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.

Simple, as it should be.

I always find lots of things to do when I should be studying. I have a lot I want to blog about, i've been backed up though--i really want to do a post on Nicaragua (I promise I will). But i decided on a vlog post because this song has been on my mind lately. It is by Tristan Prettyman who is a great singer/musican/songwriter.

Simple As is Should Be

*_*

Inspired by Up

Uninspired Floating House from Modernmet

Sewn Series

   

   

March 2007

Happy birthday K.Wu

Twenty-One cheers to one of my best friends back at home. 
Happy birthday K.Wu.


Check out his videos!



I'm So Startled from Kenny Wu on Vimeo.

Contreras Road, Oxford OH

                 

I went for a run this morning. I hurried up High Street to meet up with my friend in her neon blue shoes. We left before the Sun awoke from beneath his fluffy white sheets. Afraid that he might see us running through this sleeping college town, we left and headed towards the open country road. My feet were feeling more comfortable as we reached Contreras Road towards the edge of Indiana, with Andrew quietly whistling his smooth tunes in my ears. We continued along the wall of corn and soybeans, black cattle munching away their morning meal. The air was clear and the roads quiet except for the occasional old couples, which I supposed were hurrying to Sunday service. They tell you that when running longer distances, you should make a target ahead of you and run towards that sign or curve in the road until you reach that mental flag you placed and then you make another target and it keeps you running and running, even if your guts feel healed over like a floppy pancake. Today, I didn’t have to make those targets. Three miles in, at Scythian Empires, archers of an afterthought, I was taken aback by the flirting birds heading left and right above me. Together they made beautiful patterns that reminded me of the handful of black sesame my mom sometimes puts into the rice while it’s cooking. We turned around to head back; where I imagined the girls would begin to walk back to their dorms in last night’s dress, sometimes their feet bare or blistering in cute black heels. I had not realized the Sun had arisen into its place in the sky, ready for the day’s work. His jealous rays now softly wrapped around my face and the front of my shoulders. I couldn’t help but to think about a couple things; some things I needed to get done, dental things that stress me out, things for school and class, some things about people and friends I have left at home, and other things like when I could stop and take a rest. I am not the best distance runner; I wanted to stop fifteen times while he glared down at me--his fierce eyes could easily burn holes in my salty skin. But, we kept going. That’s the great thing about running with a friend, with a friend and her neon blue shoes. I could feel that it was a good start to the day, a good start to a new week, and to a good school year back in Oxford, Ohio. 

A couple of things from Blackstone Blvd

I took a walk with my camera before my run today

Stopped by some pretty flowers

I'll call them yellow delicacies if I may

and this house over here, I've been meaning to photograph it because its so cute with its dancing flower pots, each dangling there at different lengths (I wish I had a better photo to show, it really is perfect)

and I cannot forget this house, which I walk by every time and it makes me smile. 

Yea yea, it looks like any other house but just wait..

look at the stone children on the left,

What a wonderful family this must be, 

through rain and shine.

More flowers. 

They've got something I've been looking for for a long long time.

A mark of poise and the ability to stand out from a dry bed of green.

and I promise you this is no movie script-ending, 

but it was truly a perfect moment. So I snapped a photo of these 

two strangers sharing opposite sides of a bench. 

and then, the man turned his head towards my way and I had to pretend I was snapping a picture of the grass. Squirrel! 

Draw and write '93

Last night I found a couple of pages of Crayola marked rainbows, smiling clouds and Christmas trees. Gosh, I must have been 3 or 4 years old! My sister and I used to sit in the sticky plastic booths at the China Inn Restaurant while my mom would wait tables and bartend. I remember for years, sitting there doing these 'worksheets' my dad made for us on the back sides of invoice scraps (which brings back many more memories) I thought my dad was an artist, he taught us how to draw minnie and mickey mouse which now that I think about it, is probably the only thing he knows how to draw! And for the longest time we drew these minnie and mickey mouse's with their cone tipped noses and helmet shaped faces. 

Also, I have long remembered the days my sister and I--upon waking up in the early morning we'd run down the stairs to draw. All we ever drew was the same thing, A large rainbow and a box with lots of colored dots, another rainbow and a butterfly. Together, we'd work on the same page and create the same compositions day after day. By the end of the year we were pros at mass producing them. Its been quite some time now and I had forgotten all about them, but I found one. 

Poke and Mr. Sock Monkey

  Poke and Sock monkey are getting pretty cozy these days. I'm pretty sure there's something going on between the two.

might I add,  t r u e   l o v e.