had just climbed out of the water from another ride bypass me while sighing: “Too much water in the nostrils, the back of my head hurts. I will never play this again.” Their complaints made me feel the pain of being forced to choke on water. I imagined the pain of being choked without really being choked, a very disturbing theoretical feeling.

Standing by the wave pool, I looked at the adults and children crowded in the pool, Listening to their shouting with the ups and downs of manmade waves, I felt happiness rippling in the air.

Although I didn’t play any water activities in the amusement park, I experienced the wonder and happiness of playing by watching and listening. I also went to see the roller coaster rolling in the air and listened to the screams in the air. For me, who have lived for over half a century and never liked any sport, going to the amusement park is more about watching and listening than participating.

Episodes

2021-07-06. The dense green trees on the roadside of highway on the East Coast and the wonderful facilities of the amusement park.

My grown up son and daughter still enjoy visiting zoos. When my son came to visit us during the July of 2021, my daughter booked a trip to visit a zoo.

In early July, Greater Boston experienced unusually heavy and frequent rain so the zoo asked us to reschedule the trip. After checking the weather forecast, my daughter postponed the trip for a week, then she had to move it forward a day to avoid being rescheduled again.

I joked, “Staying at home during vacation is boring. Rescheduling the trip lets us feel changes, not bad at all.”

On Tuesday morning, we drove to the zoo in a heavy rain, luckily the rain stopped after we arrived to the zoo. On that unusually cool Tuesday in July, the big animals, lions and tigers, were not sleepy but instead were very active.

The tiger was constantly patrolling, It was my first time watching the king of the mountains so closely for so long. The black and yellow strips of tiger were eye catching. I pointed to the tiger close to us and said to my son who was born in the year of tiger, “See, the black lines in the white area above the tiger’s forehead look like the Chinese word ‘王（King）’. I often heard people saying that the tiger is the ‘king of the mountains’ in my childhood.”

The lion was very alert and I felt its staring the first time, which is very impressive. The animated movie “The Lion King”(1994) was my daughter’s most favorite movie in her childhood. The movie “features adventures of the young lion Simba, the heir of his father, Mufasa. Little Simba escapes the stampede of wildebeests plotted by his wicked uncle, Scar. Later, Simba returns as an adult to take back his homeland from Scar with the help of his friends Timon and Pumbaa.” After watching the very alert lion and taking the very slow train in the park, we went to see the hogs, because Pumbaa, Simba’s childhood good friend, is a warthog.

It was very refreshing to see the scenery and the animals, to recall the old memories of visiting the zoo with children in the past, and to enjoy our time together now.

As adults, my children fed goats which reminded me of the fun they had feeding and petting goats in their childhood in Happy Hollow in San Jose. I took a lot of photos of them interacting with the very aggressive goats. At the same time, I was also immersed in the memories of the time my children were still young.

After watching my adult children feeding spotted deer, I was eager to participate and fulfill my more than 30 year old wish of getting close to spotted deer, after listening to my college friend Li’s story about her going to the deer farm and petting spotted deer when she was an intern teacher in Guanxian County in the autumn of 1984. Li is good at telling stories. I still remember her telling a vivid joke about the beautiful “little fish”, our classmate, walking on the street of Guanxian county and unaware of attracting attention, resulting in a handsome boy on a bicycle losing his balance and falling off his bike because he looked sideways after “little fish”. While feeding the spotted deer and remembering the magic attraction of our “little fish”, I laughed silently.

Episodes

(The black lines in the white area above the tiger’s forehead look like the Chinese word “王（King）”.

(From left to right, from top to bottom) the highway with heavy rain, the alert lion, the intoxicating green on the East Coast, the patrolling tiger, the small train we took, and the hog

(From left to right, from top to bottom) we take an aerial cable car overlooking the park, my adult children fed the goats, and I fed spotted deer.

07-90-2021, Friday, Rain

In the afternoon, my daughter told me: “Rachel invited us to have crepes for dinner tonight.” However, I didn’t realize that crepes were my favorite western sweets. It seems that English, which is not my mother-tongue, needed to take a longer route to reach my memories.

When we arrived at Rachel’s house at six in the afternoon, she and her younger son were practicing cutting skills in the kitchen. She was chopping and dicing apples, and her chopping board was already full of diced apples. D. her younger son, is cutting bananas. A. her eldest one, was looking after the Western sausages on the baking pan.

After Rachel mixed the diced apples with butter, cinnamon powder, and vanilla extract and put them into a non stick pot to cook, I took over the job to stir the diced apples.

