My Own Neighborhood
Does anyone remember Mr. Rogers? He sang a little song at the beginning of each show. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ... . While he sang the song, he would remove his shoes and put on a comfortable pair of sneakers, if I recall correctly. He also put on a baggy cardigan sweater and zipped it. Only then was he ready to start the show.
These days I am feeling a bit like Mr. Rogers. I wear Crocs to and from the office, and even in the office except when I am in client meetings. For the client meetings, I slip on a pair of glove soft leather Magnanni shoes. I have also started wearing a merlot colored merino wool shawl cardigan with leather covered buttons and suede patches on each elbow. Ping likes the look so much that she bought the same cardigan in a hunter green color for me for Christmas. No surprises. Remember?
Throughout the day, Ping serves cups of hot tea for me using the red cup and saucer that she bought for me this summer in China. It is a "year of the ox" cup and saucer with five oxen and miscellaneous (at least to me) Chinese characters and symbols engraved in gold and other colors on the cup and saucer. I am the envy of all my clients when they see this cup and saucer.
Every day that I don't have client meetings at lunch time, Ping prepares lunch for us in the office. The staple food for me is always bean soup with brown rice, but she always prepares fresh Chinese vegetables to go with the beans and rice. Some days, like today, she prepares fish of some type. Today she prepared a small salmon steak in the Cuisinart toaster oven that we have at the office. She cooks it in a Pyrex pie dish and it browns up just right. These are the seasoned salmon steaks that are sold frozen at Costco. They are shockingly delicious the way Ping prepares them, as tasty as though they were grilled.
Some days Ping heats up talipia steaks that she cooked at home and brought to the office. She always has fresh apples here, and she serves them to me for snacks. She has given a whole new meaning to brown bagging it. She uses one of the large shopping bags with the sturdy handles, and transports food in plastic storage containers. She even keeps a large container of orange juice in the refrigerator for her to drink.
Lately I have been encouraging Ping to sleep late, let me drive Cici to school, and then Ping drives to the office around midmorning looking very rested. Then she leaves midafternoon to pick Cici up at school and drive her home. By late afternoon/early evening the phone stops ringing and the office is quiet. That is a good time to get some work done. Sometimes I walk down the hall to the tea room and sit there enjoying the ambiance all alone, reflecting on the events of the day, right here in my own little neighborhood. It is a pleasant way to wind down the business day.
These days I am feeling a bit like Mr. Rogers. I wear Crocs to and from the office, and even in the office except when I am in client meetings. For the client meetings, I slip on a pair of glove soft leather Magnanni shoes. I have also started wearing a merlot colored merino wool shawl cardigan with leather covered buttons and suede patches on each elbow. Ping likes the look so much that she bought the same cardigan in a hunter green color for me for Christmas. No surprises. Remember?
Throughout the day, Ping serves cups of hot tea for me using the red cup and saucer that she bought for me this summer in China. It is a "year of the ox" cup and saucer with five oxen and miscellaneous (at least to me) Chinese characters and symbols engraved in gold and other colors on the cup and saucer. I am the envy of all my clients when they see this cup and saucer.
Every day that I don't have client meetings at lunch time, Ping prepares lunch for us in the office. The staple food for me is always bean soup with brown rice, but she always prepares fresh Chinese vegetables to go with the beans and rice. Some days, like today, she prepares fish of some type. Today she prepared a small salmon steak in the Cuisinart toaster oven that we have at the office. She cooks it in a Pyrex pie dish and it browns up just right. These are the seasoned salmon steaks that are sold frozen at Costco. They are shockingly delicious the way Ping prepares them, as tasty as though they were grilled.
Some days Ping heats up talipia steaks that she cooked at home and brought to the office. She always has fresh apples here, and she serves them to me for snacks. She has given a whole new meaning to brown bagging it. She uses one of the large shopping bags with the sturdy handles, and transports food in plastic storage containers. She even keeps a large container of orange juice in the refrigerator for her to drink.
Lately I have been encouraging Ping to sleep late, let me drive Cici to school, and then Ping drives to the office around midmorning looking very rested. Then she leaves midafternoon to pick Cici up at school and drive her home. By late afternoon/early evening the phone stops ringing and the office is quiet. That is a good time to get some work done. Sometimes I walk down the hall to the tea room and sit there enjoying the ambiance all alone, reflecting on the events of the day, right here in my own little neighborhood. It is a pleasant way to wind down the business day.
my wife when referring to our marriage says 'I lucky', I always reply 'no Haifong, Harry lucky', I think when the chinese talk about luck in this regard it is more like fate to the western mind. But it is obvious you & your family are lucky, & have created a family that benefits all involved.
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Harry, good to see that you are still reading along.
Yes, we feel very lucky. I know that I am very lucky, and part of the luck is the good press I get from the girls themselves, as well as from their friends. Ping's eyes sparkle when other Chinese ladies tell her that she married a good man, or that I am a good father for Cici, and Cici blushes and smiles when her Asian classmates tell her that she is lucky that her father cares so much about her. It has really worked out well for us.
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It's good to smell the roses in the Solomon neighborhood!
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