A Themed Birthday

I had two birthday parties growing up, and neither of them had themes. My first themed birthday was actually this year! It was unintentional but just conveniently worked.

Unfortunately, my youngest got sick the weekend before my birthday so on my actual birthday, we didn't do very much. We did get takeout from bbq chicken, a new chain of Korean fried chicken which opened sometime last year. The first time we ordered from them, I wasn't impressed. So we reverted back to our old kfc favorite restaurant for a few orders. Then, recently, we decided to give bbq chicken another try, and I was much more impressed. I don't know if it's because it's the second time we had it, my tastes have changed, or if it was actually better. But I enjoyed it much more the second time.

Then there was my card. My husband and I have been DIYing birthday cards for many years now. Occasionally we've purchased cards if we were short on time, or like the time I was pregnant and puking during my husband's birthday so he received his birthday card about a month later. True story. Well this year, my husband made me a card and put a specific penguin on the front of the card. It's a penguin from a scene of a k-drama we watched together.

Well, we found the specific penguin online. The only retailers who sold it were Asian companies and potential scam websites. After doing some research and scouting, we decided to take a chance from this one website which looked the least sketchy. It wasn't a cheap stuffed animal, but it wasn't unreasonably expensive for being a "famous" plush. We still weren't completely sure if it was going to be a scam or not, but to mitigate the consequences of a potential scam, we used our fanciest credit card so if we were going to have to report a scam, the credit card customer service would have been a little nicer. That was the hope, anyway. 

Thankfully, we didn't have to find out because it wasn't a scam! 11 business day later, it arrived! 

Shipped all the way from Asia in Asian style wrapping
and sewn shut with string like a rice bag! iykyk.

I might be the only one who feels this way, but even after marriage and two children, I feel like I'm aging backwards. At the very least, on the inside. 😜

Happy 18th birthday to me! 😂 just kidding.

Punished for Promptness

I’ve been someone who likes to get things done on time. My English teacher during my junior year of high school had a wonderful system where if we turned in our essays before the due date, we would earn five extra points because it allowed her to spread out her grading instead of receiving and grading 30 papers all at once.  You bet I capitalized on those bonus five points every time. I didn’t always write phenomenal papers, but those five points occasionally meant the difference between a B and an A. 

However, there've been three distinct times in my life when being prompt did not work in my favor. 

1. When I was in high school, we wrote essays for orchestra. Each year we got assigned our orchestra essay in the beginning of the year, and each year, most people would wait until about April to actually write them and turn them in before they were due. In April. The first year, that's kind of what I did. I was a freshman and I didn't really know what I was doing my entire freshman year. Sophomore year, I knew better. I planned the concert I'd attend and would write about and had everything done early. On the first day the teacher was accepting essays, I turned mine in. There was no special recognition or anything for being the first, and that's okay because I didn't expect anything. I was simply glad it was completed.

About a week later, my teacher had some candy and she randomly made the announcement that if anyone turned in their orchestra essay, they'd receive a piece. Nobody had their essay ready right at that moment, but I'd already handed mine in, and I did not receive a complimentary piece of candy for having already turned it in. I didn’t care about the candy. It was never about the candy. But why make a random statement a week later AND forget about the essay which had already been turned in? Maybe she didn't want to single me out. But if you're going to offer candy aren't you trying to single someone out?

2. Years later when I was at a conference, the director emailed about sending him rooming requests for the hotel. I sent him a reply with my roommate request that very same day. I never received a confirmation email from him saying he'd received my email, but confirmation emails get lost these days. So, fine. I didn't think about sending a follow up one to see if he'd received it because he was a busy person with lots to do. 

At the conference, I saw my room assignment and it was not rooming with the person I had requested. I didn't complain about it or tell anyone, but my friend and I knew something went wrong and it wasn't on our end. 

