The First Christmas Tree

I try to avoid the shopping malls on the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's too insane. I was reading in the news about an employee of Wal Mart getting trampled to death by insane shoppers trying to save a few extra bucks. It's just not worth it to me to be among that crowd. My shopping list is pretty short, anyway. It's not like I've got a gigantic family to shop for.

Instead, we decided to put up our first Christmas tree this weekend. We picked up one of those fake, 6 foot "Sierra Fir" trees that they sell at Target for around 25 bucks. It's small and it fits well in our apartment. We don't have much space for a big tree anyway.

I let Sara and Kyle put the decorations on, although Kyle would usually take them off just as soon as he put them on. I'm just waiting to see how many times the tree falls over before Christmas, and how many times we have to pick up the ornaments.

The kids love the tree, especially when it's all lit up. I kind of envy their excitement. Seeing them brings back memories of my own childhood at Christmas. My parents never had a big, fancy tree. It looked very similar to the one we have now, and I remember we used to decorate it with ornaments that we made in school. Some of the stuff we made was pretty ugly, but it made the tree more personal.

So this will be our first Christmas we spend together as a family of four. No more long plane rides from Taiwan to California. No more sleeping in the freezing cold kitchen of my brothers house, or having to crash on Jerry Yen's sofa. No more dealing with in-laws who are just counting the time until we leave. It's just us now. It feels a little strange to be deviating from our normal routine, but this way is better.

(Pictures: Sara, Klye, and the Christmas tree.)

Thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving for the kids in America. Last year, when we were still in Taiwan, we made an attempt to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it didn't turn out quite the way it was supposed to. It's hard to find traditional Thanksgiving food in Taiwan, like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, etc. It's not impossible, just hard. We were living in Taichung at the time, and I remember I had to drive out to Taipei to a specialty store that sold American food. None of the stores I went to sold whole turkeys, so I just had to buy slices. All in all, we ended up with a decent, if not great, Thanksgiving dinner.

This year, because of my work schedule at the hospital, we decided to eat a little earlier than normal. The kids really loved it, and we had more food than we could possibly eat. My wife Christy told me that she prefers to eat the turkey leg over the breast meat.

"In Taiwan, it's the leg that's popular. That's what we like to eat." she told me. It's true too. If you go to Taiwan, you'll find the price of chicken legs much, much higher than chicken breasts. It's exactly the opposite of the way things are here in America.

I can't say I really like working on holidays, even though I'm making more money by doing it. If previous holidays are any indication, the hospital is going to be dead tonight, so they'll basically be paying me for doing absolutely nothing. Still, I guess we can use the money. Christmas is coming up next.

(Picture: Sara and Kyle getting anxious to eat)

Sara the Artist

When Sara and Kyle were in the daycare center, I used to have all morning to myself before I would have to leave for work. Then when I got home around 10:30 at night, they'd be asleep. I'd only see them for about 30 minutes in the morning and that was it. I'll have to be honest and say that sometimes I appreciated my break from them. It's a tough and frustrating job to watch two kids. But after a while I began to miss them. So, although I knew that once we pulled them out of daycare, my mornings would no longer be free, I still welcomed it.

The problem with watching two kids all morning is that you have to find something for them to do. Sure, I could just turn on the tv and let them zone out all morning (which I'll admit I've done.) But you also need some activities for them as well.

Sara's favorite activity seems to be drawing and painting. She can't get enough of it. She's got dozens of pieces of artwork all over the apartment. Some of it is on the wall, some in the bedroom, some on the refrigerator. Much of it is just scribbling, but others look pretty good, considering her age.

We're thinking about buying her an easel for Christmas, along with crayons and paint and lots of paper. Of course, we could be inviting catastrophe. Sara turned our last apartment in Taiwan into a living art exhibit. I'm sure the landlord wasn't too happy when she saw the walls after we left. We've also got Kyle, who seems like he would prefer to eat the crayons and brushes rather than use them to paint or draw. I guess we'll still risk it.

(Pictures: 1. Sara. 2. Sara's art. 3. More of Sara's art)

Holidays

Having lived in Taiwan for over 4 years, I knew I'd be giving up most of my American holidays for strange Asian holidays. Instead of Christmas, they have Chinese New Year. Instead of Independence Day, they have "Double Ten." Instead of Memorial Day, they have "Dragon Boat Festival."

Now that I'm back in America, I have all my old American holidays back. The only problem is...I have to work on every single one of them!

Yes, unless I actually request to have a specific day off, I am required to work on every holiday unless it happens to fall on a Saturday or Sunday. This is one of the drawbacks of working at a hospital. And being a new employee, the older employees who ask for time off for the holidays are more likely to get it than I am.

