365 Days of Gratitude: Day 7, on the mend!

Happy one week!

Today I posted a normal temperature for the first time! Hooray 98.7! Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture and when I went to take my temperature for the night, I posted 101.1 at 8 hours unmedicated. I did half think I would still have a normal range temperature that I could brag about (yes, it’s the little things), but it was sheer hubris.

Regardless, today I manage to get our dogs seen by the vet in preparation for their first international trip (and we humans’, in decades!) so I’m happy to check that off the list. Also quite excited for this upcoming trip, despite all the hoops it had us jumping through.

Tomorrow I’m hopeful for a little more energy, and I hope to knock some chores off of my to do list, which will invariably make me feel a little better about the state of things.

Onwards, kitty kats!

365 Days of Gratitude: Day 6, from the fevered depth of being quite ill.

Today yours truly is pretty ragged. My fever climbed to 103 at noon, but was lowered by nyquil to a reasonable 100. So I’m grateful for modern medicine. I also contemplated going into the hospital for some prescription medication and maybe an IV to combat dehydration. I ended up opting to stay put and monitor the going-ons myself for a day more. But I’m grateful for health insurance so I have choices. I had to skip therapy today because my therapist has a toddler and I felt it would be irresponsible to expose her and her kid to my germs. I’m bummed to miss out on therapy but consider myself lucky to have that set up in the first place. I’m grateful I have what I have so I can miss it once in a while.

Alrighty then, fingers crossed tomorrow I’ll be on the other side of this.

365 Days of Gratitude, Day 5, from the infirmary.

Today I grew rather under the weather again (fever of 102!), but I still have gratitude to express.

I’m grateful I made my flight last night and could make my meeting today to move the project of our forever home forward.

Besides my one necessary excursion, I was lucky I got to stay in bed most of the day. My dogs slept near at hand, and didn’t give me trouble.

I AM fudging and using an older photo because I’m too sick to even meekly hover a phone over this dog right now but trust me when I say she looks rather unchanged compared to the photo taken mere days ago

The boy brought home a humidifier that shoots warm air for me.

I also came home to this little guy who was a surprise, and I’m already in love with it.

Please note that he (desert rose; Adenium obesum) is not pet safe thus will be living out his days well out of the animals’ reach

Despite being practically bed bound, today was reasonably productive and also enjoyable insofar as much as a (true) sick day can be! To tomorrow, y’all!

365 Days of Gratitude: Day 4, from the air.

It is Day 4 I’m hurtling through the air late at night to go back home. I paid for inflight wifi in a feeble attempt to slide this in before the deadline for the day. I must admit here that January means the renewal of credit card airline credits, so I’m feeling spend-y (and grateful for them perks!).

 

On January 5th, 2020, I was grateful to spend time with family, and a very dear friend. I had good talks with my parents in the morning, and an excellent brunch with my cousin and aunts. My cousin took me to buy a good luck present for a Chinese superstition for my friend (If this sounds familiar it’s because it wasn’t my first merry-go-round. Peep the purchases from January 11th and 14th of last year.) Then we wandered a Chinese supermarket for snacks to fill my carry-on with (I’m sorry Audrey-from-Burke-Williams!) My mom baked me a last minute wheel of bread, and my cousin took me to see my friend on a pitstop to the airport.

 

LAX hit us with some horrendous traffic, and after losing more than 40 minutes to go .1mi in the car, my cousin convinced me to make a run for it. I booked it across the campus and right up to TSA. They flagged my bread wheel from my mom and a cough-suppressing, throat-soothing kumquat honey my cousin made and gifted me as “did you bring a bunch of cheese?” and I received a bag check. I was grateful I got to keep my yums. I blew right past my gate (the first one after security screening no less,) and power walked my belongings right up to the last gate of the terminal, then realized my mistake. I was grateful for the additional exercise. In the end I sat my butt down 9 minutes before take-off. I’m grateful to be going home!

 

Gratitude is a matter of perspective, and we don’t lose anything by trying on different outlooks. Onward, everyone!

365 Days of Gratitude: Day 3, or, Double Love.

Today I learned about Mini and Grandma’s (i.e. the mother of yours truly here) “double love”.

Side note: a bit of background, my late sister Amanda’s Chinese name, Wu Shuang, plainly translated, meant “no double”. The phrase derives from “tian xia wu shuang”, or, “sky, under, no, double”. This means, unparalleled, unlike any other. But from birth, Amanda’s nickname quickly became “shuang shuang” because of its cheery, melodic quality. (And if you think we didn’t make double-double jokes when we learned of In-n-Out, way ahead of ya!)

Bonus side note: yours truly was named Wu Hwa at birth (“no talent”), because for four and a half years following Amanda’s birth, many people pointed out the boastful nature of “no double” to Grandma, who subsequently opted to atone for that with my name. Fun fact.

Annyyywho, I’d arranged for Mini to spend some time with Grandma in December, and the two of them in that time together came to the most wonderful thing. They have decided they would each love the other one double: Grandma has always her love for Mini, and Grandma’s love for Amanda she now transferred to Mini. Conversely, Mini has also always loved Grandma, but now, her love for her mom she has also given onto Grandma.

It is simply the most lovely of coincidences that Amanda was already always Shuang Shuang (double-double), and now two souls once lost in the loss of her, have found they have twice the love for each other.

I am grateful I was lucky enough to witness this beautiful development. I can’t imagine ever not being in total awe of this, which has blossomed out of tragedy and trauma.

Today was a phenomenal day. Until tomorrow, lovies.