I am a very lucky person. Why? You ask. Well you are about to find out why.

Monday I log onto Facebook, and happen to click on the profile of my cousin, who I recently became "friends" with on FB so I could see what was going on. Her husband posts she is in the hospital in critical condition. No more information offered, I immediately call Mom to see if she knew anything (she didn't). She then called my grandmother to give her the news. Meanwhile, somewhere in another part of town, a distant cousin of mine also logs onto Facebook and finds the same status message, so she calls her mother who proceeds to call the entire branch of the family to let them know that one of the family is in trouble. A mix of old and new ways to keep track of everyone and communicate I suppose. Through the week she steadily declined and though she is better now, she still has a ways to go and did not come out of this conflict unscathed.

Then on Tuesday, I notice a contusion on Daughter's forehead, which she doesn't remember getting, and as the day progressed, a headache was getting worse and worse, so I took her to the local ER where we spent 7 hours (mostly waiting), as they did a CAT scan (which came back normal) but because of the persistent headache, they recommended she see her primary doctor. Luckily she had a yearly checkup the next day, so with cat scan results in hand, I took her to the doctor. By this time she was markedly limping and the headache still hadn't gone down. The doctor was concerned enough to tell me to send her down to Rady's Childrens Hospital ER for further tests. Luckily we were quickly admitted, but waited a long ass time (3 am, we'd arrived at 6:00 pm) while they did another cat scan, waited for results and they finally said they were going to admit her for further observation. She was pretty stoic throughout this ordeal but when they inserted the needle into her wrist to administer an IV, she broke into tears and couldn't stop crying, despite my repeated attempts to calm her and tell her funny jokes (to make her stop crying but only made her cry more). I think that was the hardest part of the whole ordeal, seeing your child in pain and crying, and there isn't much you can do about it. Wishing you could transfer that pain to yourself so she doesn't have to endure it.

Stoic calls to Husband (who was home watching son) and in-laws and sister to keep them informed, but it was only when I talked to Mom that I broke down and confessed I was scared shitless. Yes I've watched my share of ER and House, so I considered myself somewhat knowledgeable of hospital ongoings, but head injuries only brought to mind the case of Natasha Richardson...not knowing what was going on was the scariest part. Mom and Dad promised they'd come down asap (thank god for that). Daughter complained of increasing severity of the headache and it wasn't until they administered morphine and an hour had lapsed that she finally began to feel better.

The next two days were punctuated with me and Hubby keeping her company in shifts while she went through additional testing, consults with the neurologist and on and on and on.

She was finally released today, with the conclusion she suffers from severe migraines at her age, and to continue to monitor her symptoms...while the limping etc are continued to be monitored (they are not sure why that happened.).

God I'm tired. But I'm lucky my daughter is ok. My cousin too.

Bloody hilarious!

Image via.

I was sad and shocked when I heard MJ passed away. Never mind all the crazy things everyone heard about him in his later years, he was and is a musical genius and his music played a big part of my growing up years. RIP.

If you are anal retentive like me about making sure you have your planners/calendars etc for next year wayyyyy ahead of time...yeah I know it's only June. Here are some lovely choices,

The 2010 Offset Calendar from Eggpress.



Another must-have, RED HOT Moleskine Weekly Planner to scribble notes in etc!

Dad's journey into retirement has been a lot smoother then I thought (other then him battling various bureaucratic offices daily to get his retirement paperwork straight). At first I was really worried he would just be BORED. As Mum is on a 3 week vacation with her sister to Greece, his being alone all the time had me doubly anxious (do you notice I worry a lot?). But so far, he says he doesn't miss the hour commute to and from work (he used to wake up at 4 am and work 10 hours a day to get Friday off). And he keeps busy attending to daily errands (getting the car battery changed, etc etc etc) and planning various trips to visit my sister in San Francisco. Still I wonder if he's annoyed that I call him every night...

"How are you dad? What did you do today? Are you doing okay? Are you sure? What did you eat today? Are you sure? Are you sure?"

*****

Because I married an Irish-American boy, the kids are bi-racial (with hyphenated last names Chen-O'Shaughnessy clan in da hauz!!!! (not our actual surname, but similarly quite a mouthful)). As Daughter is now 11, I've wondered which "cultural side" she feels more comfortable with socially...the Asian side or the Caucasian side. Surprisingly, she hangs out with the Asian kids in her grade, and they are a tight knit group. I am the complete opposite...I feel more comfortable palling around with Caucasian people (mostly white males because I can boss them around and mock their manhood). Actually I prefer to be a hermit, but since Daughter is graced with way more social skills as compared to me back at that age (which I am extremely grateful for), she has a solid group of friends she can identify with.

"Do you feel like you fit in when we eat a Chinese restaurant?" she asked me the other day.

"Yes and no," I answered. "I used to care more speaking only Cantonese to the waiters in the restaurant, but now I don't really care as much. They speak English, so why not just order the food in English."

"Well you fit in more because you look Chinese," she said.

"Eh, it doesn't matter anymore, nobody cares about that stuff. You are just you here."

Still, it is interesting to discover her feelings about her bi-racial heritage.

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BTW thank Jehosaphat for the Internet, I've decided I want to make it a lifetime goal to collect all of Stella Gibbon's out of print books. She is best known for Cold Comfort Farm (if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for????). So hunting down various editions via ebay, amazon etc is quite exciting and fun as I get to interface with booksellers as far as the UK...that is like so cool!!!! I know, I'm easily amused.