I was painting my house....

It has been a loooooong time since my last post. I could hardly
remember what I wrote last time. Lots of things have happened since
then. Among which, the biggest change would be that I became a
homeowner and started to receive junk mail from mortgage insurance
agents every week:-) This homeowner experience was great and I was
determined to experience to its maximum. So far, I have learned to use
an electric drill very comfortably, installed a garage opener with
help from a friend (I did all the wiring), and most recently, painted
all the walls in the public area inside the house. The living room and
kitchen are painted Eastern Amber (kind of orange) and the dinning
room and my study are painted green. The colors changed the
hospital-white house into some place warm and comfortable.

I wish I could communicate more effectively with dogs.

This last two weeks must have been a really confusing time for the dog
I am taking care of. Her name is Honey. She is a mid-size German
Shepherd mix, a very loving and sweet dog. Honey likes to chase
squirrels that she is never able to catch and to bark at other dogs
and small children that she is afraid of. Cats are always her enemies,
too. She is very forgiven and is ready to show her playful character
anytime. At the moment I am typing this, Honey is lying by the window.
She must be wondering "What have I done wrong? Why are people leaving
me?"

In the middle of last week, my aunt, who has always been Honey's best
friend in the house, left for Europe. It took Honey a couple of days
to accept the fact--she ate very little in the first two days. Four
days after that, my aunt's son left for China. Although he has been
the one who plays tricks on Honey most of the time, it was clear that
Honey was also nervous the night he was packing. Then, five days after
that, this morning, I sent the other cousin, who stayed with us for
nearly a month and is now leaving for Orlando for an exciting
internship at the Disney World, to the airport. Honey showed clear
anxiety last night when my cousin was packing--she was walking around
the suitcase and coming in and out my cousin's room to smell at her
all the time. Thanks to my instincts, I decided to keep Honey in the
backyard when we left for the airport (usually, we'd leave her inside
if we are gone for only an hour). When I got back and let Honey in,
she acted like that she hasn't seen me for a hundred years and she has
been missing me every moment of that. Then I noticed that during this
brief hour, she had shredded the newspaper and a plastic bag I left in
the backyard.

Now, she is still lying by the window quietly. I wish I could tell her
that there is nothing wrong and in a few days, people will start to
come back. Poor dog.

It is going to be another awfully hot day in San Antonio.

A small update from my mother the other day regarding the water heater
issue. Eventually, the apartment manager rejected my dad's plan to
make use of another old gas water heater. So they have ordered a new
electric water heater. My mom was thrilled and I am, too, very glad to
hear that.

I have been completely occupied by the responsibility as the official
head-of-household. My aunt left for conference last week. When she is
gone, I would have to take care of two younger cousins and a dog. The
feeling that I had to be attentive to both the physical and
psychological well-being of three other living creatures made me
nervous at first. When I talked about my concerns with a friend, he
suggested that I should give my cousins full autonomy since even the
youngest one is almost 18 years old. I took the suggestions and held
back as much as possible. However, since both of my cousins don't
drive, I would have to take them somewhere when necessary. As for
meals, I realized that it was challenging to satisfy the appetite of
both of them, especially the 17-year-old boy who is a complete meat
lover. So I'd rather take them out. The other night, one cousin and me
had pizza out. The boy opted to have McDonald's. Per his request, I
got him FIVE double cheese burgers and a super-size French fries. When
I was ordering this meal at the drive through window, I felt like a
totally irresponsible cousin. Anyhow, he won't have this every night,
at least.

I had my official orientation at work just this Monday. It was a whole
day orientation. The way they arrange it was kind of fun. So I was
only bored for a brief time. We even played a company jeopardy and my
group won:-) Although, at the end, everyone got to choose a prize of a
highlighter, a pen, or a mouse pad.

