Dust to Dust
Today Ping will attend her first funeral in America. It has been a disturbing few days for her since the sudden death of the husband of one of her best friends. He was four years younger than me, so she has had a lot to think about. We will drive north of Houston to visit with the family in our friend's home before proceeding on to the funeral home for the services. We didn't send flowers; we are helping our friend the Chinese way with a little red envelope.
On top of that the rain has pounded us for a couple of days and Ping has been stuck inside, which has added to the depressing nature of the week. I suggested that she not drive to the office yesterday because of street flooding, so she stayed home and cleaned everything. I will leave you with a clean house next week, she told me. Yes, July 8 seemed so far away when Cici left, but now it is just around the corner. Cici is buzzing with excitement about Mama joining her in China.
Yesterday I asked Cici if she is doing her studies in China. Papa, she said, you ask me that every time we talk. I know, but if I didn't ask you then you would believe your future is not important to me. We laughed together. Yes, I am studying.
Cici only found Huckleberry Finn written in Chinese so she is reading it that way. I ordered an English version from Amazon and it turned out to be a retelling of the story so that young readers can understand it better. She can read it more quickly this way, so I guess this book is not a bad idea. I have the full version in a leather bound collection of Mark Twain's work if she needs to refer to it.
A supply of the second edition of our book was delivered to our office this week. The video has been loaded to our website. The call volume seems to have gone up as predicted, so we will need these books and a lot more for our immigration clients. We don't push the book on people, but they invariably ask about the book and are intrigued by what they read on the cover and on the bookmarks. At that point we offer a copy to them. It is a small price to pay to make a new client very happy.
On top of that the rain has pounded us for a couple of days and Ping has been stuck inside, which has added to the depressing nature of the week. I suggested that she not drive to the office yesterday because of street flooding, so she stayed home and cleaned everything. I will leave you with a clean house next week, she told me. Yes, July 8 seemed so far away when Cici left, but now it is just around the corner. Cici is buzzing with excitement about Mama joining her in China.
Yesterday I asked Cici if she is doing her studies in China. Papa, she said, you ask me that every time we talk. I know, but if I didn't ask you then you would believe your future is not important to me. We laughed together. Yes, I am studying.
Cici only found Huckleberry Finn written in Chinese so she is reading it that way. I ordered an English version from Amazon and it turned out to be a retelling of the story so that young readers can understand it better. She can read it more quickly this way, so I guess this book is not a bad idea. I have the full version in a leather bound collection of Mark Twain's work if she needs to refer to it.
A supply of the second edition of our book was delivered to our office this week. The video has been loaded to our website. The call volume seems to have gone up as predicted, so we will need these books and a lot more for our immigration clients. We don't push the book on people, but they invariably ask about the book and are intrigued by what they read on the cover and on the bookmarks. At that point we offer a copy to them. It is a small price to pay to make a new client very happy.
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