We stood side-by-side next to the stove counter top. I stirred the diced apples and enjoyed the smell of cinnamon apples. Rachel skillfully added sugar and water to the frozen blueberries in a pot and stirred the blueberries to make fresh jam.

I asked Rachel curiously, “Are the crepes we’re eating tonight the same dessert you made for us last Thanksgiving?”

“No, the dessert I made last Thanksgiving was called turnovers,” Rachel said.

After the diced apples got soft, I got another job to make scrambled eggs from Rachel. While frying the scrambled egg with 12 eggs, I said, “Wow, I am frying 12 eggs for the first time in my life.”

Rachel laughed when she hears it: “experiencing what it means to be in a big family.”

When Rachel started making crepes, I realized that she was making the Western dessert that I really like. So I felt excited.

While making the crepes, Rachel said: “In my last semester’s cooking class, making crepes was the most popular lesson for my students. For this year’s cooking summer camp, I will also let students make crepes. L and D (my younger daughter and my older son) will also participate in the cooking summer camp. ”

I asked: “What ingredients do you usually use as fillings for crepes?”

“Chocolate, raisins, strawberries, bananas, jam etc.” Rachel said.

There are nine people for today’s crepes dinner, each of us had a big plate. After Rachel put the crepe on the big plate, everyone went to pick their favorite fillings to pile on the crepes to enjoy their own flavor of crepes.

I divided my crepe into two: half was for sweet fillings, as the sweets were freshly made, it tasted very refreshing. The other half was for salty fillings and it was also very satisfying.

Crepes are a Western dessert I like very much. “Enjoying crepes in the United States is always a warm sweet experience for me, because crepes crosses my European, American, and Asian memories.” The first time I tasted crepes was in Germany. Eating crepes always brings back my memory of eating DanHongGao in Sichuan: soft and light sweetness.

After participating in the preparation of crepe fillings at Rachel’s home tonight, and eating Rachel’s homemade crepes, my memory of crepes had the warm feeling of being part of a big family now.

Little Episodes

1. Crepes for dinner by Rachel:
Rachel is making crepes：

Rachel’s choice of crepe fillings for tonight:
The salty fillings: scrambled eggs, Western sausages and tomato sauce.
The Sweet fillings: sliced strawberry, banana, cinnamon apple, blueberry jam, and pudding

My son who is visiting us from California is cutting the sausage.

My half crepes with sweet fillings:

2. Crepes dough recipe ：
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Rachel said：“After mixing well, let it stay for an hour.”

2001 was a very busy year, because I had joined eBay after Thanksgiving in 2000.

At the beginning of 2001, Jim, my boss, assigned me to work with Vicki on several very important projects to learn the already very complicated eBay system, because Vicki knew eBay system very well.

Before the summer of 2001, the Internet bubble began to collapse. Many Internet companies started to lay off their employees, many of them were software engineers. eBay was one of the few thriving Internet companies in Silicon Valley at this time.

Software engineers were often overloaded with tasks at eBay in 2001. My tasks were as follows: everyday I needed to quickly switch between seven or eight different visual screens on my single PC frequently: new product development screen and its webpages, debugging source code screen and related webpages, QA environment webpages, the bug reports, highly engaged email threads, and Instant Messenger, highly visible chat rooms for representatives from all product-related departments….

In contrast, for previous three years in Lattice Semiconductor, while occasionally using the mouse to switch to another screens, I used one screen on my PC to develop the company’s only desktop product, most of the time.

In fast-paced development and releasing cycles of eBay, working on multiple products at the same time, I realized that it was too slow to switch screens using the mouse. When I watched Vicki quickly switch screens on her PC, I was stunned. Vicki taught me a shortcut for switching screens: Ctrl-Tab. Today, using this shortcut reminds me of Vicki, a smart beautiful engineer from the early 2000′s eBay.

While working together, Vicki and I enjoyed small talks. Vicki once joked: “Lots of software engineers are at home without a job now. It is a good thing to have a job, a busy job is even better than a normal job.” This may have well represented the common mentality of many software engineers who worked tirelessly in a workplace loaded with escalation of little issues. Our workplace was well reflected by the statement: “I started to think about escalation even when I heard escalator.” written by Terry, the PjM (Project Manager) for eBay Store project, in her farewell email. Issues that would delay the delivery of a project needed to be escalated to management, by its PjM, because many projects were cross depended on each other. The PjM needs to convince management that the issues were unforeseeable so more resources will be allocated to deliver the project on schedule, otherwise the PjM would take the blame.

