Last week I joined the challenge to talk about race by wondering Why Aren’t People Talking to Me? This week I write about seeing (and hearing). Long ago in college, I talked about ethnicity with Duncan, a tall skinny White guy with a large Adam’s apple and black rimmed glasses, and George, a tall skinny Chinese guy with a large Adam’s apple and silver rimmed glasses. Duncan said he considered me to be Chinese-American, and George to be Chinese. Since George and... Read more

Today I’m responding to Rebecca Cusey’s blog Let’s Talk about Race Baby:  A White Girl Experiences Minority, where she talks about being a minority in her ‘hood, and her perception of Blacks’ loudness. A couple years after we moved to a pretty White Boston suburb, my bi-racial 5th grade daughter shouted to a Chinese boy while biking, “Well, you know I don’t have any White friends!!” Frankly, she had almost no friends since moving to town.  I attributed this to her extreme shyness,... Read more

Last week was a hard week.  Work and life were crammed.  I caught a cold.  And my computer died. The cold was not a minor cold, it gave me aches and pains that felt like evil meany-poo viruses had attacked every cell of my body. Although Scott would say it’s my own darn fault that I kept going despite feeling miserable (which is true)  I also felt constrained.  A colleague from Milwaukee flew in just for me to mentor her... Read more

Please forgive me as I whine. Last week Monday, I noticed my 9 month Apple Macbook Pro was really slow and wouldn’t boot up IPhoto.  After rebooting multiple times, I booked the first available appointment at the Genius Bar for Wednesday.  And I actually remembered to back up everything on my external hard drive. At the Genius Bar, the very nice Apple guy said the problem with Iphoto was my corrupted Iphoto library. Which means the hours I’ve spent tagging... Read more

“Oh RIGHT,” said a kid when asked to finish cleaning up the kitchen.  With a scorn only raging adolescent hormones can generate, “Why does the hardest working member of the family always get asked to do the most work?” I thought, “Wow!  My child has finally recognized what I do around here!” Then I realized my child was NOT referring to me. Now, our kids work, often quite diligently, especially in school.  They’re incredibly helpful when babysitting or volunteering or... Read more

“When’s Chinese New Year this year?” I asked the kids this past Wednesday night. “I think it was Monday,” said Kai. “WHAT????”  I shrieked, “We missed it?” “No, no,” she amended, “Maybe it’s this Monday.” I checked on-line and sure enough, Chinese New Year falls on January 23.  Whew! What kind of Tiger Mom am I, if I can’t even remember to celebrate Chinese New Year?  The answer, just a Tiger Mom wannabe.   I couldn’t even remember what animal... Read more

A couple days ago, I read a great blog by Adele Calhoun, An Invitation from God:  Healing from Catastrophic Thinking.  It came at the perfect time, because it’s high school midterm week and my daughter’s living my recurring nightmare.  The one where I forgot to attend math class all term and have to take the final.  Or the history nightmare where, I also forgot to read all the books. In the seconds I’m capable of reason, I know her situation isn’t... Read more

Last night, along with the parents of 400 other students, we attended the middle school Choral Concert–not because we have a child who sings in a chorus, but because my 6th grade son was picked to accompany the chorales on some sort of percussive gourd thing. For one song. The second to last song no less. Earlier in the day, my 8th grade daughter told me she wanted to go because she had listened to her friends practice.  She had been surprised... Read more

As always, not a short of my soup, but this is what it lookslike–this cook garnished the soup with toasted coconut I’m feeling so inspired by my new ability to post recipes that I can’t resist sharing this one, that I made for dinner tonight.  It’s a delicious, fairly nutritious (depends on whether you think coconut milk is good or bad for you) squash soup that’s tangy, creamy and exploding with flavor. I found this recipe somewhere online, and then... Read more

For our first Christmas, I bought Scott a quilt and 2 quilt shams.  He opened them and said something like, “Gee, it’s nice you bought yourself a present!” Have I said before that I don’t have the love language of gift-giving?   I certainly wasn’t sure he’d like the quilt, but I didn’t think he’d so totally reject it.  After all, it was for our marital bed and I thought guys were really into the significance of that bed. .... Read more