The predicted one month of "honeymoon" at work has been completely
over by now. It turns out that there are some major tasks that our
group needs to complete by the end of next month. So everyone is fully
geared up. At the group meeting today, our manager went through each
individual project and the assignment of personnel. Although I am only
officially in one of the twenty some projects, it happens to be the
most urgent one. So a co-worker said, "She just got here and you get
her on xxx (the name of project)!" Then my manager talked about how
lucky I am to come at the time of crisis since it is the time that
people become heroes.

In a brief summary, life is challenging but fun at the moment.

I have worked for a whole week. I met another employee from a
different department at lunch the other day. She was talking about how
the many phone calls and email had kept her busy the entire morning.
Then I told her that I didn't have a single phone call and had only
one reply from someone I emailed earlier in the morning with a
question. She said, "Don't worry." Then she continued, "The first
three months will be your vacation! Then after that, people start to
realize your existence and that fact that you can answer their
questions. Just enjoy your vacation and you will miss it when you
start to receive phone calls and email asking all different kinds of
questions." So maybe I should have said at the beginning of this
paragraph "I just completed my first week of vacation", instead.

My "vacation" is about what I'd expect. I had been learning the
procedures and rules about how tasks should be finished at work. The
learning involved many details. It appears to be critical to stay
organized, patient, and persistent.

I am very happy with the people I work with. They certainly are not
like people I used to work with in graduate school where I felt like I
have been spending time with my family. However, I have chatted with
people a lot at lunch. There are usually some interesting topics each
day. On Friday, a few of my Chinese co-workers were exchanging ideas
on why their kids were not studying hard. One of them said that he had
a talk with his son the other day urging him to study hard after his
son proudly announced that he had won the highest honor upon finishing
high school. The other co-worker was annoyed by that fact that his
daughter is reluctant to go to some advanced extra-curricular classes
in the summer but is more willing to join a soccer camp instead. Then
he explained that his daughter would lose her privilege to watching TV
and playing games whenever her grade falls below 95 points; and she
had lost only one point in all state-level tests ever since
first-grade (now she is in fourth-grade). I couldn't help but told my
co-workers that I thought that they were a little crazy.

I will have an assistant soon. The first candidate will be interviewed
next week. Now I have to remember what questions I have been asked
when I was interviewed and prepare some questions for the
candidate(s). Should be interesting.

My first day at work went quickly and slowly. It was a day filled with
waiting, calling, and greetings. The first thing in the morning was to
wait for the HR lady to get my badge and some remaining paperwork
done. Then it was the waiting at and calling the IT office to get my
account information. They gave me a new laptop. Although it is a Dell,
I am still pretty happy with its performance after the first day--it
seems to have all the necessary basic features. The only weird thing
about my computer setup was that they believed that a docking station
for the laptop and a 21inch monitor were already put on my desk last
Friday but were stolen over the weekend. So that caused some chatting
and guessing on security issues. It is probably not a nice thing to
have my arrival associated with stuff being stolen. Anyhow, by the end
of the day a new docking station and another huge monitor were on my
desk. They also remembered to give me a security cable for the laptop.

I won't have much work to do tomorrow either because my boss is busy
with some management stuff. However, I do know that the first thing I
am going to get my hands wet on will be the revision of a test on
children's basic concepts (I probably should not tell too much about
the details since I am not sure about the range of business secret,
yet). A co-worker was telling me today that the first month at work
will be like a honeymoon. I don't know how realistic it would be but
the first day was kinda boringly slow.

Another unusual circumstance at the company was the number of
co-workers who speak my native language. I felt a bit not used to this
fact since during the past six years I have tried to stay away from
close connection with Chinese communities in order to practice my
English and to learn about American culture. I have no doubt that I am
going to learn a lot from my co-workers. But I will have to look for
other means to keep up with my comprehension of American people.