In July 2001, I started to design and develop the eBay first generation of Checkout, as the lead developer. Because Paypal was gaining popularity among eBay sellers, the Checkout feature was designed to ease buyers to use BillPoint, eBay’s own payment solution, so eBay could beat Paypal.

In the middle of the Checkout project, The September 11 attacks happened. eBay executives wanted to assist sellers to donate their profits from selling on eBay to charities for 911 victims, an emergency product, which required the immediate eBay and BillPoint integration, came up. Developers were quickly pulled into this project. Because my project touched BillPoint, I was also pulled into the emergency project, working on eBay and BillPoint integration for a few days. After 20 years passed, in Waltham in Massachusetts, far from Silicon Valley,I still remembered the flood of e-mails that popped up day and night in the few days, I still felt the spirit of solidarity and cooperation across divisions, the essence of work culture in 2001 eBay; I remember those days was the only time I closely witnessed the working style of Lynn, our VP, who frequently appeared in different email threads with important and related questions.

I returned to the checkout project after working on the 911 emergency project for a few days. Because management still wanted to launch the Checkout as originally-planned schedule, I had to work overtime in the office at nights to catch up on the lost time.

In 2001, providing free dinners for employees who were working overtime was unheard of. Lilian, the PjM for Checkout, therefore often brought fruits to our desks in the evening.

One afternoon in late September, I cleaned up my desk, turned off my computer, and was ready to leave. Lilian brought grapes to us and asked: “Miss Jean, how is your project going?”

I said: “Still working on it. We will deliver a stable build for QA testing soon.”

“Are you going to work from home tonight?”

“No, not tonight. It’s my son’s birthday. I am going home to celebrate his birthday.”

After pausing for a moment, Lilian asked: “How old is he?”

“He turned 3 today.”

“Please say happy birthday to your boy for me then.”

Lilian became one of my favorite PjM since then.

01-24-2021, Sunday, Sunny and Super Cold

On Tuesday, Pokemon Go game released two popular and rare legendary Pokemon to raid battles: Groudon and Kyogre, and they will be staying for a week.

Yesterday was Saturday so we went to Boston to play Pokemon Go and catch Groudon and Kyogre for a few hours. Though I didn’t caught any shiny or hundred (perfect) legendaries, I was very happy, because while catching Pokemon, we heard some very good news.

Sunday morning, we went out to catch more legendary Pokemon to celebrate the good news we got yesterday.

I was overjoyed to catch a shundo (shiny and hundred) Kyogre on the first raid of Sunday morning.

In Pokemon Go game, the chance to catch a shundo legendary is roughly one in four thousands, therefore I felt like I won the lottery. I was super happy for a whole day.

The journey to catch legendary Pokemon:

Legendary Pokemon are usually hatched from eggs on top of Pokemon Gyms, instead of wandering in the wild. Each gym hatches one legendary at a time. After hatching, the legendary Pokemon will stay in the gym for 40 minutes in most cases, then it disappears.

If you can raid with a legendary in the gym in the 40 minutes time frame, you may have a chance to catch the legendary. However…

First, Pokemon Go players need to be nearby a gym to see what legendary Pokemon is currently in the gym. Pokemon gyms are usually scattered, so players sometimes have to travel many miles to find a gym that has their favorite legendary.

Second, legendary Pokemon are too strong to be beaten by a single player. Usually, a team of five to six players is required to fight together to win against a legendary. During COVID-19 quarantines, forming a team of five to six players is always remotely coordinated via discord.

So even though you traveled a long time to find a Gym with your favorite legendary, if you can’t remotely find enough players to join with you to do the raid within 40 minutes, you have no chance to catch your favorite legendary Pokemon.

After you and several other players win the raid together, you finally get a chance to catch the legendary Pokemon. Legendary Pokemon are not easy to catch, they have about a 2% catch rate. So even after all your hard work spent beating Groudon or Kyogre, you still might not catch it.

I like to play Pokemon Go now

Pokemon Go is a augmented reality mobile game which was released in 2016.

In 2016, as a chaperone, I often drove my children places to play Pokemon Go, such as Fort Mason in San Francisco.

In 2017, I expressed my opinion about the drawbacks of AR making Pokemon Go so popular .

Two years later, in 2019, I started to play Pokemon Go in Massachusetts and I quickly became a fan of this game.

