Book II - THE EXPAT

Finally, "The Expat", my second book is "live", as they say in the publishing world. It is the continuing story of my life. It is available on Amazon, as well.

My author's copy is on its way to me. 

In the meantime, life goes on at the Conservatory. We have many new residents recently. A number of them are couples, and a number of them seem to need more Help - more walkers, more confused ones trying to find their way in this maze of a building. We old hands do what we can to lend a hand.

Ever since Covid epidemic, we are encountering one problem after another - regarding the staff, the building, and the extreme changing weather. For the last three years, we had had three different chefs - one quit, one died, and one disappeared - we do not have a head chef right now. The kitchen staff pitches in. Life goes on. I don't complain much about the food, since I am not able to eat most of the regular foods anyway. I live with mostly purred and liquid foods. After four years. I am used to it. 

Life goes on, right.

e-Book

 What do you know? The E-book is available.

A Published Author

The Revised version of my book is finally published. It is not perfect, but much, much better than the first one. The ink is much darker and the size of the words is more to my liking. The format is now acceptable. I am also working on the eBook.

Time to work on the second.

I turned 95 two days ago. I don't have the luxury to dilly-dally. Do I?

 

THE BOOK

 Finally!

My book, "NOT THREE, NOT FOUR - a memoir of an immigrant", is being published, by Amazon.

Alas, I had no idea how very complicated self-publishing is.

My first printing turned out to be far less than satisfactory, to say the least. I am happy with the cover to a certain extent, but I was disappointed with the layout in many ways. 

First of all, I did not know that I had to set the shade of the lightness or the darkness of the print.    

Then, I did not know that the margins that shows on what I typed on the computer do not look the same when it is printed as a book. There is a lot of Math involved.

As a matter of fact, a million "things" are involved.

HELP!

My computer Whiz of a son-in-law and my grand-daughter are giving me a Big Hand. We will have Remedies!

Bear with me.

The second print is on its way. 

THE ALBUM III

 
The Asian Paintings expert came with the young man.

He looked more like a by-gone hippie than a representative of the Auction House. "D'ont judge the book by its cover. Keep an open mind," I said to myself.

He seemed excited, and promised to market The Album in Asia and so on. We eventually agreed on the terms of the sale and signed a contract. He kept saying, "Isn't it exciting?" Then, he and the young man left with my Album.

So I waited patiently. Weeks went by. 

A beautiful catalogue came in the mail. My Album of paintings was featured in the catalogue. It looked quite impressive. I was pleased.

The Auction Day finally came. I watched the Auction online for hours. Unfortunately, The Album did not sell.

The Expert asked me to give him some time so he could try to sell the Album after the Auction. So I said, "Okey."

Days went by. No news.

More time went by. I called and asked him to return my Album to me. And I have not gotten it back yet. Do I need a lawyer?

After many requests from me and my daughter, the Asian art expert finally said that he would have someone hand-deliver the Album back to me. So far, I have not gotten the Album back yet. 

So much for the Saga of The Album.

I guess Grand-grand pa did not want the Album to go back to the Far East.

Stay-tuned.

AT THE CONSERVATORY

In the meantime, at the Conservatory where I live, life goes on as usual, after a fashion.

We have had many changes - staff members came and went. Residents moved away or passed away. Life, however, goes on.

Since I came here, we have had no few than five Directors, numerous different housekeepers, many different maintenance crew, four or five chefs (including a super-duper soup chef whom we all loved).

We survived the covid academic, and had covid cases every now and then, for a while. We are okey now. 

The weather had been strange, too. 

Now, we are in the south, right? We did not have extreme cold weather in the former years. No frozen pipes to worry about. No busting-pipes either. But now, we certainly do. Freeze, severe  thunderstorms, tornados even . . .

However, the salespeople have been doing a good job in securing new residents. The only big difference is that it seems a lot of the new residents need much more care, health wise. There are more walkers and more motorized carts (some of their owners don't seem to realize that the speed limit is not the same in the hallways as on the highways.)

I am not kidding you. One of the residents was ran over by one of those carts a few months ago. Her leg has not been the same since.

I think I am here to stay for a while. It is much too much trouble moving. Right?

I am of the opinion, Life is what you make of it. 

Make your surroundings as pleasant as possible. It is up to you. You are in charge, We are not prisoners. Unless you allow us to be.

  

 

THE ALBUM II

The phone rang on the other end of the line.

 After a few rings, a lady's voice came on.

I introduced myself and told her that I saw the ad, and I have something that might be of interest to her. I described the paintings to her and so on.

She said, "Take pictures, and send them to me."

I went on to say that I thought the paintings were quite old and beautiul  . . .

She said, "Take picures."

I started to tell her what I could translate from the writings . . 

She said, "Take pictures."

