Someone blogged about me in China!

I have a young Chinese penpal. I met her when she was 15 and she is now sweet 16.  She's the little girl I never had - pouty, moody, delightful, silly, full of mischief, open and loving. She calls me "grandmother" and has totally won my heart and I hope she never leaves my life. I don't know what she is sitting on in this picture - doesn't it look like a toilet seat? (?!)  She just sent me this email.  This is her first and only blog page in English. I subscribed to her blog ("sbwgegiapy," below), but of course I can't read it since it is in Chinese.  This is her email (including her picture):

Subject:  One of my articles on my blog (I wrote it for you)

From majestic mountains and valleys of green to crystal clear waters so blue

this wish is coming to you

It's joy to know you

wishing the nicest things always for you

not only today

but all the year through because you are really a joy to know

A friend is a loving companion at all times. When I think of you the miles between us disappear

You're wonderful friend, and I treasure you more with every year

Lydia

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

You are my first friend abroad

Though we are not at the same age

You tell me,teach me a lot

A lot......

When I once met you

You looked so kind in your photo

I was pessimisitic about my future then

You wrote to me

You taught me that everything would be fine

You make me optimistic

I love my life because of you

You encouraged me when I was sad about my study

You told me many things about your family

You are such an excellent penpal

I believe that we will meet each other face to face

And I will move to tears

Because of you

You are like my family

I do think you are the angel that God sent me

When I was down

Thank you and thank you

Hope you can see it

Though my English is not very well,I think you can understand.

Just another Saturday in My Whole New Life

Characters:
Ted, my roommate
Keira, my niece
Lu (or Lulu), my cat (who is a real lulu)
David, my dead husband

I stayed up until 5:30 am perfecting my blog! I am addicted to my blog! It’s my new drug! I didn’t get up until 2:30 pm and boy did I need the sleep. They have been working me like a pack mule at work, and changing my schedule all the time.

Today I received a gift from Keira of a “too-cute” calendar. I love it, but was struck by the note inside it all covered with stickers. She has just entered her fourth decade and her letters to me still look like this. How adorable is that?
I had to go to the post office to pick it up. That’s because my new mailbox doesn’t hold anything bigger than a postage stamp. I was struck by how short the line was, as was the man ahead of me in line. We got to chatting, discussed the future of the post office, and when his turn came up our chat ended this way:

Man in post office: “… because of what I do.”
Me: “What do you do?”
Man in post office: “I consult with attorneys about their financial needs.
Me: “Oh! I consult with attorneys about their document needs.”
Man in post office: Weak smile, unimpressed nod.

When I returned from the post office I made bacon and eggs. What had happened was Ted is always having Les Girls over cooking, and one of them left half a package of bacon here, which Ted wasn’t going to eat, and I wasn’t going to let go to waste. I think I last cooked bacon in the 70s. I had no idea how to do it. Well, I put the slices in the pan, and they were sizzling too slowly for a really long time, during which Lu cried for food, really annoying me.

I told her how dismayed I was at her doing that, because she’s so good about everything else. I had a very serious talk with her for about 5 minutes explaining exactly why I wasn’t going to feed her every time I’m doing something in the kitchen. She finally went away and let me make my bacon and eggs in peace. Wow! That needed way more explanation than most things, but she usually makes the best of things not going her way once I explain them to her, but for some reason I thought I could never make her understand that. I finally realized that was just another belief ("all cats do that and can't change") that I had not examined.* I examined it, tossed it, and broke a new record on what I could make my cat understand!!

Back to the bacon, I finally figured out that I should up the heat. Eventually some slices were ready to be taken out of the pan, while others were still frying, and it suddenly came back to me. When I used to do this, I drained them on paper towels! I was cooking now! Haha.

So, just as I was cleaning up the kitchen, Ted comes home and asks me if I had cooked bacon. I told him I had. He said that was really bad timing as he had just cleaned all the surfaces. (This from the man that told me the other day, “I’m dusting this table with my dirty sock.”) I showed Ted the too-cute calendar from Keira and he loved it, so I left it out where he could see it too. And then I told Ted about winning the battle with Lu after a 5 minute explanation and Ted said to Lu, “Your mommy can get very wordy.” I thought that was so funny I had to put it in my blog.

I have been having so much fun blogging! Really, my heart is just singing! And nobody is even reading this! I’m just playing with myself, as usual! That’s what widows do. That, and wonder who they will play with next.

On my journey back to me today, I made bacon and eggs, reached new heights with my cat, received a gift from my niece and got to write about it. Really, could life be better?

__________________
* David and I had developed our own individual healing system, which came about in conversation when we realized listening to each other that we had unexamined beliefs, which we began to examine as they came up. One of us would say something and the other would say, “you might want to take a look at that belief.” We examined every belief that came up to decide if we still agreed with it or not. There were a lot of laughs and tears, a lot of self-discovery, and a lot of growth. We eventually reached a new plateau where we had no more unexamined beliefs, and were thinking only with beliefs that we agreed with. It was a new height for both of us, physically, spiritually, mentally, psychically, romantically, in every way. We even started writing a book about it, as we thought others might benefit from our technique, but he died just as we were getting started on it.