Home Sweet Home (3)

It was hard to imagine that just two days ago almost the entire Southern California was drenched by heavy downpour. Several areas in Los
Angeles actually flooded. “Seems it never rains in Southern California”
suddenly came to mind as I paid a visit to my sister’s veggie garden. It’s just
outside the guest bedroom where I stayed.

"It never rains in California. But girl, don’t they warn ya. It pours man it pours." I hummed to myself. The rain for sure provided a life-reviving dosage to the backyard and the veggie patch; evident by the eye-pleasing green right in front of me. My dear sister has always had a soft spot of animals, especially for dogs. Her last German shepherd "Kuma" had dug up the yard several years ago. Kuma’s handy work can still be seen all around the back and side yard. They don’t have a dog now; instead, there are two cages of homing pigeons. Ah, good ‘ol memories.

Over the years, my family had had many different house pets in Taiwan. Dogs, tropical fish, Brazilian turtles, hermit crabs, baby crocodile, monkeys, owls . (I’m not making this up, baby croc, monkeys and owls!) Can silkworms be counted as pets? My sister mentioned that a couple of her pigeons were snatched up by the hawks. I suggested that we BBQ the pigeons before the hawks got to them all. Oh, after a few years without a dog, she is having an itch again. An itch only a German shepherd pup can scratch.

10:35 am, time to hit the road! I was to meet with Grace for lunch. I was a member of an online English learning forum a few months back. Grace is one of the friends
I’ve gotten acquainted with from the forum. We chatted one day and found out
that we were actually "neighbors". We used live within a few miles from Grace’s current residence. Like myself, Grace has been living in the US for ages years.

Meeting a new friend for lunch, what a noble idea! Too bad my wife had to stay in Palm Springs for her evening conference commencement concession. “Super Bowl” was what I had in mind. No, not the Super Bowl as in American football; but a large
bowl of Vietnamese beef and noodle soup – phở.

Grace was running a little late but I didn’t mind. I browsed around the supermarket where the restaurant sat adjacent to. The surroundings sure had changed quite a bit but not beyond recognition. Shortly after 11 am Grace arrived. We had (text) chatted on a few occasions so the face-to-face meeting was a first. How did I know it was her? (& vice versa) Easy, Facebook mug shots!

We greeted each other then headed inside the restaurant. I could tell she was quite laid-back after a brief conversation. From her blog I had learned that life had thrown her for a few loops, yet, she had never backed down. For those who wonder just how to pick a conversation topic – you don’t. Whatever comes to mind is a good topic. Why settle on “a” topic when you can have a “range” of topics?

We chit chatted over the course of our meal. We talked about our families and things in general. We are both very family-oriented that we talked about our significant other and our kids. I wondered if my wife’s ear got itchy all of a sudden? Yeah dear, I was talking about you behind your back. There were all good
things, I promise.

We continued our conversation in three flavors, Mandarin, Taiwanese and English in no particular order. I have to admit though, my Taiwanese is horrible! We carried
the chat session at a Starbucks after lunch; just across the street from the Vietnamese restaurant. Two and a half hours flew by very quickly. My 2 o’clock appointment was fast approaching. All in all, it was a wonderful first meeting with Grace. Hopefullywe can introduce our respective families to each other on our next visit.