My aunt's boyfriend recently acquired a Chrysler PT Cruiser (as the
one in the picture) and is quite crazy with his new driving style.
Today, he drove my aunt, my cousin, and me to Corpurs Christi in his
car with the top wide open. My cousin and I were sitting on the back
seats of the car. And I am telling you that it was not fun, at all, to
sit on the back seat of a convertible on the highway. During two
hours, I felt like sitting in a wind tunnle with strong wind blowing
at 80mph (which was about the speed of the car). I worried at every
second that my hat could be gone and felt like going deaf. My cousin
has long hairs which were constantly beating her face "like cutting
knives." When we finally stopped at a rest area, my face was also
almost numb. On our way back, wind was blowing into my face which
reminded of one of the "fan death" theories--that wind could blow
oxygen away. I still don't have belief in fan death but I could now
understand why strong wind could cause problems for breathing. Anyhow,
we did have a good time on the beach. But I told my aunt that, next
time, if her boyfriend is driving to the beach, don't bother to invite
me--I'd never go to the beach in a convertible.

Tomorrow will be my first day of work. I am nervous, of course. It
will be another day of new experience.

The picture shows what I have been up to last weekend--wrapping up my six-year long graduate study in orange and blue.

Top-left--a bookcase awaiting doors in the living room.
Top-right--our carpenter working on the cabinet by the door.
Bottom-left--kitchen
Bottom-right--a much better version of a corner of the bathroom

This one should have been posted three days ago.

That night, in our old apartment my parents were having another heated debate over the new apartment. Things were getting a bit out of order. What do you think I could do under this situation? Apparently, I shouldn’t take sides. Instead I should try to blend their ideas together and try to make everyone happy. However, my dad has some really unconventional or strange thoughts about putting things together. I shall write a separate blog introducing his thoughts. My mom feels most comfortable following a simple common style. And each of them has some different really old stuff they want to keep. It is impossible to find a midpoint between them and for me to accept many of their ideas. During these debates, my patience and tolerance are tested at every second. Sometimes, when I don’t feel I can stand anymore, I either simply keep silent or find an excuse to stay away—it will be their apartment, after all. That night, during the discussion, I chose to stay away—I took a shower.

My mom has told me once that the gas water heater was having some problems. It still functions. The trick is, when turning off the heater after shower, gas should be shut off before stopping the shower water. The heater was installed in the kitchen. So usually, I’d shout to let them know when I am done with shower and someone will turn off the heater. That night, I did the same. However, they were so engaged with their discussion and no one heard me.

I got dressed and came out of the bathroom. My mom stepped out of the bedroom and was surprised to see me, “Have you turned off the gas?” “Of course not”, I replied. “NO!” she screamed and ran to the kitchen where the water heater as installed. As soon as she opened the door, some heavy smoke emerged. I immediately opened the windows and the door to the outside that I could reach. At the same time, I heard another scream from my mom “The kitchen is on fire!” My instant thought was that something was going to blow. Then I heard a really loud noise, which I later recalled was the kind of noise when you pour a bucket of water over fire. More white smoke came out the small kitchen door…. Then out came my mom. As soon as my mom came out, my dad ran into the kitchen and turn off the main gas control. Now the apartment was filled with smoke.

It turned out that the problem the heater has was that it no longer, as it normally did, automatically turned off the fire when there was no water in the heater. As long as the fire was turned off before stopping shower water, everything should be fine. Otherwise, it would keep burning the empty pipes. I should have taken it more seriously when my mom told me about the problem and should have asked some questions to really understand the consequence without really seeing it. This accident could have become a real disaster because the gas pipe runs throughout the entire building which hosts 72 families. If the fire was not stopped in time, there might be chance that the build was burnt down… Anyway, it ended as a small accident. And the only big cost was the already-defective water heater in the picture, which my parents have been hoping to last till the last day they stay in the old apartment. My parents stopped their vigorous discussion on decoration for the night and were, together, thinking about ways to deal with the situation. None of them blamed me for anything…

The next day, my dad installed another heater which works as a charm.