After discovering that Bartlett Hall (an undergraduate residence cafeteria) serves all you can eat with many different ethnic food stations, I went there again tonight for the second time.
Honestly, I was famished. These years of living by myself has not been good to my stomach. So when I saw these different food stations, my eyes shone with the greedy light of a hungry wolf and my stomach growled with the feverish pitch of a howling wolf.
This is why I chose to sit in the most inconspicuous corner at the end of the cafeteria hall, with my back facing the aisles. Such that NOBODY would be able to see my devouring process.
Think of a pack of wolves tearing apart the carcass of a little bird. Think of a crocodile swallowing a bull. Think of the Amazon’s piranha searing the fleshes of a little boy swimming in the river.
Here is what I had:
1. Half a slice of cheese pizza
2. One bite of BBQ chicken pizza
3. One beef taco
4. A standard salad
5. Half a plate of turkey meat with craneberry sauce
6. Half a cup of Mountain dew
7. About 12 pieces of Fries
8. One bowl of Chili
10. One scoop of strawberry ice cream
11. One scoop of vanilla ice cream
12. One cup of decaf coffee
The only redeeming factor out of this is the exercise I got from making the several back-and-forth trips to refill my plate (as I said, I sat at the END of the cafeteria hall, so indeed it is pretty far from the food station).
Sigh.
Filed under: Lifestyle
“A newly created firm does not know its ideal production process, but it can find this by trying, one at a time, different processes in the production of prototypes.”
As I closed the door behind me, and walked down the moist steps of the library into the drizzling night, I felt a weariness in me, so heavy that the 3 books in my hands felt like they weighed 100 pounds.
It was 10pm on a Friday night, and I was the last of the people to leave the library, and walked among the diligent or the lonely to the last of the buses that are leaving the library. It was drizzling, and I felt alone and tired.
Yet, in the bus, there sat those other people, many of whom wearing medical uniforms. The radio in the bus was tuned to this channel that plays old songs. It was playing “Mrs. Robinson.” Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio. A nation turns its lonely eyes to you…
As the bus rolled along the curb, the radio played “Since I fell for you.” When you just give love, and never get loved, you better let love depart…..
The bus dropped off the passengers, one by one. On this Friday night, we might ask ourselves why we were sitting with each other on this lonely bus. But at this point, our bodies were too tired to allow any other thoughts, but thoughts of home. In the end, I was the only passenger on the bus.
The bus approached the corner of 55th and South Hyde Park (my corner), and stopped at the corner just as the traffic light turned red. As I stepped off the bus, I turned to the bus driver.
What radio channel is this?
You like it, do ya? (He smiled broadly, with a little surprise in his tone) I think it’s 93.7
Yes, I do. Thank you. (I returned a smile as broad, but tired)
I stepped off the bus into the drizzling rain; my eyebrows locked from the droplets of water. The traffic light turned green. Just as the bus was beginning to resume along the road and we parting in our ways, the bus driver sounded the bus honk — I looked up at his dark face through the window; he gave me a salute and a broad smile– and I, in repartee, gave him a wave and broad smile.
And then I strode off into the quietness of the Friday night. But now, with this little brush of repartee, I trotted home with a little lightness, and marveled at how an awful day even at the end of it could still be turned around by a little smile. That honk and salute just made the moon glowed a little brighter on this dim night.
One of my all time favorite Disney tunes (next to Peter Pan’s “We can Fly” and Cinderella’s “So this is Love”), is Jungle Book’s The Bare Necessities of Life.
The lyrics give good guidelines for life too!
(I chose to post the following video rather than the jazz piano one because I am doing the steps too)
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature’s recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life
Wherever I wander, wherever I roam
I couldn’t be fonder of my big home
The bees are buzzin’ in the tree
To make some honey just for me
When you look under the rocks and plants
And take a glance at the fancy ants
Then maybe try a few
The bare necessities of life will come to you
They’ll come to you!
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That’s why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life
Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware
Don’t pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don’t need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue ?
The bare necessities of life will come to you
They’ll come to you!
So just try and relax, yeah cool it
Fall apart in my backyard
‘Cause let me tell you something little britches
If you act like that bee acts, uh uh
You’re working too hard
And don’t spend your time lookin’ around
For something you want that can’t be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin’ about it
I’ll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you
Filed under: Lifestyle
So I finally saw what is my problem: I am burned out. What allowed me to connect the dots are the hundreds little symptoms that perhaps only I myself know most clearly, and the brief conversation with my informal mentor a couple days ago.
This article summarizes what has been in my mind, and it foreshadows a decision which I think I will be making shortly (I figured that out last week….)
Filed under: Lifestyle
This picture brings me a lot of joy. In a sense, it is the culmination of the good stuff that age brings — being better at things which you weren’t good at!
(I had always wanted a sailing picture…but usually things would be too hectic on the boat to have the time for picture taking…)
Filed under: Lifestyle
The following comment in the NYC blog struck me:
OK, let’s get real. Happiness like love is a decision. As we arise in the morning we can decide to be happy this day or be miserable. Choose happiness and look for the good in your day. The beauty all around you, the love of a friend or lover, go buy a puppy and do a good deed. Call an acquaintance you haven’t heard from in a long time. Forget yourself and reach out to others. Yes, there can be euphoric moments, but eveyday happiness is available to anyone who simply decides to be happy.
— gep
Filed under: Lifestyle
It is a solace to know that with age you can do things better than when you were young. And these things were not things that you ever had indicated a talent for doing. The adage of “practice makes perfect” is so abundantly used that by it does sound like a cliche. Can you derive motivation to continue to do something that you are not good at from the faith that you will improve in the long run?
The answer, from my summer of windsurfing and sailing, is yes.
I was bad at windsurfing and sailing at first. Heck, I even failed my first sailing test. But I enjoyed playing both sports so much: the thrill as the wind carries me, the therapeutic undulations of the waves. So I go for it, despite all the wounds and disasters. When you like something very much, even if you take some hiatus in between frustrated attempts you ultimately find yourself going back at it again and again.
And then one day, after accumulating other knowledge of life during the elapsed period, I discovered that I can do them better. This promptly restores my faith in the possibility of personal improvement in things which you were not good at.
This is the great thing about aging — even as our bodies succumb to forces of nature, our minds get better. The most important thing is to do what you enjoy, so you will enjoy the process of practicing. And someday, you MIGHT just get good.
So I tell myself now.
Filed under: Lifestyle
So I have been windsurfing 3 times in the last 4 days. First day: excruciating back pain — which matched my experience 2 years ago. No surprise there. Second day: Sailing beautifully and felt an exhilarating upper body pain afterwards — arms, abs, even butt. Which made me think this would be a wonderful and fun complement to running (which is just foot work); I was supposed to build up upper body strength anyway.
But today, the injuries were stacking up. Arrived at Evanston: 7 knots wind. Choppy water. Lots of white waves. (In the process of windsurfing, you may already get sea sick). It took a long time for us to get on the board — a LONG time. I was surprised by how long it took myself to this, consider that I had almost immediately hopped on and sailed on in the first two times. Furthermore, at one point, I thought I was gonna die.
1. A BUMP ON THE HEAD (and almost fatality): I was trying to get on board, as a big wave was crushing toward shore. The mast fell toward my side. I lost balance and fell in. The mast followed. And hit me right on the head as I was in the water. The sail covered my head, and the weight of it pushed me under the water. Meanwhile, another wave came in and pushed the sail down under. I drank several gulp of water and tried to regain my clarify (after the mast hit my head), struggled to swim out of the sail but continued to be pressured under. Almost out of breath. But finally got out. (But that was scary). Just now when I washed my hair, I realized there’s a bump on the upper right hand side of my head.
2. TWISTED WAIST: I shouldn’t pull up the sail with one hand. But sometimes I got so tired that I did just that. Consequence is that right now I am suffering from disabling left side back pain, and had to wear a corset and have a lot of trouble sitting and walking or bending.
3. CLAMPED FINGERS: Several times when I tried to climb onto the board the mast moved and clamped my fingers between the board and the mast. Go figure.
4. TWISTED ANKLE: there is an area in the lake which is pretty far from the coast, but the depth of the water is deceptively shallow. So a gust of strange wind blew from nowhere and I felt off the board on my back, but landed STRAIGHT on my ankle. The foot immediately turned soft and I became a jellyfish. (For a moment, I thought, I will never be able to run away). From then on, pretty much I paddled back to shore.
Bottomline: I am still alive. And plan to do more of this and add on more injuries.
Yesterday I had conversations / caught up with 4 friends, and while the topics discussed with each are strange:
Friend 1: why is there 6th sense?
Friend 2: lots of scary details on laser hair removal
Friend 3: the good, regularly life
Friend 4: kindred spirits
They keep me grounded and the next day, I was still mulling over the reminders they served me.
And I am amazed at how many people somehow have faith (although, might be misplaced) in me. It is flattering. But I am the only one who knows it.
