Finally a proud aunt :)

Last Friday, Ming's younger brother's first child, Alexander, is born. Not without a fight, mom was in labour for fifteen hours. But as she said herself, it was all worth it :)

Alexander 2.5 days old, ready to go home

Isn't he cute? We popped into the hospital on Saturday to see the sweet pea and his parents. Everyone was in good spirits albeit living on a very irregular schedule for the last two days. And I got to hold a new born first time ever! It's hard to describe, it's amazing how small and complete little Alexander is... small fingers, with nails, small ears, small knees... and proportionally, a HUGE head. He was sleeping most of the time and had no idea we were passing him around and talking to him to him all the time. Every time we switch him to another pair of arms, his head would bobble a bit, once we adjust him to a comfortable position, he goes immediately back to sleep. As aunt and uncle, Ming and I already have big plans for this kid. Of course, his parents are in charge of the discipline, rules, and schooling issues. And we'll take over the easy part, fun! We'll go to the beach, let him have cookies, ice cream, watch TV... I think Alexander and I would hit it off with no trouble at all :)
Many friends asked if Ming and I intend to have a child soon, let's clear the air here, not now. Especially after another weekend dedicated to putting the house together, I can't help but reminiscent how nice dating was. We travel, eat, hike, watch movies... I wouldn't want to change that lifestyle right away; not to mention my career aspirations. I'm quite content with spoiling our friends' kids and get use to the child vibe first. The child vibe is the aura of energy that children possess, I think it is something one has to take time to adapt to. One evening I was over at a friend's gathering where there were also several young children. They were running, climbing, screaming, jumping around the house like an explosion of energy. Naturally, I was nervous the whole time fearing for their safety, and the parents? They were cool as a cucumber! Casually eating and talking with each other, and between sips of beer they turn their head and said, "Kids, no climbing on the bike." I fully intend to be that kind of a cool mom someday, but for now, my first priority goes to getting rid of hungry gofers in my garden.

Living the Dream

I know I have been delaying the post about Recycling in San Francisco, but I thought it would tie in better with next week's post when my worm bin is fully set up. Yes! The worm bin is back with an amazing upgrade, so stay tuned :)
Last week, when I was volunteering at Hayes Valley Farm, a fellow volunteer recommended that I should watch Van Jones' TED Talk. I'm glad I did.

Van Jones is an activist dedicated to environmentalism and social justice. "Green Jobs" as he advocated, should be sustainable to the environment, and also able to lift people out of poverty. His main idea of his twelve minute talk was critiquing the idea of disposable. When we think things are disposable, we neglect to think who created them or where these things go after disposal; out of sight, out of mind. And often in this situation, the poor's livelihood, environment, and health are being exploited. For instance, poor people work in factories that create cheap plastic water bottles, and they also live next to the landfill where these bottles are buried. That was a simplified example to demonstrate a point, not a fact, but you get his idea; saving the environment and the struggle for social justice goes hand in hand.

12 minutes is only enough to explain a rough idea, but it is truly inspirational
http://www.ted.com/talks/van_jones_the_economic_injustice_of_plastic.html

As you can imagine, stars started shooting out of my eyes after I watched that video. I get excited and started babbling what I heard to Ming. He seemed genuinely interested and asked, "That's a great idea, but how do you implement it?" Do you have to rain on my parade like that? The same thing happened a couple of days ago when I was networking for green jobs, "I want to work for an organization where my strengths can address their needs." "What are your strengths?" Do you have to boomerang me like that? I thought what I said was very impressive already. I have much to learn and grow in every way, but not in dreaming. It is great to dream, of a better world, with better resource distribution, better governments, better education and understanding on differences...

Eventually, I answered Ming's question. "The least we could do is start on the small things, stop thinking that things are disposable. It's the small things that drive big changes right?" What a noble thing to say! Events that happened in the next 12 hours truly humbled me and made me realize what living a dream entails.

Our lamp broke. The screw that connects the metal base and the pipe snapped when Ming tried to move it in the afternoon. He bought the lamp years ago from Ikea and it has served him well. I looked at the lamp for two seconds thinking we can either donate it (would goodwill take that?) or recycle it. Ming however took the broken screw out and later that day went to the hardware store to find a replacement. It took a while, and because he could not find the right size of screws he had to file the new one down with a metal file on our balcony. But he fixed our lamp! And I all I did was stand aside and watch.

I rarely go into a hardware store, I have no idea there are so many different screws 

Throughout the day he proceeded to fix more things around the house, and we also moved furniture in and out of the car to take home, and I realized I'm pretty useless! In school I worked hard, I read a lot, I wrote many papers, and I used a lot of my time to think, what is my dream? And when it comes to living the dream, I'm back to where I started. I'm glad Ming knew how to fix that lamp and that we get to keep it. And I'm glad he showed me that having a dream doesn't mean you are living it. I'm not implying that I would start an apprenticeship with an electrician and learn how to fix things. But at least next time when something breaks, I would not think that disposing it is the first option. I think I would go ask someone whose handy on things for advice.

What started as job hunting...

I have always wanted a career; getting married did not change that plan. As Ming and I have some what moved into our new home, finding a job becomes the next thing on my list. I was getting a little bit fed up with summer vacation anyways, what started as "what a great opportunity to take a break!" turned dangerous. As days go by, I felt more and more reluctant to leave the house. I got better at housekeeping and home improvement chores; simultaneous, I got rusty with directions, social skills, and time management. Whenever I think of leaving the house to run some errands, images of me taking the bus in the wrong direction, getting incomplete information at a store because I was too timid to pursue the right answer looms over me like a nightmare. It hit me when the landlord dropped by the other day, but I forgot to address a number of issues with him because I was nervous. Ming was bewildered, "Nervous? You? You used to go to restaurants and ask random people to if they would like to be your research subject!" Yes, I used to, notice the past tense? That was when I figured, I need an attitude change and get some of that fire back.