3. I purchased an item from a newly launched website to support a business. I received my item and was generally pleased with it. After a few months, I noticed the prices had lowered. Now these weren't temporarily lower prices. These were permanently lowered prices as far as I could see on the store's website. Including the special promo discounts which were still valid, I could have saved over $20 had I been lazier about supporting this business. That's a huge disappointment from a customer perspective because my fervent support upon the initial launch meant I paid more money. Shouldn't it be the other way around? 

It's a shame because I was going to buy more products, but after this happened, I haven't because I don't feel valued as a customer. My early loyalty was actually penalized. 

**

My memory is probably better than most to remember these seemingly minute details about life, but even the "insignificant" events shape me to be who I am today. Have these affected my perception of being prompt and timely? In some ways, yes, they have.

My Favorite Name

My kids are at great ages right now. 18 months is fun because it's still "baby" enough to have the cute and adorable aspects of having a baby but grown enough to play independently, walk, and chew unmashed food. 3 is nice because she's old enough to follow instructions, be potty trained, and even assist me around the house in simple tasks. 

My kids have also been on and off sick for the last 4 months straight. That's what it seems like anyway. When we have one sick child, the house kind of divides because I try my hardest to separate them as to not spread the germs. We end up doing 1:1 with the child which favors each of us best. That means 120% of the time, I get my daughter, because when she's inconsolable, she doesn't want to see anyone else except me.

I like spending time with my daughter. It makes me feel slightly guilty not to see my son as much, especially him being the second child. But my daughter is fun. She talks a lot and we have conversations. One evening, I took her out on a walk, just the two of us. We held hands and walked two whole streets up and down in our neighborhood. 

While walking, she would tell me thinks she was observing or ask me questions regarding our surroundings. 

Mommy, look, it's a bird. 

Mommy, look, it's a flag. 

Mommy, why is there a flag there? 

Mommy, look, it's a squirrel. 

And she'd continue telling me things or asking me things. And she'd hold my hand and we'd walk slowly around the neighborhood and soak in the outdoors. Sometimes she'll say sentences in English, sometimes they're in Chinese. But Mommy is always in English.

Thankful for days I don't teach so I can take evening walks

This phase won't last forever. Children are constantly changing, faster than I can realize. I don't know when or if she'll stop being so inquisitive and observant. I don't know when she'll stop wanting to tell me everything she has to say. But for now, it's nice. 

Shelf Cooking Part 2

If you missed my first week of shelf cooking, check out the post here.

My second week of shelf cooking did not go nearly as well as the first week. We started off the week with chicken tikka masala which my husband and I enjoyed. The kids had some random fried rice here and there and I cooked a pork dish. We did a meal of frozen dumplings and Costco pizza. We also had leftovers to finish from when my husband's parents came to visit. So week two was more of survival mode and eating whatever we could. 

This is an older photo from a previous time I made chicken tikka masala.
When you're shelf cooking you have to forego the scallions and cilantro.

By Thursday and Friday, I had done some grocery shopping again so I could cook some more dishes. On Friday, I was also bringing friends a meal for their meal train so I made a double batch of everything so we would eat the other half at home. Great way to motivate you into grocery shopping and cooking: cook for someone else! 

We ended the week with sushi since I was going to be in the area of our favorite sushi restaurant during dinner time. I placed an order over the phone and picked it up on my way home. 

Let me be honest. Shelf cooking the first week was fun. It was exciting and "cool" to be cooking from things we had at home. It felt like the most efficient way to be lazy. The second week? Not so much. If you ever shelf cook, don't do it two weeks in a row, and don't do it for longer than a week. 

We're slowly returning back to a normal routine of grocery shopping and meal prepping again, but shelf cooking for two weeks was an eye-opening experience.

Shelf Cooking

Last week, we had a friend over for lunch on Sunday and we ended up talking for the entire afternoon. We really enjoyed our time with our friend, but unfortunately, it meant I lost my day to do my weekly cooking preparation. 