I have a habit to walk outdoors daily. In sunny California, outdoor walking one to two miles is always a joyful task, which brings pleasure. However, during Massachusetts’ long cold winter, while walking outside for one to two miles, I often feel a chill in my bones, a very unpleasant feeling. In Massachusetts’ long cold time (late Autumn, Winter, and early Spring), walking outdoors is no longer a joyful task to me, though I still go out daily.

My son had tried to convince me to play Pokemon Go for a few years, as he often said to me: “Mommy, I saw many seniors playing Pokemon Go, why don’t you try it?”

Finally, in 2019, he download Pokemon Go to my phone and convinced me to play it.

In 2019, walking outdoor in cold East Coast became a joyful task again, because while outdoor walking and catching Pokemon, I indulge in a kind of self excitement, which really generates heat to warm up my body in my one to two miles outdoor journey. Therefore I start to enjoy playing Pokemon Go. Sometimes I walked more than 50 kilometers (more than 30 miles) in a week, in order to get walking rewards from the game, which made walking become an exercise filled with satisfaction for me.

A good teacher makes a good student. With my son’s guidance, I achieved the highest level in Pokemon Go, which is 40 at that time, within an year.

Little Episodes

This morning, I caught a shundo Kyogre.

On Sunday, on the Pokemon Go players discord, someone commented “Found out a friend in Arlington caught a shundo groudon.” and “Eventually I’ll get more because I’ll never stop playing. Even if I die I’ll come back as a zombie continue playing.”

In a few days, I caught 38 Kyogre and 50 Groudon.

I started to play Pokemon Go on September 27, 2019. Within a year, I reached level 40 on May 22nd, 2020. Level 40 was the highest level at that time.

December 2016, I walked in sunny Almaden Valley.

(12-30-2016, The light changed dramatically within an hour, from afternoon to sunset in Almaden Valley. I went out and saw clear skies, empty trails and yellow flowers filling the field. Back home, I saw a dark sky, an old tree and a beautiful sunset. )

November 2017, I walked in the beautiful Filoli:

(11-19-2017, California’s Autumn leaves, flowers, and fruits, along with reluctantly saying goodbye to spring scenery, presented a unique sight: a colorful forest and blooming hydrangea, white clouds in the blue sky and bright red pomegranates. A gorgeous maple leaf on green leaves and charming dragon chrysanthemums.

My son always let me cut his hair.

A few years ago I saw some Latino boys eagerly ask for special hair styles in HongXiao’s barber shop. After that I tried to encourage my son to get his hair cut at a professional barber shop but he didn’t follow my advice…

Today, my son finally went to HongXiao’s barber shop and got a nice hair cut from Hong, a very good barber, who I have known for many years now.

While cutting my son’s hair, Hong chatted with me about children. My son knew we were talking about kids, even though his Chinese is not very good.

Both Hong and I agreed that “my children are the best” is a common weakness of many mothers. At the end of our conversation, Hong, with her TianJin dialect and emotion said: “Brought up by ourself, of course we love our children! As an old saying goes: ‘One who raises cats loves cats, one who raises dogs loves dogs and one who raises none loves none.’”

“Are you talking about cats and dogs?” my son curiously asked, because he knew we were talking about children earlier.

I told him that Aunt Hong used cats and dogs to metaphor “Who raises who loves.”

My son nodded his head.

After coming back home, I saw gardenia were blooming in the front yard, I bent down to pick a fully blooming gardenia and passed it to my son. He smelled it and said: “It’s OK.” implying that he is not fond of the sweet smell of gardenia. Actually, my daughter said her honest thoughts: “The smell of gardenia is too strong to be nearby.”

Today is the anniversaries of 911, looking at my handsome son after a nice hair cut and the blooming gardenia, my sentiments about life were enhanced a bit. I told him the story behind the reason I planted gardenia again. The gardenia in the front yard always reminds me of my son, because it was planted for him.

A famous Chinese poem praised gardenia as such: the red fruits were hardened by the winter’s cold frost, the ever green leaves were blessed by the summer’s warm rain. Wish my children become like the gardenia being blessed and hardened. Wish they possess the foundations to enjoy this changing world fully.

Little Episodes

In September 2014, late gardenia were blooming beautifully

(September 2014. Gardenia usually bloom in the summer, this year the gardenia in our front yard happily bloomed in September. The weather in California is always kind to plants: late gardenia buds always have a chance to bloom beautifully with sweet fragrances. Late blooming gardenia bring enlightenment and hope: “Suitable environments will enable opportunities for children who mature slower than normal. “)

My son got a nice hair cut: