The week in review

I'm alive. It was a rather hectic week and I'm not even sure where to start and what to write.

I started eBaying as a side job, since I'm currently in between births. My main gig right now is posting items for a friend's mom. She is legally blind and happens to be a bit of a hoarder, so I like to feel like I'm helping her out in a couple ways while I collect my 25% commission. She has a lot of quilting items, including full handmade quilts, so I've been learning a bit about quilting patterns, styles, materials, etc. Craft stuff sells pretty well on eBay. Soon, I'll start listing a bunch of fabric scraps and pieces she has.

The MIL had a doctor's appointment this week, so we drove to the Hayward Medi-Cal clinic only to be told our appointment was actually in the Fremont clinic. Ugh, the incompetence. Fortunately, I remembered to bring along a Perry Como CD for her to listen to. I totally learned the secret to keeping her calm and entertained while on the road. She loves music! It seems to bring back lots of memories of Malaysia for her, and she started chatting unexpectedly about her wedding.

We're also working on niceties and social etiquette. So, once we arrived at the Asian medical clinic, I asked her if she had anything she wanted to tell Dr. Li (ahem, nudge nudge). Oblivious, she says, "I'd like a flu shot." Trying not to giggle, I ask her, "Anything else?" MIL thinks and then says, "Oh, happy new year doctor, happy new year!" There ya go.

My mom and I went to a book club at the SL library that was discussing The Joy Luck Club. No one seemed to pick up on the fact that we were a mother-daughter pair, although my mom did get called Italian. LOL. I liked the book club discussion. It was part of the series of events at the library this month that is focused around The Joy Luck Club. One of the upcoming events is a "learn to play mah-jong" day that my mom really wants to go to.

On Friday night, Louis and I had dinner at La Casa de Maria, which is the restaurant right at the end of our street. It was good! They definitely serve some of the most authentic Mexican food in the city. Louis became a fan of their warm orange salsa and we split a real strawberry milkshake. We came home to watch a movie, and as soon as the movie was over, we got automated calls on our home phone and each cell phone at the same time. The recorded message told us SLPD was searching for an armed suspect a few blocks away and that the entire neighborhood was encouraged to shelter in place. It was a little exciting to watch the helicopters circling overhead, and we got all kinds of immediate updates from Facebook and our neighborhood email listserve. Apparently there was some crime that happened in Oakland and the suspect ran into San Leandro, so both police departments were after him. Instead of making me feel scared, I actually felt relieved at seeing the community response. Despite living close to the border, I'm really glad we live where we do.

I've been converting the back bedroom into anything but a guest room. The current plan is to use half the room as a kids playroom, so I have bins full of wooden puzzles, blocks, stacking things, and tons of books. I'm still looking for a decent rug. The other half of the room will be my arts and crafts area / eBay wrapping station. I'll have a table set up where I can wrap packages and gifts, set up my sewing machine proper-like, and have storage bins for things like greeting cards, gift bags, cards, yarn, jewelry supplies, etc. I'm so excited!

There is so much going on that I feel like I'm jumping from project to project, with no real focus on what my goals are. Until I can figure it out, though, I am happy to be getting stuff accomplished. Setting up the house is a big deal for me. Since I was in school and in an apprenticeship when we moved in, I never really had the time until now to set up things the way I would like. I feel guilty that it's not productive in the sense that I'm not earning an income while working on the house, but it does feel great to feel like I'm finally moving in.