I'd been working on Thanksgiving Day for years while I was in Taiwan, so going to work this coming Thanksgiving isn't really anything new to me. We're still planning to have a Thanksgiving meal, except we're going to have it at noon instead of the evening, since I have to start work at 2pm.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are a bit different, though. I've always been at home for these two days. I've never had to work. However, this year is different, as my definition of "home" has changed. To me, "home" used to be the house I grew up in in Downey, California. I spent my final Christmas there in 2004. The following year, my brother and his wife sold that house and had my mother move in with them. My mom took the money she made from selling her house, and used it to buy my brother and his wife a house. It was in this new house that I spent Christmas for the last 3 years. It wasn't quite the same, and "going home for the holidays" just didn't have the same feeling for me that it used to. Of course, it didn't help that my brother and his wife always treated us pretty badly each year (all of which I have documented in my other blog, An American Teacher in Taiwan.)

Even if all the bullshit with my brother didn't happen this year, I doubt I would want to go there again. I mean, why pay thousands of dollars in travel expenses to go somewhere that you're not wanted?

Here's a story that I didn't tell on my last blog that I still think about to this day: About two years ago I when I was staying at my brothers house, my mom invited to take the whole family out to dinner at a pizza place. Only my brother knew how to get to the pizza place, and we would have to take two cars. Me, Christy, Sara, and my mom were in one car. My brother and his family were in the other. We had to follow him to get to the restaurant, and it required getting on the freeway (in Murrieta, you pretty much have to take the freeway to get anywhere.) Once we get onto the freeway, my brother starts driving like a freaking madman. He speeds up, swerves around cars, and does everything he can to try and lose us in traffic. I mean, he tried really, really hard to lose us. I don't really understand why he did this. We weren't at the point where we hated each other yet, so why was he treating us so badly? I'm his only brother, who he only sees once a year for maybe a week at most, so why does he want to act like a total asshole? It's things like this that I think about if I ever start to feel bad about our falling-out this year. It just makes me realize that I don't need a brother like him.

So this year I have a new definition of being "home for the holidays." That home is now me, Christy, Sara and Kyle. We bought our first Christmas tree this past weekend, and we'll start decorating our apartment shortly after Thanksgiving. I know they'll enjoy it.

Rudy's

If there is one restaurant I've been to more often than most in Austin, it's Rudy's.

Rudy's is by no means a "classy" restaurant. You sit at benches, and your food is given to you in a basket. There are no plates, only white pieces of paper. All the silverware is plastic. They don't give you bread rolls with your food. Rather, they give you an entire loaf of bread that looks like it was just bought up the street at the local HEB market.

So why do we go there? It's cheap. The meat is really good, and their homemade bar b que sauce (they misspell it as "sause", deliberately I hope) is excellent. We often order the beef brisket, but occasionally we've ordered the sausage or the pork ribs. They're all pretty good. As a side, you can get cream corn (good), baked beans (very good), or cole slaw (which I don't like).

Every time we go there, we spend less than 20 bucks for a family of four. Normally we spend anywhere from $14 to $19 depending on how many side dishes we get. It's a good deal. It's gotten pretty expensive these days to take your whole family out for dinner somewhere. The other day we went to Marie Callendars. We had a coupon for a free dinner, and we STILL ended up paying over 30 bucks (with the tip).

Rudy's is basically a typical Texas kind of place. Big slabs of beef and bar b que sauce all over the place. This is the kind of place I'd take my Taiwanese in-laws to if I wanted to introduce them to "Texas cuisine."

(Pictures: 1. Rudy's. 2. Inside Rudy's. 3. Sara and Kyle. 4. Kyle 5. Christy, Kyle, and Sara)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", which was filmed right here in Austin, is one of the great horror films. I saw this movie when I was a kid and it freaked me out. It was shot on such a low budget and the picture looks so grainy that you feel like you're watching a documentary. There are other great horror films, "The Shining" and "The Exorcist" for example, but none of them seem as real as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

I met three members of the cast, some of whom live (or use to live) here in Austin. Paul Partain, who played the annoying character "Franklin." Gunnar Hansen, the guy who played the most famous character in the film, "Leatherface," and Edwin Neal, who played the Hitchhiker, who cut himself up at the beginning of the movie. They all signed my dvd copy of the movie, which I'm now selling on Ebay (I'll post the link to it below if anyone out there wants to bid on it).

The movie claims to be based on a true story, and I actually believed that for years. It's actually only vaguely based on Ed Gein, who was a graverobber and was convicted of murdering two people in Wisconsin, not in Texas. He never used a chainsaw, either. True or not, the movie had a big impact on me, and as my family were driving through Texas on our way to Austin last May, we saw a lot of ranches that reminded me of the movie. We took some small highways and back roads, and I remember telling myself: Man, I hope we don't break down around here. It looks like Leatherface lives out here.

The only reason I'm selling my old dvd is because I recently upgraded to blu-ray (high definition dvd, for those who don't know). I probably won't sell too many more signed dvd's on Ebay. Ebay charges too much, and your profit margin is so small that it's not even worth it anymore. It was worth it about 10 years ago, when I used to get anywhere from 60 to 120 bucks for a signed dvd, now I'm lucky to get about $20. Either it's the economy or there's just too much stuff on Ebay these days, or both.

