A Good Thing Comes to an End

Our wonderful visit with our son came to an end this morning. We took him to the airport for his 6am flight.

To get back to Shanghai, he has to fly from:

• Fort Smith to Dallas/Fort Worth
• Dallas/Fort Worth to Houston
• Houston to Los Angeles
• Los Angeles to Shanghai

Since we had to get up at 4am, we basically didn’t sleep last night. We tried, but each of us, for different reasons, ended up downstairs.

He left at 6am today (Tuesday) and will be flying for approximately 30 hours – including layovers. WHEW! When he gets there, he’ll qualify for another 90 days in China on his multiple-entry visa.

We had SUCH a wonderful week with him! He replenished my ‘Hugs Bucket,’ – a difficult task, since I’m a very greedy lady. He was so generous. I hope I filled HIS, too…

He is determined to stay until he feels ‘fluent’ in reading, writing, and speaking Mandarin. He will look for a part-time job there soon to make his money last as long as possible.

While he’s gone, we’ll communicate through Pidgin Chat, Google Talk, email, blogs, carrier pigeons and smoke signals. :0) We’re lucky he’s a GREAT communicator and set a lot of ways we could stay in touch.

He’s learning to love the food there, though he appreciates it when the restaurant has a brochure he can take home and study so he doesn’t have to point and say, “I want THAT.” (He brought us some walnuts in packages that are very tasty.)

He’s learned to navigate the subway system in Shanghai. In order to get to his apartment from the airport, he needs to change subways twice. He says he’s only gotten to sit down on the subway once in the 90 days he’s been there. Either it’s so crowded there’s no hope of finding a seat, or someone older than he gets on, and he feels they should have any open seat.

His apartment is on the 7th floor of a building, and his Mandarin school is on the 15th floor of a building several subway stops away. He WALKS up and down to each of these…

I look forward to his blog, where he shares pictures of places and people he’s seeing there. He has a great sense of humor, and makes me laugh often.

Though I’m selfishly sad he’s gone again, I admire what he’s trying to do.

Please wish him luck!

 

Lucky Lady

I just wanted to tell you how lucky I am!

I’ve had a beautiful week with my son home from Shanghai. He’s there on his own, going to a really good school several hours a day to learn Mandarin. He went to Chengdu a couple of years ago and got a good start, but this time he’s really feeling more confident. He says he’s finally able to understand what he hears better, plus get his ideas across better, though not in perfect Mandarin yet.

He wants to stay until he’s fluent, probably getting a part time job there to have the money to stay there as long as possible. He has a ‘multiple-entry’ passport. This allows him to live there 90 days. Then he has to leave the country and re-enter to get another 90 days. I don’t think there is any limit as to how many times he can do this.

He decided to come home this time, rather than just go to Hong Kong or Taiwan – and though the one way trip is about 30 hours with the layovers, we all think it has been worth it. We have to get him to the airport for a 6am flight tomorrow. :0(

My husband and I started a healthier eating regimen plus exercise in mid-January. Our son has been really happy with our progress to date and has encouraged our efforts.

He walked in the park with me and one of our dogs one day. He helped us program the new Sole E35 Elliptical Trainer we got on Saturday.  He’s helped me chop veggies and cook, introduced us to a new type of apple we hadn’t tried before, brought us weird walnuts from Shanghai, and encouraged me on increasing my daily steps on my pedometer.

HIS levels on each of these things are ones we’ll never reach in a million years. For example:

• He put over 18,000 steps on the pedometer in one day here. (My best day was a little over 7000)
• He worked on the elliptical trainer for 35 minutes. (My longest time so far is 7-1/2 minutes)
• I was out of breath at the park while he didn’t even act like he realized we’d been walking!

If he weren’t so encouraging, I’d hit him. :0)

We’ve been out to eat, enjoyed some movies and games on the Play Station 3.  He’s helped us with mysterious problems on our computers, helped diagnose and fix the new amplifier we got for the shop, fixed the driveway alarm system and more. He’s made me laugh so hard my tummy muscles are screaming. :0)

He’s had time to kick back and relax, eat well, laugh, spend time with his long time buddies, play with our animals, and give us lots of hugs.

The HUGS are the main thing I look forward to. He’s a great communicator, and he set up all sorts of things to help us stay in touch while he’s so far away, like Google Talk, Pidgin Chat, email, Skype, and writes a blog so he can post pictures and give us – and his friends – an idea of his life in Shanghai.

This visit was totally unexpected, and for that, even more cherished. My husband and I are so lucky to have a son we’re proud of, who honestly loves us and seems to enjoy spending time with us. We admire the man he’s become, and his wish to gain skills and experience. We LOVE it  that we get to enjoy what he’s doing vicariously!

Happy Birthday to Me…

I’m the luckiest woman in the world.

Today I’m officially a “geezer.” (I was probably one yesterday, too, but it wasn’t ‘official’ until today. )

I’ve had a three-day celebration, starting with a scoop of chocolate ice cream after bowling on Wednesday with good friends, a Chinese dinner last night with my husband, and chocolate cake today at lunch with friends.

This week I’ve received birthday cards via snail mail, e-cards via email, email birthday wishes, and social network birthday wishes. I received presents from long time friends, and I bought myself a present. :0)

My husband of 43 years (in June) and I love our lives. We’re so busy we don’t know how we ever found the time to work full time. We’re creating stained glass pieces and metal ‘critters’ in our shop. We’re eating healthy and walking every day possible (since mid January). We’re really treasuring our time together.

We chose a new pattern we found on the net for a new stained glass piece. We obtained permission to use it from the artist who created the design, Chantal Pare’,  so as soon as we can get time and energy together, we’ll start!

Our son is in Shanghai, China, trying to become fluent in Mandarin. He’ll stay as long as possible, delighting in the people and the culture. He arranged that we could communicate via a chat program, a special phone setup that allows us to talk as if we were in the same state, email, Skype, and blog. We communicate most every day, so I’m only missing his great hugs.

 

Our dogs love our new walking habit. We take one of the two with us every day. Keeping track of them straining on the leash makes the walk more interesting for my husband while I concentrate on watching where I’m walking and not falling on my head.

With losing weight and exercising daily, we’re healthier every day. Today at lunch, a lady we haven’t seen in a couple of months immediately commented on how much weight we’d lost and how good we looked! We have a long way to go before we reach our weight and fitness goals, but it’s GREAT when someone notices we’re trying.

I’m itching to spend time in the yard. My daffodils have been blooming for about three weeks now, and my husband saved a tulip from getting beaten down in the rain we had yesterday. Today our red bud trees are in bloom!  We have bags and bags of potting soil with which we’ll replenish the mysteriously disappearing soil from our planters, and Breck’s told me that the flowers I ordered to plant in the shade on the north side of our house have shipped.

 

My two jobs – running my website, Creative Artworks, and writing – for this blog and for a dear friend who runs another website – are the best, most satisfying jobs I’ve ever had.  I’ve met so many people across the world I now count as my good friends, even though we’ve never met face to face.

So, at 65 today – I can say I’ve never been happier.  Happy Birthday to me!