My family likes to eat the ready-to-eat-sushi that is sold at the local grocery store. We seldom eat in at a restaurant, so I made today as one of the exceptional days. I purchased the ready-to-eat sushi.

There were three workers in the sushi store inside the grocery store. The store owner is a Korean woman who is my old friend.

Since my Korean friend speaks fluent Japanese, I casually greeted to my friend in Japanese. The other two workers automatically reacted to my Japanese greeting. They responded to me in Japanese. Then, I noticed the two workers were Japanese.

One worker came out from the booth. She said she remembered me.

She mentioned we met and chatted at one of DVD rental stores. When she mentioned the store name, I finally remembered about our first chat. The store was closed in summer of 2016. She clearly remember our short chat of three years ago. She even remembered the place where I lived that I casually mentioned on that day.

It was a little surprise. I normally don’t pay attention to people, especially strangers. Some people are opposite from me. They pay attention to strangers and have good memories.

I am not saying which is good or bad. I guess both are good. Some people pay attention to details, while others don’t. That is the beauty of the diversity, anyway.

Speaking of diversity, my husband and I have totally opposite personality, reaction patterns, and tendencies. As far as my family is concerned, this diversity works the best for us.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It was a really cold day. I seldom use a heater while I am home alone, but I needed to use it today. Our lowest temperature was -1C (34F). I received a text message from my in-law. She said it was very, very cold over there. I checked the weather report of their land. Their lowest temperature was -17C (0F).   

***

Yesterday I got a good advice from the teacher during the parent conference. It was to go check the charter school at their dismissal time.

The local charter school currently has 500 students. They divided students into three groups, and each group has their dismissal time 20 minutes apart in order to avoid a huge mess.

The first group is dismissed at 2:25 pm.

I arrived at their parking lot around 2 pm. The parking lot was quiet. There were many vacant lots. In front of the office, there was two lanes for parents to pick their children up.

Starting around 2:10, which was 15 minutes before the dismissal time, parents started showing up. I counted up to 20 cars, lined in the two pick up lanes.

As the dismissal time got closer, the cars waiting in line became around 30 cars. Many more cars parked in the parking lot.

At the exact time of dismissal of 2:25 pm, the bell rang, and children came out through the gate with their teachers. Each kid run to their parent’s car and got on. The cars in pickup line moved forwarding smoothly.

As far as I observed for 30 minutes of their dismissal process, all in all, it was much better than I expected. I didn’t see any hectic situation.

That being said, the school is going to add 200 students from this coming school year. The total number of 700 parents will come and go every day. The fact stays the same.

Other facts will stay the same. The facts are that I don’t like driving, that I need to give her a ride twice a day every day, and that I need to drive 20 minutes one way, totaling 80 minutes driving every day.

Just thinking of these facts makes me feel sick and stressed out.

***

After I came back home, I took out two angel card decks. I used the method of asking A or B options. I set A as the current public school, and B as the charter school.

The result was obvious. The cards, through angels, are recommending me to choose option B, the charter school.

— Oh well…

I will need to keep thinking about it, until I reach at my final decision.

My husband and my daughter already made their decision. They chose to stay in the public school.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I had a parent conference with my daughter’s teacher.

The teacher showed me the test scores and grades. The grades of English literature and understanding are at the highest level, but not well in math.

Honestly I don’t concern about it. My daughter is superior in her right brain, which is why she is good at literature and understanding, along with artistic talent. As far as she understands the minimum level of calculation, she will be fine.

Although I don’t concern about her academic, I do have another concern. It is about the charter school. I mentioned to the teacher about my honest feeling about the current school and the new school.

My main concern is the issue of friends. In this current school, up until now, four of her best friends left the school. This year she didn’t have any steady friends in the classroom. That was why I thought of transferring her to a new school. The new school will have many new students, so that she might be able to make a new steady friend there.

My other concern about a new school, on the other hand, is a giving a ride to her twice a day every day.

I asked the teacher for any inputs about a charter school.

After our talk, I found out I had the right person to ask for advice.

Here is why.

The teacher said she actually knows a lot about a charter school. Previously she was a teacher at the charter school in Colorado. Based on her own personal experiences, it is really depends on the school, and the student, and the teacher on whether a student really fits to the school.

At the charter school where she worked, they had obligations to show the progress in students’ academic level to the government in order to receive their financial support. Therefore, the students were constantly exposed under many adults’ monitoring. They had many visitors from the other organizations as well as the parents of possible future students. The students had more tests than the students of public school.

She told me two biggest concerns for parents to think about.

One is the cafeteria issue. Her charter school did not have a kitchen where people can cook hot food. Therefore the parents needed to prepare their children’s lunch on their own. Another option is to purchase a lunch from school. The school had a contract with some fast food vendors. She witnessed many confusions in the cafeteria. Students often experienced they didn’t have the right meal that the parents ordered for them.

