Busy Days/Daze

Poor Blog.  I just realized I haven't written an entry in well over a month.  Let's see, since getting back from the US, I've been sick, visited Korea, cleaned the family grave in Dong Shih, attended my sister's engagement party, and broke the zipper on the back of her dress an hour before the party... that's another story.

Jasmin's engagement banquet

It's been a rough week.  Tina and Seraphine flew back to States just two days after I got back from Korea.  Early last week her grandmother had gotten really listless so Tina's parents took her to the doctors where they found that her bile duct was blocked. Upon further examination they found tumors all over her liver and that she was starting to bleed internally.  As she turned a hundred years old last year, the doctors decided not to operate and sent her to a nursing home / hospice to keep her comfortable. Tina's parent had initially thought she would be OK and told Tina not to come. However, we thought it would be better for her to go asap rather than wait until she was long gone or it was too late. The airfare was exorbitant as this was a last minute flight and Seraphine would be going along too.  I tried to push her to take a flight that flew out a day later but was overruled as 1) the flight would go through Tokyo and, ummm, there's like a nuclear disaster happening near there and 2) time was of the essence.  I'm glad I was overruled.  Tina was able to get there Friday night and spend that evening and most of Saturday with her.  Though mostly unconscious, she would mouth words to some Taiwanese folk songs Tina would sing to her and seemed to know when people were in the room.  

Moses and Mei Mei at the aiport

Tina's grandmother passed away quietly in her sleep on Sunday morning.


We've been trying to Skype each other all week but can only grab a few minutes here and there due to the time difference. I know she's very tired, jetlagged, and stressed about the funeral message she is giving tomorrow but I think she is happy she flew there early and that grandma passed away peacefully. (I hope I can pass in the same way!)


Back here in Taiwan, I've been working and taking care of Moses. Quite honestly he's been a super boy with his mom gone.  It was extremely stressful for him when we were sending Tina off at the airport but his resilience amazes me.  Of course he hasn't been perfect (our night time routine has been shot to pieces and I'm constantly resorting to bribes/threats to get him out of the house in the mornings) but it's been fine overall.  By the way, I have no clue how single parents do this day in and out.  They are real heroes.

Moses helping clean the family grave site in Dong Shih

We've got a busy (keeping Moses busy is a good thing) weekend planned ahead with a trip to the library this afternoon as well as a new stinky tofu shop my mom wants to try, a visit to Taipei tomorrow (in the cold and rain to ride the Mou Kong gondola and visit uncle 'Optimus'), and then it's off to Taoyuan on Monday afternoon where we will spend a night at an airport hotel in order to pick up Mom and mei mei early Tuesday morning.


I've got some sort of cold / allergy thing going on right now. Coupled with lack of sleep from working late my head feels like it's lost in dense fog if that makes any sense.


-- Steve