Posted on 11 November 2008 @ 01:19 in Family, Personal
When I was a kid, I remember attending 21st birthday parties given (or “thrown” was the word) by my cousin sisters. It was THE birthday, and one of the main presents would be a little “21″ to be worn on a chain around the neck.
Much later, one of the uncles commented that while the girls celebrated their 21st birthdays in a grand manner, nothing much was heard of the birthdays after that.
For my 21st birthday, I didn’t have a grand party. Instead, I took my parents and my nanny out to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. Mother had put that idea in my head, saying we should treat our parents to a meal because they were the ones who gave us life. Looking back, I think she said that because she never had a chance to treat her parents to a meal – she was given away as a baby, and had buried both her adopted parents during WWII, before she turned 21.
Instead of a “21″ on a chain, my sister had given me a little diamond cross on a chain, her acknowledgement of my Christian faith.
Other memorable birthdays through the years included my 31st celebrated in San Diego. My housemates had planned a surprise party for me and started to worry when I didn’t come home that evening, and when I finally did, they were not ready and one of them had to take me out to the stores cuz she needed “to get something”.
Then, there was the birthday I visited the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, DC on Veterans’ Day, which happened to fall on my birthday.
More recently, there was the birthday I visited my beloved giant panda family at the San Diego Zoo. Three of them were on display that day – mummy Bai Yun, son Mei Sheng and baby Su Lin – and all three of them ignored me! That evening, I’d gone to see Janis Ian in concert. What a grand way to celebrate my 48th birthday.
And now two years later, I am half a century old. I spent the hour before the stroke of midnight reading through my previous birthday journal entries, and crying at some of them.
I have to admit I am a little nervous of turning 50, of being 50. But I have something wonderful to look forward to later today. I am spending the day with mother. She may not remember it’s my birthday, and people have asked if she still recognises me. I tell them I think she does.
She greets me with a wonderful smile whenever she sees me before her. She gives me her hand when I reach out for it, and she’s not even looking at me or my hand; somehow, she senses my hand nearby. And when I put her hand to my cheek, she pats it gently, and sometimes, more than a little “gently”.
I can’t ask for anything more than to spend time with my mother, especially on the day she gave me life.
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Posted on 10 November 2008 @ 00:08 in Writing
Venue
Starbucks AmCorp Mall
Time
10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Attendees
Erna
Calvin
Will
Chet
Catalina
Patricia
Andreas
Andreas’ friend*
Kathleen
(did I leave anyone out?)
*sorry, don’t know how to spell his name (or pronounce it)
I’d missed the kick-off party the previous Saturday because of a vicious migraine brought on by sitting in the car in the hot sun the day before. So I made sure to keep myself well so I could attend the first write-in on Saturday.
Last year, I attended one write-in. I came away from that with the conclusion that I don’t do well in write-ins because I tend to want to chat, not write, if there are other familiar faces nearby. Also, I think it was because I attended the write-in already ahead with my word count so I didn’t really need to write while there.
Well, same thing yesterday regarding the word count. But Erna, our ML, was determined to keep everyone focused on the write-in and to help those behind in their word count to try and write their daily 1,667 words. Hey, she even shot down some of our suggestions to bring Monopoly, Scrabble and Taboo along, and also not very subtly suggested that “Once you finish your wordcount, the ones who are finished can go have a nice writerly game of Boggle in the corner or something. 
”
First of all, everyone was so happy to see everyone else (me especially since I missed the kick-up party … oh, I’m repeating myself) so we were chatting away. Finally, Erna put a stop to it and insisted on 30 minutes of quiet writing time. Oo .. that really helped! And I’m not being sarcastic here.
When Calvin got up to stretch his legs about 30 minutes later (actually he went over to see what Patricia was up to), it signalled the quiet time was over and everyone started chatting again. Some even started sharing videos online. It looked like the write-in was over until someone suggested a second round of 30-minute quiet writing time. This time, Patricia set the timer on her handphone. And the place fell quiet again (except for Calvin who quietly asked if anyone remembered the last line he wrote which he’d read to everyone cuz his laptop crashed before he could save the file, and a few replied to help him reconstruct that last sentence).
I’d just finished what I was writing when Patricia announced that the timer had gone off.
All in, I wrote 1,700-odd words during the two rounds of 30-minute quiet writing time (even though I didn’t need to). So it’s not true I don’t do well in write-ins. All it takes is a little discipline, not just individual, but group discipline.
The next write-in is same time same place next Saturday, 15 November 2008.
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Posted on 6 November 2008 @ 12:06 in Writing
Yes, yes, yes, I am taking part in NaNoWriMo again.
I seem to have got things backwards this year. I posted my word count meter and forgot about my NaNoWriMo participant badge. Well, it’s up now, above the word count meter.
My personal daily target is 2,000 words, which means as of yesterday, the 5th day, I should’ve written 10,000 words. Unfortunately, I started nano-ing late yesterday – very late! – and fell short of the 10K mark by 700-odd words. And what do you know? I haven’t started writing today, either.
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