— Same as her previous charter school, our charter school does not have a kitchen where they can cool hot meals. They have a contact with Pizza Hut, Arby’s, Panda Express. The parents order their children’s lunch online. I don’t know about the exact fee, but probably it will be around $5. When the expenditure comes to every day, it will accumulate to a big chunk amount of money for us. Not to mention, I don’t want my daughter to keep eating a fast food every day. Besides, I want to provide her a hot meal, rather than a cold meal.  

The other is the transportation issue. Most charter schools don’t have a school bus, so that the parents need to give their children a ride twice a day in the morning and evening.  

— This is what I concern a lot. I don’t like driving. I am not an aggressive driver at all. The school has more than 700 students. That number of parents will pack to the small parking lot every day. I can easily imagine the parking lot to be a disaster every morning and evening at the parking lot.

The teacher also shared her personal experience. She knows about our local charter school well, because her nephew went to the charter school this school year. The nephew didn’t like the school, so he decided to come back to our public school from this coming school year. That tells me a lot.

At the last the teacher advised me to visit the charter school often. It will be helpful to meet and talk to many people who are actually involved in the school, such as the teachers, the faculties, the students, and the parents. Also it will be helpful to go to the school at the exact time of dropping off and dismissal time, so that I can see the game. When she used the word “game”, we all laughed out loud. Indeed it is a game to see parents fight each other in the hectic time frame in the small jammed parking lot.     

I appreciate the teacher to share lots of helpful tips and advice about the charter school.    

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In the afternoon I received a Line message from my Japanese friend. She said she already purchased the airplane tickets for her daughter and herself.

Considering that the airplane tickets are nonrefundable and a big amount of money, I respect her to be able to make a big decision such quickly.

My family and I are so excited for their visit.

I will visit them in Japan in March, and they will visit us in America in July. This year will be one of the most memorable years for all of us.

Can’t wait for this summer.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I am reading a book “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir” written by Sherman Alexie.

The author is famous for the movie Smoke Signals. This movie was a pioneer of the first all-Indian movie, where the entire production team and cast was Native American. The author is also well known for his fiction novel for teens “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which I am planning to read next. This novel received many awards such as National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Anyways, let me get back to his memoir. This book is a memoir of the author and his late mother. I am still in the first part of the book, but I already like it very much. This book let me think about the relationship between my mother and me. 

Same as the author, I don’t have very good relationship with my mother. We have been not kind to each other for decades.

While the author experienced three years for not talked with his mother at all, mine was for seven years.

After his mother’s death, the author heard many other people thanking to his mother for supporting their lives. My mother was the same way. My mother loves to help others. I often thought it was unfair that my mother devoted her time much more than she did to me. I am sure I will hear the same way; many others thanking to my mother for her dedicating support to their lives.

***

When I was young, I regretted a lot. I regretted about everything. I used to think “I should have done this” “I should not have said this and that”.

Now that I have aged, I decided not to regret anything. From my past experiences, now I know everything has meaning and serves its purpose. There is nothing we should regret. There is only learning lessons provided to us from the certain event and experience.

So now, the middle-aged-I don’t regret for the seven years that I had not talked to my mother. I am still human and so I don’t know the exact meaning and purposes for that, but I will know after I finish this lifetime. All I know at this moment is it happened naturally to serve both of my mother and me with some great purposes and provided us some great lessons.

Last time when I visited my mom in Japan, she apologized a lot to me for not being kind to me, for not devoting her time and energy to me, and for not talking to me for seven years. She said she regretted all of that. I am going to tell her during this trip, that she does not need to regret them at all. Everything happened for reasons. Everything was fine as they were. I want to tell her that, while she is alive and well, so that she won’t carry any heavy burdens in her soul.

***

My trip to visit my parents in Japan is coming closer. I am excited about spending time with them. To be honest, a bit nervous too. But I know everything will be fine.

I will do one thing for sure. For everything what I do, I do my best in order to prevent regretting my actions and wordings.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In the afternoon I talked with my Japanese friend through Skype. This chat time is relaxing and soothing for me. Chatting with somebody whom I can fully trust makes me feel good. More than anything else, chatting in my mother tongue is a must time for me. I always appreciate my Japanese friends that they provide me this great relaxing time.

At the beginning of our chat, my friend gave me a nice shock.

She mentioned about her thought of visiting us in America in this summer. I knew they would come visit us in America one of these days. I never thought it would be this summer. It was a nice surprise for me.

She thought of her daughter’s age. According to the anthropological perspective, nine years old children will have one of the most significant transitions in their childhood. She wants to spend a special “mother and daughter time” in her special term.

My daughter is 9 years old and her daughter is 8 years old. Both of them are just around the transition term. It will be beneficial for both of them to spend more time together.

At this moment my friend still has not decided yet. Right before we hang up the Skype conversation, she said she would think about the trip seriously and get back to me as soon as possible. 