I was too lazy to go grocery shopping after that so we ate an entire week of meals planned through shelf cooking. Shelf cooking is defined by cooking with ingredients you already have. For me, that means using frozen meats, frozen vegetables, canned vegetables, or refrigerator staples. I did go to the grocery store during the week to pick up some staples such as milk, eggs, and bread, but I actually didn't buy any other fresh vegetables to cook the dishes we ate throughout the week because I didn't need any.

The first week of shelf cooking, I made:

1. Pesto: dry pasta, pre-made pesto I make myself and save in jars in the fridge, olive oil, canned chicken (optional)

2. Chili: dry beans, canned tomatoes, onion, frozen ground beef, spices

3. Seafood omlettes: eggs, frozen mussels, frozen shrimp, spices

4. Asian vermicelli (very similar to 蚂蚁上树): mung bean noodles, frozen peas, frozen ground pork, eggs, frozen shrimp, sauces and seasoning

5. DIY lunchables: pepperoni, cheese cubes, crackers

6. Homemade pizza: pizza dough yeast, pepperoni, shredded cheese, spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning

This was my first time doing a full week of shelf cooking and it turned out great! This is a far cry from what you typically think of as last-minute meals: PBJ, instant noodles, canned soup. We did have an occasional meal here and there with supplemented frozen food such as frozen dumplings or frozen Cane's chicken (we buy a tailgate, freeze it, and reheat in 6-8 pieces at a time for a meal. They're delicious reheated when you reheat them properly!) But our shelf cooking week was quite successful. 

This is mainly possible due to keeping certain things on hand at all times. 

In the pantry, this includes things like pasta, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, dry beans, and dry Asian noodles. In the refrigerator, I stock items like cheese, pepperoni, or eggs. For the freezer, this includes almost anything: frozen meats, frozen seafood, frozen vegetables, I even keep frozen butter and sometimes frozen bread. Covid taught me a lot about how to freeze foods to save for later. 

There were a few fresher staples I used which included onions and potatoes. These are fresh vegetables which have a longer shelf life when stored properly. So this allowed me to use them in the dishes I mentioned above without having bought them specifically for this week's menu. I even made homemade French fries in the oven to go with our frozen Cane's!

If you've never tried shelf cooking before, or never shelf cooked for this long, I hope reading about my menu for the week has inspired you to be more creative even on weeks when you don't grocery shop :) 

Stay tuned, we're having another partial shelf cooking week! I'll be sharing how we did it a second week in a row while still cooking a variety of food! 

Entertainment

I watched a prime time game show for the first time in a long time. I used to love watching game shows. My favorites as a child growing up were Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and The Price is Right. Later on, I discovered the old classic game shows from before I was born: Let's Make a Deal, Concentration, Password, and Match Game. Who knows which one Alex Trebek hosted before he hosted Jeopardy? 

This game show was sadly a long shot from these other game shows I've watched and enjoyed. Maybe you watched the very same show and even perhaps saw the very same episode I watched. The whole time as I watched, I just kept thinking to myself, this could be very bias, and nobody would ever know. 

It's hosted by two hosts. We'll call them Host 1 and Host 2. There are two teams of four players competing for money. Host 1 is with one team, Host 2 is with another. They play a series of games with the hosts to try to win a chance to play the final game for the lump sum. I saw many issues of why I would not ever want to be on this game show because there is so much room for bias. 

Game shows typically consist of two different factors: luck and knowledge. Let's Make a Deal is almost pure luck and mind games. Jeopardy is almost completely based on head knowledge/trivia (and reflexes). Shows like The Price is Right use a little bit of both, although the knowledge is heavily consumer knowledge and not any trivia. 

This particular game show had too much room for bias because each of the hosts participates in the games with the two teams and influences their score as well as how much money they earn. In the first game I watched, the host gave word clues to try and help the team member guess the secret word, much like Password. In the second game I watched, the host was guessing celebrities who were being described by the team member. That's a lot of trust to have in these two hosts to know they're not purposely taking longer to give an answer just to run the clock. Or when they impulsively give a response which may not have been the best clue to use. 

