Ticks and ticks

I couldn't help but to notice today, when my head felt heavier than normal, rested in the palm of my left hand, that there was a soft ticking from my watch that reminded me of the time I used to share a bedroom with my grandmother back in my middle school days and our separate twin beds were on either sides of the room. A baby grandfather clock sat on top of the dresser, its reserved ticks shy within the glass dome. Only early in the morning would I hear the ticking, when all was quiet and she had not yet waken me to go down the stairs and make pancakes together.  

my red bag

This weekend I came home (of course to visit family and friends) but also to grab a couple of things. I only have limited space in my red bag because I have to take the commuter rail and walk a bit but I'm excited about all the things i'm bringing back! Here is a short list: 

Mom's homemade beef and carrots soup that she put in two plastic pint sized containers, secured in plastic bags from the grocery store

My old paints/brushes from studio - they're 5 years old now! 

A box of light shade Prismacolor markers 

My bamboo ink pen 

A box of frosted mini wheats - which I normally would never buy but because my dad bought like 5 of them on sale somewhere 

Dove body wash because I ran out, and we have a stock of them at home .. again probably my dad bought a whole bunch last year. 

Lucky money leftover from the new year - delivered from my mom, from three grandmas: my very own mama, and two others who I forgot what their names were. My mom picked up one of the red envelopes and said that this one grandma always gives $2 to my sister and I every year. I said,  "Mom! you opened my red pocket and counted how much money was there?!"  And then she said, "Just put them away upstairs in your piggy bank and in a couple of years I will find them and keep them". 

And the best for last.. a wicked awesome 100% silk shirt that I found in my grandma's closet .. which I wore today. I wanted to wash it before wearing because it had that moth ball - chinese cabinet smell to it, but then I red the tag and it said: 'Made In Hong Kong. Dry Clean Only'. But I have neither the time or money to bring this one shirt to dry clean! So I just wore it.. mothball and chinese cabinet and all. Who cares! I can't believe it even fits! 

On Grandmothers

Today I went to visit two grandmothers. The first was my friend,  Bethany's grandmother, who always cooks her famous lo mei fan [sticky rice] for me.  Nothing in the world stops her from cooking and loving her grandchildren, not even her inabilities to see and hear clearly. So today I went to return her tupperware and gave her some oranges to say thanks. She insisted that I try her home made apple juice. She said it would be refreshing in this humid day. How could I resist. She opened her fridge and handed me a honey container filled with her homemade apple juice. 

Afterwards,  I went to visit my own grandmother (my dad's side).  We've been trying to figure out whether she has early onset of Alzheimer's Disease but its days like these where I'm not so sure. I asked if I could take a picture of her. I showed her her picture and she smiled and said, 'oh my your grandmother is fat!' I said, 'No Grandma, you're beautiful and you have very smooth skin!' She laughed and said, 'do you miss me?' I said, 'of course I do.' She said, 'I miss you and think about you some days'. She reached over to grab a small bundle from beneath her coupon flyers. She opened it to show me, a small stack of fruit stickers. I asked her what they were for. She asked me if I wanted them. I asked, 'you saved these for me?' She replied, 'Sure, or your sister she collected them before?' I think we did, I did at least--my freshman year in college, I ate a lot of bananas for some reason, and collected probably 50 stickers..but I don't think my grandma ever knew about this. When I told my sister about this, she said that grandma gave her a stack of them too to give me because she thought I wanted them. 

Grandmothers rule! 

When I grow up, I'd like to be as cool as this grandmother.

Tissue Earplugs

Yesterday I went to visit and bring my grandma and grandpa their dinners. My grandma could not hear a thing because she had tiny pieces of tissue paper stuffed in her ears (just as she does when my mom gives her a bath), she said she didn't want bugs flying into them (they had a fruit fly infestation in their home). I walked in and sat by the couch near the side of her bed but she couldn't see me for the longest time and began to worry. I guess muted hearing can sometimes hinder your peripheral perception. Just last week we installed a fly trap that was made of a roll of sticky-- we hung it on the ceiling in hopes that we could rid the room of these small annoyances. The fleas are pretty much gone now (I saw them stuck to the sticky), but she continues to stuff her ears today. The only reason I can think of is because maybe she doesn't want them buzzing in her ears, but small fleas and fruit flies don't buzz like honey bees do in the summertime. I remember the day my mom first saw it she said my grandma had stuffed her ear holes as well as her shirt (at the neck) with tissue paper. She asked her what the reason was for all of this, and my grandma replied in the dramatic manner that she always does: "It is so that they don't fly inside because if they do, it will be the end of me" (a not so great translation of the canto phrase that literally means 'i'm going to die'). My mom, having heard this not just on several, but all occasions, knew just what to say. She told my grandma that if that was the case, then she should stuff all the holes in her face, her eyes, her nose, her mouth, everything with tissues to prevent any possibility of this from happening. That made my grandma cackle until her dentures dropped loose--she realized that she may have been just a little bit ridiculous. However, she still wears tissue stuffed ears today.

Hospital

On Friday afternoon, we brought my grandmother to the hospital for her G.I problems. I don't think she realizes it but, she has got the entire nursing staff wanting to care for her. She might be the cutest 91 year old in all of Miriam Hospital. She cannot speak any English so all she can do is smile and laugh. She giggles at doctors, nurse, staff, anyone who comes by to say hello, give her medicine or take a blood sample; she laughs so much that her dentures sliding down has become an entity of its own. 


Don't let her fool you though, when the staff are gone and its just family, she scrunches up her face again and pretends to cry so that you might take her home so she can take her medicine, put on her lotion and get a good nights sleep. She rubs her face into the itchy blanket and peeks out of her tear-less slits of eyes to see what kind of reactions she can get from us. 


I love you grandma.