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She woke up the sounds of him grinding coffee beans. She resented that sound. Hated it. And she was instantly awake with anger. A nice way to start a Sunday. She didn’t know how it came to this but came to this it had. Do all couples reach this stage? She wanted to blame him. To find fault with him. And for sure there were plenty of faults. From keeping the bathroom a mess to dry butt crack. But none of these faults were really that bad. Certainly not worthy of the hate she felt for him. ...

Foreigners (Laowai) are not expected to understand anything about China and that can be a haven for someone who has never felt like he belonged anywhere. Or it can just be really annoying. Today’s post covers a couple of annoyances. Yang’s mom, Pan Yi Hong, was set to land in Beijing after a six month stay in Boise, Idaho. The fact that she could stand spending six months in Boise, with her son, is incomprehensible but then again many things are incomprehensible about Pan Yi Hong. I was originally going to fly the San Francisco to Beijing leg of the flight with Pan Yi Hong, in fact I booked my return flight from the states to so that I might be of some assistance. Pan Yi Hong is fairly old after all and has the strange needs older people get. Well, I suspect, age is not a factor in her case. And as it turned out I did not take that flight with her as she missed her originating flight from Boise to San Francisco. And when she did get the originating flight the next day, it was delayed landing in San Francisco and she missed her connecting flight to Beijing. After spending the night in Fremont with her beloved daughter-in-law she finally boarded United Airlines 889 to Beijing. This is where I re-enter the story. ...

He can smell the heavy, cold moisture in the air and knows that snow isn’t far off. He pulls on his long underwear, jeans, winter coat, gloves, hat and scarf. He heads to the nearby park, Side Park, and enters unnoticed. No one is out tonight. He walks away from the light towards the deepest and darkest part of the park. He lies out his plastic mat on the frozen grass and sits. ...

Tomorrow is your Mom’s birthday. I won’t mention her age. No one would be believe me if I did. She still looks great. Hot, even. Being in love with someone is like being on a life raft with them. At first you are aware that you are on that boat because the love is so new and all-encompassing and the memory of the chasm just on the other side is fresh and sometimes scary. Then the boat - or is it the sea - stabilizes and you feel confident and empowered as you go through life. That you can go anywhere together. Do anything together. Be anything together. And if you are lucky time will pass and you will start to notice that the life raft is not very big after all. And that the little life raft is fragile; that all it takes is one person to poke a hole in it and let the air out at which point your only hope is that the base is made of wood. ...

It is the day before Thanksgiving and I am at Carrefour hopelessly searching for a meat thermometer and pie crusts. This seems to happen to me every year and my Chinese is so bad that I cannot even begin to describe what I want and have it make any sense. And if I could describe it then it really wouldn’t make any sense. Not many ovens here to cook a Turkey or bake a pie. ...

During our first summer here I bought a bicycle. An old fashioned ten speed with narrow tires which I used it to bike to Chinese class and just get around town. Yang got a bike too and we would take Aidan and Lydia out. Elisa was just a concept. No baby wagons here, kids sit on the back in a simple seat. Here’s what the bike seat looked like when it was relatively new ...

As I type this the US presidential election is underway and the 18th Chinese National Congress will soon be underway. If you don’t live in China, you may not be aware of the impact of the National Congress. I’ll just say it’s a big deal. This post is about the vote that took place at Lydia’s and Aidan’s school yesterday. The parents voted 9-7 to replace Lydia’s teacher. As I understand it, the vote would be given as a simple thumbs up/thumbs down to the school and the school would comply with the parent’s wishes. ...

If the Giants won a World Series and no one applauded, would they have really won. Maybe not in China. Game four of the World Series was largely played during my flight from Beijing to Xiamen. When we landed in Xiamen, like everyone else I ignored the instructions to keep my cell phone powered off. Unlike everyone else, my main purpose was to check the Giants score. 4/3, F10 it read. The Giants were World Series Champs. ...

_[I woke up at 3AM on Sunday morning and wrote this hoping I would have a chance to speak at my Mom’s services. It served as the basis for my remarks at her funeral on Tuesday. RIP mama Allio.] _ When I think about my mom, I think about love. The love she had for life. The love she had for her children and grandchildren, and the love she had for my father. And the love life had for her. The children had for her. Her husband had for her. ...

Just before sunrise on October 13, 2012, your Grandmother died. I had just left with Uncle Donnie to fetch some Peets coffee and when we returned we saw your Aunt Korky in the TV room on her cell phone. Don knew that met my mom had passed. We woke up your Grandfather at around 2:30am because your Grandmother’s breathing had gotten more difficult and shallow. After struggling a bit with consciousness your Grandfather steadied himself for this. He said, “Anne Marie” with an urging that bordered on pleading. He then hugged her. He then went to take a pee. He spent the next hour standing and then sitting by her beside. She continued to labor with her breathing but was hanging in there. You grandfather eventually went to TV room, turned on the Today Show and fell asleep. Me, being jet lagged, was fully awake and sat in the chair next to him alternating between TV watching and playing with my phone. ...