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A bedtime conversation with my daughter tonight.

Me: (telling my made-up story)…then all the jelly beans in the Jelly Bean City live happily ever after. The End. Okay, grandma will hug you to sleep tonight. Mommy needs to go finish up a project, or else the client will fire me.

Daughter: And then you will be starved?

Me: Oh yeah. And you will have to starve with me.

Daughter: No, I will be fine. Dad will still have a job.

Me: But daddy loves mommy very much. He will feed me before he feeds you.

Daughter: Hum. That’s how people do it in China. In here, the youngest get to eat first. From youngest to the oldest.

Me: …(speechless)

Instantly, this sculpture by Charles Ray popped up on my mind. I have seen it many years ago at MOMA. Didn’t think much about it then, totally get it now.

To cry, or not to cry.

I haven’t cried in 3 years. In fact, I cried only 3 times in the past 11 years. I remembered exactly when and why I cried at that three times, and all had big solid reasons.

I read a UK research said, “The poll of 3,000 women - conducted by www.TheBabyWebsite.com - found that after the age of 19, women wept for two hours and 14 minutes a week.” This is no way sound believable to me.

I don’t know why I am not like some women to cry at a sad film or at some unpleasant things that happened in life. Maybe I have unbreakable EQ. Maybe I have suppressed emotion that I don’t know about. Maybe I am too optimistic to care about any imperfections at the moment… I don’t know. But I start worrying… I don’t talk much and I don’t cry… man, I may be a man.

And then, Winter Olympic appears on TV. Seeing the athletics, feeling the tear and pain behind such achievements. All of the sudden I realize, I have been living in a comfort zone for a long time, it was natural not to have tear. Not a good thing, need to push my limits now! …nah, maybe tomorrow.

Dancing Monkey!

Showed the kids how to make animation with their own drawings today. It was amazing how a simple 2-frame animation made them laugh so hard :D

Running an Emergency Room.

This was my typical day (Well, sort of):

Client B came in with a deadly emergency project. The team loved the challenge. Our brain juices were twirling; our motor hands were rolling. We were all ready to save some lives.

Then, Client A said, “Wait a minute. I was here first.” Our doctor replied, “You can wait. Don’t be such a cry baby. Can’t you see we have some lives to save?”

The doctor turned back to cut open B.

A buzzed: “I think I am dehydrated.”
Doctor replied A (while operating on B): “Nurse, please give him some IV.”

A buzzed again: “The IV machine keep beeping.”
Nurse replied: “Let me fix it.”

A buzzed again: “I have constipation. I am all backed up.”
Doctor replied A (while still operating on B): “Don’t worry. Nurse will insert some suppositories in you.”

After went to the bathroom, A buzzed again: “Doctor, I poo-ed and I don’t feel like I am dehydrated anymore. I think I am good now.”

Doctor cheered (while still operating on B, blood all over the hands): “Wonderful, I am glad your problems are resolved. Please go home and get more rest, and you will be all fine.”

Many hours later, B was safe and looking good.
Doctor finally got a chance to sit down.

Her brain said: “It is 3 am. Go to bed now. You need to get up at 6:30 am.”
Her heart said: “I wonder if we resolved the clients’ real problem. Or we just resolved the problems they thought they have. Shouldn’t professionals be more proactive, and not just responsive?"
Her brain said: “You did the best you could. No matter how obsessive you are, you only have that many hours in a day.”
Her heart said: “I wish we can hire more doctors, so we can do better jobs.”
Her brain said: “But who is going to pay for it?”

I guess not everyone could get everything that they wished for… even in Christmas.

Look! What’s behind that boy?

Friday night, the kids and I watched Jack Black’s The School of Rock (2003). We had so much fun. While we were crazily rocking and dancing along at the end of the movie, something on the screen caught my eyes. There was a big Grand Marnier display bottle behind a young drummer. The bottle appeared on the screen for more than one second while the 10-year-old playing cool music.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not the kind of over-reacting parent. I design and create liquor advertising every day. That’s why I usually get excited to see product placements on movies. My responses usually were “How cool!” “Very smartly done”or “No good. Too obvious.” But this time, I was like “What the?!”…

I was actually hoping that it was not a product placement. Maybe just the set designer wasn’t thinking it through; at the same time the director failed to notice how politically incorrect it was to place a kid next to a liquor bottle. Or, maybe it was acceptable for them because this film was meant to be a little controversial.

Despite that, it was a very enjoyable movie. And the young performers in there were amazing.

Halloween Decoration Weekend with Special Guest – a Little Black Cat Came from Nowhere.

Yesterday morning, a little black cat showed up at our front yard and made itself at home. It is a lost cat and it still has its collar on. Unfortunately, the collar has no phone number or address. I am not sure if our Halloween decorations gave it a sense of belonging, or Joey befriended it while we were putting up the decorations. Either way, it is just not leaving.

So, a few hours later, we had no choice but to feed it and made it a temporary shelter box, marked “LOST CAT” on all sides, hoping its family would come look for it and see this box… no luck. And the cat was not staying in the box, it preferred to stay under our car. Which is quite disturbing. We really don’t want any freshly grounded cat meat under our wheels.

Today is the second day it is staying under our car. It even quietly watched us and chased us a bit while the kids were riding bicycles in the backyard. My son hopefully asked, “Do we have a pet now, mom?” Sorry no, mommy has too much to take care of these days. Tomorrow, if it is still here, we will have to call Animal Care & Control to take it away. I wish the cat all the best. And somehow I feel that I will miss it.

Flashback a week ago, Joey and I were talking about his brother-in-law having Asthma partly caused by the allergy to his family’s cat, but the family still keeping the cat. I said to Joey, “Why your sister rather sacrifice her husband than to give up the cat?” What a stupid question, I didn’t understand because I never had a pet before (except for fish and turtle.) Now, this incident gave me some led to step into other people’s shoes and a taste of how it feels.

Wahoo. I am glad I didn’t ask other stupid questions such as, “Why Hillary Clinton still staying with Bill after the Monica incident?” … Surely I don’t want a taste of that.