12-30-2020， A very busy Wednesday
On Monday night, I talked with Alisa and Ronnie, my advisor’s wife and my advisor himself. We chatted about our friends from 20 years ago and my school, CUA. I admired my advisor’s long-lasting passion towards scientific research, as he still goes to CUA to do his research on the weekends.
On Tuesday morning, I told my daughter: “Last night, I called Alisa and Ronnie and we talked over the phone for almost an hour. They are doing well in 2020.”
My daughter said: “I remember Alisa, but I do not remember Ronnie.”
I said: “The high chair you used to sit on when you were little was a baby shower gift from Alisa and Ronnie.”
I showed her a photo of her, sitting on the high chair eating rice.
She commented: “It looks like I was not happy.”
I turned to the back of the photo to read the note and said: “This is one of your milestone photos: your first time eating rice by yourself. You were soon to be one year old. You were seriously concentrated when putting rice into your mouth.”
When I introduced my advisor and his wife to my daughter, I immediately remembered the baby shower gift they gave to my daughter more than 20 years ago, instead of remembering the research subjects my advisor devoted his life into. It seems the audience easily influenced my focus. I also realized that a baby shower for me, being a first-time mom, was of unique significance. Otherwise, I probably won’t recall the high chair so quickly.
My daughter’s high chair also brought back an outdoor baby shower in a parking lot on a very cold winter day in Waltham, a few days ago,
The outdoor baby shower in the parking lot was very unique: a few sport cars that had their trunks open were parked next to each other and were decorated with shiny typical baby shower objects; seven young women and one baby were either sitting or standing next to a folding chair that formed a circle, each chair 6 feet apart, the required social distance. The young ladies were chatting happily. After asking, I knew this was a baby shower for a baby girl who will be the first child of the mother-to-be. I said congrats to the mother-to-be and joked she was the leader of a COVID-19 baby boom, as I saw reports about earlier COVID-19 baby boomers who will be born in January 2021.
I thought that the rule forbidding indoor parties placed at the end of 2020 could not stop creative people from having parties in the cold winter. Today, I understood more about the caring friendship exhibited during the baby shower, the joys felt during in the baby shower, and the happy moments of the first time mother-to-be linked to the baby shower.
In April, at the beginning of the 2020 quarantine, I encountered a unique birthday party. At the end of 2020, I saw an unusual outdoor baby shower during the East Coast’s cold winter. I felt that some observations are evidence that: “Human beings are geniuses with regards to inventing new ways to pursue happiness.”
Little Episodes
After getting their permission, I took a few photos of the baby shower attendees. They also asked me to take a photo for them.