Why is the host playing such crucial roles in determining how successful these teams are in their scoring? 

Entertainment.

Game shows used to be about watching someone sit in a hot seat contemplating multiple choice questions for an excruciatingly long time to try and win a million dollars. Game shows used to be about watching someone spin the big wheel and hope they get lucky and land on the $1.00 space to go to the showcase showdown. Game shows used to be about watching someone guess a number from 1-3 and sigh in disappointment with them as their curtain revealed a real live billy goat. 

This game show has shifted the key interest to the hosts themselves rather than the contestants because they are the ones with the crucial roles in each of the games. I purposely have not mentioned any specific names of the hosts or the game show itself to leave out any influencer bias. But there's a chance you may have figured it out on your own. 

The majority of people watching don't even know it. Unless you're someone like me who has thought these things through in the process I did, you didn't even notice. Because you simply saw that this show was hosted by Host 1 and Host 2, and nothing else mattered.

And that's exactly what they wanted.

Canonized

 It had been bothering me for 10 years on and off. It was the last paper I wrote for his class in college. We were told to choose a piece of literature we thought worthy of being in the literary canon. Being a flustered college junior at the time anxiously awaiting to finish the last of her classes in order to get into full-time student teaching and graduate early, I picked a novel I was already reading, wasn't terrible, and fit the requirements so I thought: Jane Eyre. 

Now, Jane Eyre is not a terrible book by any means. I'm sure there are many fans of this novel who would have written a fabulous essay on why it should be a part of the literary canon. Unfortunately, that person was not me, and the essay I wrote was only slightly convincing of its canonical merit. It was my lowest scoring essay of his class for the semester, and I always remembered. 

This professor and I stayed in touch minimally over the years. We may have corresponded 2-3 times since I graduated. It took 10 years for me to have the courage to send him an email, and not only to tell him I wish I had written my essay on another book, but also which book I should have written it on.

Why was I so scared all these years? The book I wanted to choose, and still choose today, pales in difficulty to Jane Eyre. As an English major and graduating senior, choosing a book of importance to be canonized means a high-level, scholarly book, right? That's what I thought, and it took me all these years to finally come to terms with the fact that I thought wrong, and it was perfectly all right.

The book I should have chosen was a book I'd first read as an elementary school student. I read it again in 7th grade as required reading in English class that year. I read it again a few years later. And I read it again this summer. Each time I've read it, I've pulled away different philosophies, lessons, and themes. All of them have been there all along, but it took different life stages and different versions of who I was as a person to see them. 

I should have picked Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. I've thought about rewriting that paper just to feel like I was being true to myself, but let's be honest. Nobody has any use for me to be writing a literary essay anymore. So instead, I'll share about it here.

1. Walk Two Moons is accessible to people of all ages and abilities. It could be for a challenge for an advanced 4th grader, which is about the time I discovered it. It could be just right for an on-level or below average 8th grader, or a refreshing, simple read for an adult. The protagonist is 13-years-old, so obviously it was written to appeal to the young adult audience of approximately middle school age. But as I mentioned before, I read it many times, and it still spoke to me each time.

2. The book is unpredictable. There are cliffhangers left at the end of multiple chapters, and the ending is not what you expect it to be. When reading it for the first time, it hooks you in a way that you want to keep going. The way it's all woven together is quite ingenious really. The first time I read the book, it took three days. The second time I read it, I finished it in one. And I am not a fast reader.

3. The book provides multiple perspectives depending on the reader's age and experience. Reading it at different periods of life allows the reader to relate to different characters. A middle schooler would relate to Phoebe or Salamanca whereas an adult reader would relate to Mrs. Winterbottom or Mr. Hiddle. 

If you know me, you'll know I relate very personally to Salamanca. That's one of the biggest reasons why I've always loved this book because it made me feel like there was someone out there, albeit fiction, who understand and experienced exactly what I was going through. But the older I've gotten, I've come to realize the true importance of where this book earns its title. And how little people take the time to walk two moons...in someone else's moccasins.