HHC Blog

The second day of the year is somewhat boring (already). We drive to 5 places in the afternoon: bank, cable company (one cable box doesn’t work right), Macy (KitchenAid mixer doesn’t lock correctly), Target (only Target has the kind of red pepper my husband wants), and finally gym (not to exercise, but to swipe our card so it looks like we have exercised.) At the end, I am quite tired. Remembering my happiness project, I keep reminding myself to act more energetic. Then, I hear a voice saying “why?”  I guess I do need a solid reason to act more energetic.

My friend JT stops by unexpectedly. She brings me some homemade scones. They are very good! I am happy!

So… today, I flunk my happiness project, but I do have a happy moment.

Happy New Year!!!

2013 was a happy and sad year. Happy because I retired at the end of Feb. and retirement life was good even though I missed working on my project and I missed seeing my wonderful coworkers. Sad because my sister Karin became ill and she passed away on 11/12. Karin was a great sister. I was so used to text her every evening asking what TV program she was watching so I would try to watch the same program. I was so used to call her when we were on the road (my husband was driving, that was.) I was so used to call her asking her how to cook this or that. Life without her is difficult and I am doing my best to adjust.

My daughter gave me a couple of books for the Christmas. One of them is The Happiness Project.  I have given a speech on “The Happiness Project” about two years ago. I accidentally ran into author’s blog and liked the idea a lot so I shared the concept of the happiness project with my toastmaster friends. I didn’t buy the book – I was happy at the time and I wasn’t sure that I needed working on any happiness project. After giving the speech, of course, I forgot about the whole thing until I saw it at this Christmas.

The book came at the right time. I no longer cry for Karin’s death; I don’t even feel sad most of the time. But there is an empty spot in my heart – it is so empty. And the emptiness has transformed me to a different person. I wanted to be happy again and maybe happiness project will help.

After a quick glance, I found out that I really liked the author’s Jan. project, so I decided to follow the same list. So here is the list and how I did today.

Go to sleep earlier (since I am so used to stay up late, it’s hard for me to go to bed earlier. I decided that as long as I would sleep for 7 to 8 hours, it would be fine. And I did sleep for 7 hours last night.)

Exercise better (I need to work on this!)

Toss, restore, organize (organized my drawer today)

Tacking a nagging task (wrote this blog entry 🙂

Act more energetic (No need. I am energetic today.)

I am full of hope for 2014. Still, I wish Karin is here…

Sometime, I think I, too, have multiple personalities… two, to be exact. One is very afraid, afraid of everything – people, places, life or death… The other is brave and content — she knows she has learned a lot, achieved some; she knows she has good friends whom she can always count on.

I wonder if I have inherited one from my mom and the other from my dad. If so, I shall love them both.

I haven’t been writing and I have a good reason.

I found out that life is not like a continuous line; it is more like stairs. You stay at one stage for a while and then you move up to the next. When you arrive at a new stage, quite often, you’re confused and need time to adjust.

I’ve moved up to the next stage even though I kicked and screamed, refusing leaving where I felt comfortable. I haven’t been writing because I’ve taken time to accept and adjust.

Yesterday we had an Authors and Artists Event. Only a dozen people came to the event, but that dozen people made 5 hour event worthwhile. One Indian woman and her husband came to my table and the woman and I started chatting. I talked a little about my book Jin-Ling’s Two Left Feet and told her the profit from the book will be donated to our local food bank.

She picked up the book from the table, looked at her husband. “I want to buy this book, ok?” she asked.

Her husband looked at her, didn’t say a word.

“This is a story about culture conflict. I want to read it,” she said again, pleading with her eyes.

I grabbed her arm. “Take the book. It’s free, “I said and then I added, “Because I like you.”

She reminded me about the younger me. I used to look at my husband that way whenever I wanted to buy something even though I made enough money to afford the things I liked to buy.

She looked at me and said, “No, you donate the profit to charity, I have to pay.”

She opened her purse, took the money out and paid me. Her husband watched, didn’t say a word.

I really like this couple.

At this stage… it doesn’t take me long to figure out if I like someone or not. And I think this is a good place to start this blog 😉

WordPress is COOL! What more can I say? As a person who wants a one-button solution for everything, I really like how WordPress works, so I moved (or should I say…in the process of moving here.)

I started blogging on the year of 1999. At first, I was trying to use blogging to *test* myself to see how long I would last. After a while, I started enjoying sharing my thoughts with readers. Then one day, I found out I had nothing more to say so I stopped blogging. And then… on and on. We change from year to year, if you haven’t noticed it.

Many people told me they would like a way to comment on my blog. Now you can, but please be KIND 😉

I just want to let you know that I am working on starting this blog. Maybe it will take a little while to figure out everything. Trust me – I am working on it. Hope seeing you later.