I mentioned about her thought to my husband and daughter. They are all excited about their visit. I hope she will decided to make it happen.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

The day of my trip to Japan has been coming closer. I talked with my Japanese parents on the phone to discuss about our detailed plan.

Previously I planned to stay at my parents’ house during my visit in Kobe, but on my second and third thought, I changed my mind. I decided to stay at a hotel instead of my parents’ house.

There are many reasons.

First: My parents don’t have a WIFI. For the people who fully depend on the Internet, the life without Internet connection for several days and nights is a real torture, right?

Second: My dad smokes a cigarette inside the house. I hate the smell of a cigarette. Besides, I don’t want my daughter to suffer from a second-hand smoke.

Third: my mom and I are not close. Since I was small, we never fully get along with each other. I can control myself for up to three hours a day to spend time together with my mom peacefully. Spending more than three hours may cause me to explode to a huge anger. I don’t want to end up with fighting with my mom during our precious visit.

***

I told my mom all my reasons why I chose a hotel instead of my parents’ house.

My mom understood me and agreed with my decision.

My dad, on the other hand, could not agree with it easily. He behaved like a petulant child. Even I could not see his face, I felt his cheeks were puffed out.

I asked my mom to give a phone to my dad. I needed to hear my dad complaining for a while. While listening to him, I felt his love. He really looked forward to our staying at their house. I sincerely apologized to him many times. In order to change the subject, I asked him if he needed anything from America as a souvenir. Obviously his tone was calmed.

He said he had two items in his mind.

One is nuts. On my last visit, I brought a variety of organic mixed nuts. He said he liked them very much.

The other thing was a bottle of cactus pickles. He bought it on his last visit in America as his souvenir. It was 10 years ago. It tasted good as a light snack for alcohol. He said the texture was similar to Mekabu (root of the wakame seaweed). Although he does not remember the name nor the brand, I think he is talking about nopalitos pickles.

I promised my dad to bring those items as a souvenir. He was happy to hear that. I am glad nopalitos uplifted my dad’s mood.

I was amazed my dad’s intuition. He intuitively bought a bottle of nopalitos pickles in America. This food is beneficial for diabetes as it helps to lower blood sugar level. He didn’t know the benefit until I mentioned today. His body naturally liked it.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning I went to the grocery store. Right after I took off from the grocery store’s parking lot, I received a text message. It was from my bank regarding the credit card fraud. They asked me it was me who just used my credit card.

While I was driving, I also received a phone call from them. It was an automated machine call, asking me to listen to their instruction and press certain number to confirm. Since I could not do so while driving, I hung up the phone.

After I came back home, I called the bank. The operator asked me some questions and confirmed it was me who used my credit card.

I wondered why they thought it suspicious. I do shopping at this specific grocery store for almost 10 years now. On my second thought, one idea popped up. The bank closely monitors each customer’s shopping patterns. Based on their data, I normally go shopping on Friday morning. Today I went there on Thursday, which was rare for me. Maybe it was why their system suspected a credit card fraud.

It was kind of freaky to know they have all my shopping pattern data, but I should appreciate for their efforts to protect me and monitor my credit card history.

During the conversation with the bank operator, she casually asked me how the weather around here was. I answered it was nice and hot. She was surprised by my answer. She said she envied us to have such a nice weather. She said her area was extremely cold.

After I hang up the phone with her, I looked up the weather news. There I found this news. “Northern states to be colder than Antarctica as temperatures drop to -40C”

I feel sorry for those people who are suffering from the extreme cold temperature. I hope they will have normal weather soon and get back to their normal life.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter’s school sent a note to all the parents and guardians. The note says that recently some students needed to be sent home due to the cold symptoms such as high fever and coughs. The school asks us not to send our children in case they have any cold symptoms for other students’ safety.

I thought of my daughter and found out one thing.

She has not gotten sick this winter.

According to my last year’s calendar, she took a sick leave from school in last February for two days. It was after a snowy cold day.

In this winter we had some snowy cold days at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Even such cold days, my daughter did not catch a cold in this winter.

It’s amazing to know she has been building a stronger immune system.

For us parents, it is always amazing to know our children’s progresses and growth..

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today’s acupuncture treatment was something new. After discussed with my acupuncturist, we decided to add Tui Na massage with ear acupuncture.

After I came back, my glucose level was 107, which was pretty good for me.

This is my fourth acupuncture treatment from my second acupuncturist. For the previous three times, the glucose level after the treatment was not good very much. They were 148, 121, and 148, respectively. Compared with the previous three results, today’s result was much improved.

This was my first time to receive Tui Na massage. I had a quick one for 15 minute at the Chinese medicine fair, but that does not count.

With today’s therapy of Tui Na massage combined with ear acupuncture, I melted. I loved it so much. I wish I could receive Tui Na massage therapy every week.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