I said that she might like to see them . . .

She said, "Take pictures."

So I said, "Okay."

Now, I am not a photographer, but I do take pictures with my cell-phone. So, I set the paintings down on a white background and start "shooting". The light was not too great. The pictures did not turn out to be what I liked. I, however, sent them to her - via my phone.

I told my daughter, Melinda, about it. She thought my pictures were not good enough, and took it upon herself to take pictures of the paintings with her better phone. We bother agreed that the lady needs to see the paintings in person.

I guess our "nagging" kind of got to her, and to pacify us, she agreed to send someone to my apartment a few days later.

In the meantime, my other daughter, told me that the film covering the camera-eye of my phone, which I have had for a few years, had not been taken off. The film was old and wrinkled. She did not understand that I could have been taking pictures with the wrinkled film cover on the camera-eye all these years. Well, what do you expect from this 94-year-old ??? There were NO instructions . . .

"Any how" (as they say in the South), a nice tall and lanky young man came to my apartment, a few days later. He introduced himself to me, and handed me a business card. He said very little, but he did TAKE PICTURES. One after the other, together with my amateur translations of whatever I could made of the calligraphy.

I showed him some other paintings and he dully took pictures of all of them. Then he left.

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE - DECLUTER

Have I not been telling my contemporaries about simplifying our lives at our age? Yet, I am guilty of "hoarding" myself. 

Although I have a two-bedroom apartment, with two fairly good-sized closets, and a small closet in the hallway to boot. I have enough "stuff" to fill all three closets. And the cabinets . . .

It is time to do something about all the "stuff" sitting there.

Even if I live to be a hundred-and-ten, do I really, really need some of the "stuff"?

I have clothing that are several decades old and not been worn for more than a decade or so; things that I bought years ago that I thought I needed; art supplies to last me for another lifetime; table linens that have not seen the daylight since I moved here . . . 

Time to declutter, to simplify, and to let go.

And yet, I am making "stuff" everyday. I paint, I make "things" . . .

What to do? What to do?

I finally decided to brace myself and go through my "things".

Didn't I advice others to  - 

  Give it away,

  Throw it out.

  or, Sell it.

So I should take my own advice.

THE ALBUM

It has been more than three years since my cancer surgery. 

I am doing as well as can be expected, I suppose. Though everyone kept saying that I was doing wonderfully. 

I am deformed. I cannot seem to gain any weight. I have trouble eating . . .

On the other hand, 

I am alive. I can get around on my own, with the help of a walker, if I have to walk far. I have my pains and aches, my allergy, and a few other little problems. I, sometime, have small memory lapses - not too major. I make little notes to remind myself of anything that I needed to remember,

On the plus side, I can still read without wearing glasses. I can still paint. I can still do a little jewelry-making. And play some card games with my friends at the Conservatory.

Where I live, there are a number of people who have far more serious health issues than this 94-year old woman.

So, I said to myself, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start living."

Cleaning out the closets is one of the things that I needed to do. So here goes - get rid of the stuff and clothes that I have not used for the last few years . . .  I do hang on to most of my artworks, done by me or by someone-else. 

There were some of the things I have forgotten that I had . . .

Then, one day, I saw an Ad in the paper - a fairly large colored one - with a green jade bottle perched on a teak stand, a white jade bowl, resembling a flower, a tall cloisonne enamel vase, all sitting on a rosewood? table, against a painting of branches of red persimmon fruits. The large dark-green leaves made the fruits redder even.

"Bring your Chinese Art to us

 We'll sell it to the world"

Call . . . 

I thought to myself, may be the third time is charm.

I have some nice Chinese paintings and some objects of art. Amongst them, an album of 8 Chinese ink paintings on gold paper, done a long time ago.

The first time, many years ago, I wrote to a famous auction house, offering the album of paintings to sell. They never answered my letter.

The second time, my second daughter and her patient husband took me and the Album to the Antique Road Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The specialist looked at it, and said that it may be worth three or four thousand dollars. I disagreed. The paintings were exquisite and I liked them. Besides, they were close to 300-year-old. I can read the Chinese wording, names and dates and the stories told. 

So, the album went into the closet and then it came with me to the senior-living place when I moved here over six-years ago. It stayed in the closet all this time. 

Since the children did not want it, may be I should sell it. Let someone else enjoy it. 

Is it time to sell it?

I waited and pondered the thought for a few days. Then I picked up the phone and called the number in the ad.

IT'S SNOWING!

It is really snowing here in Plano, Texas,

The first real snow that I have seen since I came to the Conservatory in 2017. And it is beautiful!

Large flakes are falling continuously. The snow has covered the red-tiled rooftops and the ground now. There are icicles on the bare branches of those towering and graceful oaks and maples. At a distance, the line between the neighboring rooftops and the sky blurred. 

