The art of face-saving

My best friend Heidi is going to have a baby. The due date is sometime around November. I was born in November and she was born in early December. I was joking that it would be great if the baby is born on either of the day.

The news is somewhat shocking. Heidi got married in May. She asked me to come to her wedding but the wedding date was the same date of my graduation day. That is, even though I jumped to the plane as soon as I walked and got my diplomat, I would be late for her wedding. So I missed it. I can't remember how many weddings I miss this year, around 5-6, including two of my cousins'. But that is another story.

Heidi is very smart and hardworking. I thought she would put off the baby thing and focused her work. She could climb up to the ladder and become a manager before she turned 27. Forgive me, I am such a business-focused woman that I even calculate career plan for my friends.

Now she's happily talking about her baby. I gave her some advice about nutrition. Early this year several of my friends had babies so I get to know some of their experience. She's so excited and nervous, totally different from the one I have known for years. I am happy and a little sad. When she got married, some of her love went to her husband. Now she will pour the rest of her love to the baby. I always wanted to ask this silly question but I didn't: "Will I still be your best friend?"

Before I left for America, both of us made a promise that we will be each other's children's Godmother (not religious, just an old Chinese tradition that bond the baby to the parents' best friend). I would become a Godmother, how excited it is!

It is OK to date, but please don't do it in the quiet study area! You have the whole campus, hundreds of acres to date, not to mention the whole Salt Lake City, the whole Utah, the whole US, and the whole world! I am just a poor little girl who have a test tomorrow and trying to find a quiet place to cram.

-Yours annoyed,

Wendy

1. A Lot like Love

It reminds me of something in the past. Everyone has such experience, I suppose.

2.Eternal Sunshine with Spotless Mind

I watched the movie, laughing a lot, and crying a lot. I don't know why.

3. Love Actually

Brit wiz. Love it, and my favorite Mr. Bean, haha.

4. How to lose a guy in 10 days

Well if I have met a guy like Matt McCounaughey (sic), I won't lose him for sure!

5. City of Angels

A little bit cheesy, but touchy!

Can't believe I worked in the garden for two hours today! Anyway, right now the garden is awesomely beautiful, without bugs and weeds.

My arms turn red after that. I expect some sun burn next day. I already got some sun burn on my right shoulder from the picnic. No more sun burns!

I still can't get over the fact that Mr. Hu, our family friend, has passed away. It was last Nov. Mom called and told me about this bad news. I was totally phased out. My mind was totally blank. He was only 54.

To me, he was the closest friend to my family. We lived in the same neighborhood. Her daughter and I have known each other since kindergarten. We became very close friends, so were our parents.

Mr. Hu was a truck driver. In late 80s and early 90s of China, not many people had driver's licenses. Every summer, he would drive his truck and sent us watermelons and other fruits. He also took us to nearby resorts for vacations.

In the lazy days of the summer, we visited each other every day. Our houses were about five minutes' walk. Two families would spend the whole night chatting and laughing. Mr. Hu was a quiet person. He always smiled and listened to our conversations. I can't count how many summers were spent like this. 10 -12 years, maybe. My family moved to a new apartment when I went to the college. After that, we did not really visit each other as often as before.

Mr. Hu was not lucky. He kept losing his job due to his asthma conditions. My mom introduced him to several jobs. He worked for year or two. Bosses were always satisfied but finally fired him because of his health. Mrs. Hu was diagnosed cervical cancer and chemos made her sick and quit her job. That was the hardest time in their life. They just bought a new house and mortgage was not yet paid. My parents tries to help them financially. They always turned them down, saying. "Your daughter is still in college. The tuition is expensive." Even though I told them my scholarship covered my tuition. They would not accept our help.

After that, I went to America. In 2006, I went back to China and visited the Hus.

Mr. Hu obviously lost some weight. He used to be a big man. Now he seemed to be a size smaller. Mrs. Hu earned her living by babysitting. They looked really tired. A week before my departure to the US. They came to our apartment to visit us. We had a very happy chat. I showed them the clips I took in the US. Everybody was so happy. Everything seems to be back to the good old days. Mrs. Hu bought a papaya, our favorite fruit. Me and mom loved it very much.

When they left, Mr. Hu said to me: "come visit us next time when you come back. We all miss you very much."

And I would never know that was the last time I saw him.

Mr. Hu went to work as usual. Suddenly, he felt his chest was extremely painful. He parked his car and struggled back to his house.

His wife heard his scream and went down to see what's happening. She saw her husband lying down on the ground, not breathing. She called the ambulance, but everything was too late. We lost him.

It turns out Mr. Hu had a heart attack three months ago. But he did not let anyone know. He went to the pharmacy, bought bottles of OTC aspirins. That was his heart attack prevention.

After the funeral, my mom browsed through old photo albums. She called me and said:" Honey, you know what, The pictures you took with Mr. Hu are more than those you took with your Dad. There were almost hundreds of his pictures in our album. "

That is true. Mr. Hu is an indispensable part of our family life. He was a true friend.

And life is so unfair to take him away. or maybe God loves him so much and asked him to heaven so early. Even though I was not a religious person. When I think about this. my sad heart start to recover a little.

I am sure he is looking at us from high above

1. I was recruited to the female basketball team in my college (SHU, not UU), but finally turned down because I wanted to concentrate on my studies.

2. I played guitar in a folk-rock duo for a year in my high school.

3. I got into a terrible bike accident when I was 6. I almost lost my right foot (still have terrible scars on my right foot now).

4. Although I am a Chinese, I hate tofu.

5. I can fall asleep with all lights on, and my roommates were having a drinking party in my dorm. 

Everyone recommend Fred Montague's Organic Gardening, so I take it. Why not?

My old buddy Yiming is my garden partner, good good. We know each other since Bio chem. Both of us are from Shanghai.

My garden has a huge roof on it. which means half of the plot won't get any sunshine. Good or bad? I don't know.

So people in the same region are signing up watering schedule. Mine is on Friday, after which I have a sleepy history class. Among those ppls, Daniel Wee is the guy I saw in the campus all the time. We have at least two classes together, I never knew his name, though. My buddy Andy is in that region too, but it is weird that his brother James did not show up. They always have classes together.

My facebook has been out of new friend for 4 months. Fortunately, my garden neighbor Laura was on that. So I added her. She replied with "We gardened together". Oh funny~

I got a chance to look at the general catalog in SHU (my ex-college, in Shanghai) . The school added some fun classes, such as "The history of spies". It turns out that this is a "serial" class with part 1 and 2, taught in two quarters.

Besides, they have "Wall climbing" for physical education classes. "Buddhism Classics Reading" and "Bible Reading" are also included. Talking about cultural exchange, they do have "American History" and "Western Newspaper Reading".

Sounds pretty interesting huh? Not bad for a university in China.

I wish I could go to those classes...

Caught cold for the second time in 2007, how healthy!

Gotta find something to boost my immune system.

single digit temperature throughout the most of the day, very very cold.

also i hate pricey oranges.

the cell structure presentation is in two weeks, and i don't even know WTH the article is talking about...even though i made a mindmap out of it.

I slipped on the ice again...just in front of the Chem building. luckily, nobody saw it except H and i guess she already knew that i don't have balance at all.

I fell asleep on the bus again, today. Hopefully i didn't snore...