Anyway, if anyone would like to see what will probably be my last auction for a signed dvd, here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-TEXAS-CHAINSAW-MASSACRE-DVD-SIGNED-BY-3-XLNT-Con_W0QQitemZ130266418500QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray?hash=item130266418500&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1406%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

(Picture: Leatherface)

Strabismic Amblyopia

My daughter Sara has been diagnosed as having "Strabismic Amblyopia." What the heck is that?

According to Wikipedia:

"Amblyopia, otherwise known as lazy eye, is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by poor or indistinct vision in an eye that is otherwise physically normal, or out of proportion to associated structural abnormalities. It has been estimated to affect 1–5% of the population.

The problem is caused by either no transmission or poor transmission of the visual image to the brain for a sustained period of dysfunction or during early childhood. Amblyopia normally only affects one eye, but it is possible to be amblyopic in both eyes if both are similarly deprived of a good, clear visual image. Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment."

We noticed that Sara had a problem with her eyes last year (see picture above for a good example), but now we actually got the diagnosis. The doctor told us that if this symptom is not properly treated, she could lose her vision (although that is the worst case scenario).

The pediatric opthamologist we contacted informed us that one form of treatment would be surgery.

Oh great, another child that needs surgery! Could it get any worse?

My son Kyle just had surgery on his ears a few weeks ago, now my daughter might need surgery on her eyes. I have yet to receive any bills from Kyle's surgery, but I know they're coming. Luckily we do have insurance for the kids, but even with insurance it's quite expensive. When a surgery costs thousands of dollars, and insurance pays 80%, that 20% can still be a lot more than you can afford.

I was reading an article in the local paper about Austin residents flying to India to have hip replacement surgery. The surgery, I read, costs about $50,000. With insurance, it's about $20,000. In India, they're doing it for $8,000.

Is this what it's come to? Flying to foreign countries to have operations? Sad, sad, sad.

"If one of us ever needs to have a major operation, we should just go back to Taiwan." I told my wife. Maybe she thinks I'm joking. But I'm not. Not really.

(Picture: Sara in January 2007, with her "lazy eye)

Victory

"Oh, in America

The land of the free, they said

And of opportunity

In a just and truthful way

But where the president

is never black, female, or gay

And until that day

You've got nothing to say to me

To help me believe."

-Morrissey, "America is Not the World", 2004

Now, we can all believe.

After eight long years of what will probably be considered the worst presidency ever, there is finally hope at the end of the tunnel. Hope that things are going to change. America's reputation with the rest of the world has been severely damaged. Now that the country has elected its first black president, those who came to hate us will start to take another look. If there's one thing this election has taught us, it's that anything is possible. People have put their prejudices aside and looked beyond race to elect the best candidate for the job. This is really a day to be proud of this country.

Unlike Bush, I kind of liked John McCain. Had he won, I wouldn't have felt the intense anger I had when Bush won in 2000, and then again in 2004. Bush, and especially his VP Dick Cheney, were just total selfish, arrogant pricks who had their personal agendas, and were going to follow it no matter what. I remember when GMA was interviewing Dick Cheney, they were talking about the war in Iraq

(here's the actual video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypeZjeOrY4)

"Two thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." the interviewer asked

"So?" Dick Cheney replied.

SO?!

I can't tell you how angry I was when I saw this. Couldn't he at least be phony and say something like "I understand their concerns." ? The arrogance of this man.

I think the biggest problem with McCain's campaign was his choice of Sarah Palin as VP. I think that sealed his fate. Maybe if he had chosen Romney or Huckabee, the outcome would have been different. Palin just came across to me as a character out of the movie "Fargo." Of course, it also didn't help when he posed with Bush outside the White House shortly after he announced his candidacy. Those pictures of him hugging Bush were a democrats dream.

I really wish I could have voted in this election. From what I hear in Texas, my case was not an isolated incident. Many people who moved here from other states experienced problems when trying to vote. I guess the best I could have hoped for was a provisional ballot. I noticed that in the city of Austin, Obama beat McCain 64 to 35% If you look at the Texas map, most of the southern part of Texas is blue, while the north is completely red. Obama still ended up with 44% of this state, which for Texas isn't bad (in Wyoming Obama only got 33%)

I hope Republicans will give Obama a chance. As I said before, if he does a terrible job, just vote him out in 2012. Personally, I'm not beyond voting for Republicans. In my voting history, I have voted for a Republican candidate twice because I didn't think the democrat in office was doing a good job. The first time was when I voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. It bothered me that the current governor, Gray Davis, was increasing the vehicle registration fee to pay for the energy crisis. I know the energy crisis wasn't his fault (it was actually Enron), but he could have found other ways to handle it. The other time was when I voted for the district attorney of LA (I'm pretty sure his name was Steve Cooley). Gil Garcetti was the democrat and current DA, and since his team was responsible for losing the OJ Simpson case, that was enough for me to vote him out. So...I'm not a total diehard democrat. I'll cross the line if I want to. :)

So, let's all try to wish Obama good luck. He's going to need it.