There is no sign of traffic. No city noise. 

The Texans are not used to Snow. 

Last year we had the First Big Freeze - power lines were down, electricity was off for days, then, we lost water . . .  For more than eleven days, the city suffered. There were damages to city and personal properties. There were also loss of lives. 

So far this has not been the case this year.

The snow is still falling steadily. And it is Beautiful!

Is It Me Or This Old Computer?

I am old and so is this computer. For sometime now, this old computer has been given me more trouble than I can imagine. Is it time to put it out to pasture? 

I am old-fashioned. If I have had something for a while, I tend to hold on to it, like an old friend. And this old computer and I have gone through a lot together. I started writing my blog on it since the beginning - since 2014.

I may keep it for a while yet. 

After much deliberating, I decided I do need a new computer.

So my daughter and my son-in-law took me to Costco. I ended np with a slick-looking up-to-date computer and a printer. Now I am in business. 

I have no more excuse for not writing, do I? 

Tip-Toe to Normalcy

It has been quite a year (a year and a half, to be exact), hasn't it? Both in the world and personally, for me.

 Covid19 hit us and then the surreal political situation. The discovery of vaccine helped, but we are not out of the woods yet. Why some people are against the vaccine is beyond my comprehension. So is the wide belief of misinformation. Are we losing our senses, or what?

 On top of it all, we had a Deep Freeze in Texas this past winter. We lost power, we lost water, we lost lives . . .

 Yesterday, I tried to resume writing. After I finished the article, I could not work the publish button. Then, the whole thing disappeared. I could not find it . Then my mobile phone told me that it would not let me make a phone call - it was blocked. By whom? I did not block it. Today, I got one of those "Hi, Grandma" calls - the kind of scheme for distorting and extracting money out of seniors. I wonder if someone is selling lists of senors living in Senior-living places. Hey, we are old, but we are not dumb.

 In the meantime, at the Conservatory, we are trying to go back to "normal". The dining room is partially open, "Happy Hours" resumed (three times a week instead of six times a week). Personally, I do not think we should be serving that much drinks to the residents. Are most of us on a lot of medication or other?

 Now, Masks-wearing is not mandatory for those of us, residents, who are fully vaccinated. But then, how do we know who is and who is not fully vaccinated, since that information is somewhat a secret. The staff here, the care-givers, and visitors (those who are not fully vaccinated) are supposed to wear masks . . .And, since more than half of the population is not vaccinated, virus is raging in some states.

 We are tiptoeing towards normalcy, whatever normalcy means.

Never Too Old Too Learn

With this Virus pendemic, I am more or less Home bound most of the time. I live on the fourth floor and I do go downstairs to get my two meals from the Dining Room every day, or most every day. And I may go for a walk or two around the common areas - we have a lot of long hallways decorated with artworks and some antiques. It is not unpleasant. 

The residents are not encouraged to congregate. 

Wear a Mask and Keep Your Distance from the others.

A few days ago, I went into the little library to find some books to read. I found an Atlas. It is not of present day, but it is not too out-of-date either. I immediately took it back to my apartment to browse. Now you know, now-a-days, most everyone gets his or her information on everything from the internet. But holding a book in my hands is My cup-of-tea. And this is a BOOK! So I took it.

You may already know that I was not a fan of History or Geography in my younger days. Since I am much older now, and I finally realized that History is just stories of mankind and geography is about the places where we live. I changed my mind. I am actually pretty interested in Both History and Geography. I am very glad that I was fortunate enough to have traveled to quite a few places in the past. I wish that I had done more even.

Well, after browsing over the Atlas, I discovered how ignorant that I had been.

Did you know that we have 188 Countries in this world? 

I did not.

Did you know that We are not the wealthiest country in the World - as far as average per cap ta income is concerned. We rank No.6. Luxembourg, Liechienstein, Switzerland, Norway and Japan are ahead of us. 

I certainly did not know that. 

A Big Wake-up call! I have two Degrees from two Universities and I am quite ignorant! Now, I have a lot of time on may hands I need to learn more. It is never too late to learn.

A NEW LIFE

At ten-thirty this morning, we got a new life line for our Democracy.  

Our nightmare for the last four years will soon be at its end. 

I celebrate this moment for my children, for my grandchildren, and for my country.

CANCER SURVIVOR

It has been over six months since my surgery. I am, at the moment, cancer free and taking no medication. I am a cancer survivor. 

All things considered, I am doing well. My maxillary prosthesis is in place, my energy level is up, I am eating more of my "soft diet", and I am not in pain. On top of all, since the Coronavirus is still raging around here, we, at the Conservatory, are required to wear masks. A good disguise for my lopsided and puffy face.

