weekend

weekend was great. good friends from indy paid us a visit. we went dim sum at chinatown yesterday for lunch. then headed to macy's on state street and was going to check out the christmas window display. but we walked inside macy's from the 8th floor down to the first and forgot to walk outside and around the building to see the window display. kinda stupid. we got a LOT of food from chinatown and the korean grocery store for hotpot last night (and tonight we were still eating leftover hotpot ... reprise... i guess). went to church this morning... potluck for lunch at church. mom made curry chicken and the molten-core chocolate cupcakes. curry chicken was gone in a hurry and i couldn't even get a second. ppl were raving about the chocolate cupcakes as well. friends left around 5. a great weekend. parents had fun. and me too. but i missed my cloud 9. wish she was here. it would then have been even a more perfect weekend.

chatting with parents tonight. asked my dad whether he had a gf b4 meeting my mom. he said he was interested in a classmate when he went to school. but since his best friend also expressed interest in her and he just wished his friend best luck. and he said that his best friend eventually married the girl. i was also reminded that dad did not attend to primary school. he was too poor to go to school. later on when he owned a tailor shop with my then soon-to-be uncle, he could finally go to a vocational school. for that he went for 3 years or so. i asked him how he learned to read and write. he read comics, books and newspapers and just picked up the words. my dad's story reminds me how privilege a life i had in my childhood and also i have now.

my mom recounted stories of me and my sister's. i didn't walk till i was one and a half and i didn't speak a complete sentence till i was two and a half. mom asked the doctor if i was dumb. and the doc said i was as smart as james bond (my chinese name "pong"). mom said i was good at recognizing ppl and places, but would only say "ee-ee ar-ar" and a few single words before i was two years old. on the contrary, my sister could walk in ten months and could speak soon after. when i went to kindergarten, i would read my books to my sister and she could recite the entire book perfectly afterward. i played with my toys with intense interest and concentration, unlike my sister who only played if i played with her. my sister was addicted to her thumb. she would suck her thumb while grabbing onto her precious little towel. she had a hard time quitting her thumb-sucking habitat... in my memory... i still recall my sister doing her thumb even she was in primary school. i thought it was cute though at the time and didn't understand why mom always force her to quite. mom would put "maan kum" oil on her thumb but it wouldn't work for long. i don't remember when my sister finally kick that habit for good. my mom commented that her thumb was like opium to her. i couldn't help laughing. mom said i had a hard time weaning from my baby bottle no until my sister was born and i would have been three years old then. but my sister had no difficulties at all. in fact, my mom asked my sister to quit using the bottle and she picked up the bottle and dropped it in the trash basket. that was sooo funny but incredible.

stories that i have heard more a dozen times from my parents already, but each time they tell them, i learn a little more, feel a little more, and they imprint in my head a little more.