Sketcher

It is Saturday morning and I am barely alert when Lydia decides to tell me about the household politics behind the small iPad. In fact, the small iPad is not an iPad or anything Apple made except for the brand. And the brand is strong. The "small iPad" is actually a Google Nexus 7 tablet, circa 2012. I decided to give it to Lydia and Elisa when I bought the Google Nexus 7, circa 2013 version. And, yes, we are that spoiled. So back to the story. The main reason Lydia wanted to tell me about the small iPad politics is for the same reason all big sisters talk about little sisters – vengeance.

Lydia was going on and on about how Aidan and Elisa had a scheme to monopolize the small iPad time and that it wasn't fair. I was having a bit of a hard time following as the tired dad listening to his nine year old daughter go on a rant in her second language. A very well thought out rant, at least in Lydia's mind. Lydia could tell I wasn't exactly following along so she grabbed a piece of paper and drew me this sketch:

This is the kind of impromptu story telling that the really good people in my line of work do. It is the kind of thing that puts the fear of god (or Buddha or the random mother in law) into me. It is one of the two things I go through my day trying to avoid. (The other being, of course, speaking.) Yet here is Lydia natural as the sunshine in a city not called Beijing drawing in pictures what words cannot express.

I'm not sure where Lydia got her drawing talent, it certainly wasn't from her father and I'm pretty damn sure I am the father – the split two front Allio teeth give it away. Her mom doesn't draw much although she's been known to tell a story or two. In the summer Lydia's school nominated her for a drawing contest for the Chaoyang district of Beijing. She won. She then went to the city level contest. She won. Country level, she won. And her mom says the contest was legit, no entry fee or anything. They gave her some kind of official award that would help her get into a good high school or college, for whatever's that's worth as she will likely go to college in the states. Worst case I figure she can fund my retirement by sketching tourists of the longest foreign resident of Beijing who does not speak Chinese.