Dining at the Conservatory is partially restored. Residents could make reservation for dining in the dining room. Masks are required and 'social distancing' is to be maintained. Unless the two of you are a Couple, you dine alone. Therefore, we find mostly "one lone diner at one table." Most of us still use the Takeout service.    

We have some activities planned, to make us feel better, I suppose. But life is not the same as before. How long this is to last, we don't know.

The country is still in a turmoil. Virus is raging in many places. Unrest dominants daily.

What happens in November for the people is anybody's guess. 

Life goes on . . . .

 

Putting Humpty Dumty BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

The Virus situation is not letting-up any where I am - in Texas. We are to wear masks and keep social distancing from anyone.
The number of people being sick with the virus keeps going up and the number of death rising.

Now, it has been five and half months since my operation. I am finally back in my apartment at the Conservatory.

The doctors and therapists are trying to make me whole. I am supposed to be doing well for someone in my impaired condition.

But it takes a long time to learn to be more or less normal, let alone being whole again.

My oldest daughter said that I needed to be patient, having gone through some very extensive surgery.

I am trying, but it is not easy.

I go for therapy to help with lymphedema.  
I go for therapy to help strengthen my neck and my limbs.
I go for therapy to help me learn how to swallow.
I go to the orthodontist for my prosthesis . . .
The sweet dental-specialist did say that the end is in sight. May be I could eat more normally then.

They are all trying to put this Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Many of my fellow residents were surprised to see me, upright and walking - even though with the help of a walker, and comment how well I look. True, I had been absent from the Conservatory for several months. I do know that some did not think that I would survive the extensive operation. To tell the truth, I did not either. I did have my skillful and wonderful head/neck specialist-surgeon who gave me back my life.

So here I am. I do need to find some meaning to being here. 

Virus Invasion

While I am fighting my own personal battle, The Coronavirus invaded the world.

We came to the point of having Shutdowns in States, etc.

A worldwide crisis.

Even at the Conservatory, the dining-room is closed. Meals are to be delivered to our apartments. Social activities are curtailed. No visitors are allowed. Only Healthcare provided are allowed to enter. 

How long is this to last. We don't know. 

The stock market crashed.

The economy is sliding.

What next?

My sweet daughter and her husband decided that it is better for me to move in with them for the time being than to be left at the Conservatory since it was the new ruling that even family members were not welcome for visiting. So, we packed up what I needed for the time being and moved in with them.

I am one of the lucky ones. Many people have lost their jobs, etc. 

What next, indeed.

Begining A Journey

The road to recovery is long and slow. 

It has started. 

24 days ago, my wonderful surgeon got rid of my oral cancer after some 7 hours' hard and miraculous work at Methodist Hospital, in Dallas.
For the next two weeks, I breathed and was fed through tubes, etc. I cannot say that I remember much - there were endless nightmarish scenes I remember, of fighting the restrictions the nurses put on me, the many dying scenes (imaginary, as all those at the hospital would say; but, they were real to me.), and countless "baby steps" I took, such as learning to sit up, to stand up, to take a step  - one foot before the other - one step at a time . . .
Eventually, the tubes were gone. I was fed liquids and some purred foods. After being in the hospital ICU, for the most time, I was sent back to my home at the Conservatory - on the 3rd of this month.
Now, it has been Ten days after I have been at home.

True I am well on my way to recovery.
The hole in my neck has finally closed up.
The swelling on my face is much better. I still look like the Phantom though.
I can walk without help.
I can feed myself, after a fashion. No solids for a while yet.
Great improvement. I am trying to do word-puzzle everyday.
My Speech therapist is teaching me how to use my tongue. Saying certain alphabets are trying to me. I keep trying.
My energy level is rising, slowly and surely.
It is so good to talk to you.

Cancer Surgery

Yes, I went for the surgery. I had a wonderful, masterful surgeon. He cut me up and put me back together. I look a fretful sight, but they said that I will heal and be "normal-looking" more or less eventually. (The 'more or less' is my interpretation.)
Now, I have to learn how to eat, how to speak, etc. It is a long haul, I am sure. But I am here. 
I will relay to you some of my experiences as a patient in the hospital - I thought that I died five times and came back and so on. I also did some awesome imaginary paintings, made some wonderful music, so on ... Will tell.
Good to be with the world again.

Random Thoughts

Anything we fully do is a lone journey.

When you go over your work, be a Samarain - a great warrior with the courage to cut out anything that is not relevant. Don't be sentimental.

Our rooms are indications of our state of mind. A little apparent disorder is an indication of the fertility of the mind and someone who is actively creative.

We are the sum of our experiences.
In search to belong. A long identity crisis.

Absorb what is useful,
Reject what is useless,
Make life your own.

Cut out paper clutter -
File it,
Forward it,
Fix it, 
Fill it,
Forget about it.
Only keep what you love.