I know what I am passionate about and what I want to pursue as a career. In college, I loved food cultures, and social justice issues, and that inspired me to look for a job related to food health, education, and community building. In the short term timeframe, securing that job is the end goal, and in the process I need to fix my attitude, build a network around the industry, and accumulate local knowledge. Volunteering for related organizations seemed the best way to start. I get to leave the house, meet people, and observe the dynamics of these organizations. I have a good idea where I want to start:

Hayes Valley Farm is an urban garden plopped in the middle of a busy city. Previously an abandoned freeway ramp, the local community took initiative and transformed that land into a productive farm. Hard to imagine this two acre farm operates solely on volunteers, but once you spend an afternoon there, you can feel there is something special about this small piece of nature.

Before: it's pretty much a dirt road

After: six people, two and a half hours, we added a raised bed and planted peppers, peas, eggplants, brocoli, beets, parsnips, and a bunch of flowers in that small strip of land

So my week goes on, I packaged pasta at the food bank, and played with children at the Urban Sprouts health awareness booth at the farmers market

For a while I feel like my old self again, involved, outgoing, and inspired by everything around me. But in the end, if I want to land a job, I still need to go home and do my homework. Take in all the advises people gave me, write down names, read up organizations, and look up on openings. And it's easy to be all overwhelmed again. I could sit and read "Don't send a Resume," or I can do something more radical. I call it shock therapy...

The Pho Garden food challenge: 2 pounds of noodles and 2 pounds of beef 

I've always wanted to do a food challenge, I will feel so special to have my picture on their wall. Well, my first and probably last food challenge ended in 15 minutes. When the food ceased to taste good, my motivation also died. Not the way I expected it to go, it wasn't that fun nor tasty. When Ming and I walked home with two full boxes of noodles, I told him why I always felt that eating was important. There was one episode I particularly remember from Power Rangers: they had to eat a whole table of food to save the world. In the end when they were about to give up, this wise old man appeared and said, "Eating is the easiest thing in the world, if you can't do that, what can you do?" (Parents pay attention to what your kids watch, they have a way of interpreting what they see) I guess subconsciously I really took that wise old man seriously. I mean when I was looking for a job, secretly I was hoping for a quick fix, maybe something really great would happen and I wouldn't need to do all that work? If I win that challenge, maybe I would be a better person, faster, smarter, certainly bigger... Well, in the end, I guess I learned my lesson. I can tell that wise old man from Power Rangers now, if you are a competitive eater and eating is your job, then it's not easy. It takes research, work, and a lot of training to be where they are, and same with me. If I want my dream job, then I better work hard to get it, and when that interview comes, I'll be ready. 

'How's married life?'

Many friends have asked me, 'How's married life?' and I seem to have yet given them a good answer. I stumble and slur through it, 'it's okay, busy, trying to get things settled.' 

To sum up the past two and so months is near impossible. Especially since two weeks ago we moved into San Francisco, life became quite out of the norm thus hard to explain in one sentence. Although the house is not like a cardboard fortress anymore, there is work to be done. That's what our landlord said when he came over earlier this week to fix a clogged drain, 'You guys need to do a lot of work!' Thanks Bill, we know. 

Work means we have a find a place to put our things. This basic concept leads to a lot of buying, organizing, rearranging, and recycling. First we have to agree upon where to put all our existing furniture, and move them. Then, we need to agree on what additional furniture we should buy, then shop for it, and install it. We're still in the first two stages so I can't really tell you what the next step is... but I hope we get to live among our handy work, and slowly fine-tune everything. Last week, our main project was setting up the office. Ming needs a new desk, and I also want to work there. Hence, last Friday we journeyed to Ikea for two desks, or a desk for two. Walked in at 6:30pm, got out at 9, and we got the bloody desk! One that fits the room, accommodates Ming's two huge monitors, and long enough so a filing cabinet can fit between the two of us. Great! Then the next day we start all over again to hunt for a filing cabinet :) But it all pays off, because now we can put away all the bills, papers, letters that has been scattered all over the kitchen counter and coffee table. And we can type and write on a desk. Actually, I also eat at the desk when Ming's not around, it's quite a step-up. I mean, when we first moved in, we ate standing at the kitchen counter. A week later, after I washed and dried all the couch's cushion coats, we got to sit on the couch and eat at the coffee table. Now when I get to eat sitting upright on an office desk, I really do not take that for granted. 

So that was the office, next would be the yard. Ming's excited about getting a lawn mower, and I'm looking forward to uprooting this dead tree by the fence so we can compost it. 

Speaking of compost, San Francisco does a great job composting and recycling city waste. Ming's more interested in the recycling realm, and I in composting. And we already have quite a number of stories about learning and using their facilities. Maybe I'll write about it in our next post.

So, how's married life? It's a lot of fun! I mean, you're hanging with a person that you get along with all time. You even get to argue about who has the worse vision as soon as you wake up in the morning. 

E- 'Without contacts or glasses I'm totally blind. Because of stigmatism, everything's blurred and fuzzy.' 

M- 'I know, I have that too.'

E- 'I mean, someone can see far ahead but can't read books from a close distance, or vice versa. But I can do neither.'

M- 'Dude, I know, my vision's really bad.'

E- 'Really? I mean, right now I look, and I cannot see the shapes of the ornaments on top of the dresser.'

M- 'Well, I can't see the ridges on the door at all, it's just one big glob of white to me.'

E- 'Wow, your eyes are really bad...'

 

Or take pictures of the other person when they look like a total alien because they have hydration pads on