Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our little family just returned from Chinatown where we honored Dr. King by eating heaps of steamed buns and shrimp dumplings and Guy Lawn (gai lan? stir fried rice noodles with beef) and broccoli beef (CHINESE broccoli which is 100x better than regular old broccoli) and noodles with scallops and OH MY is your mouth not totally watering? Mmm. We ate these things nonviolently, of course, and peacefully offered up our prize parking space to grateful dim sum seekers. Phillip wanted a bubble tea, but I think the bubble tea shops in the international district are yuck. I prefer the bubble tea shop/international student hangout in the University District, but I never go there anymore because 1) my sister no longer lives across the street and 2) I feel 100 years old whenever I venture into the University District. So! No bubble tea. And good thing because we are now enduring the pain that comes from completely stretching out your stomach.

It is also brilliantly sunny outside, if a whopping minus forty-seven degrees. Almost.

We are enjoying a stretch of Irresponsibility here at Camp Cheung. I don't know what it is- maybe January?- but we are feeling tired and doldrummy (me) and tired and overworked (Phillip) and demanding constant supervision with all the pulling up and grabbing and opening/closing and inch worming (Jackson). So we called up one set of grandparents to take over yesterday, and the other set is in charge today. (Miracle of miracles, Phillip has the day off. I KNOW. We can't believe it either. Even though he had, like, seventeen work phone calls this morning, but I am going to be charitable and pretend they didn't happen.)

Anyway! Yesterday I dragged Phillip over to Fremont where I remembered the Fremont Sunday Market being a little more crafty and artsy than antiquey and vintage and basically full of someone else's old junk. I know I know, some of you can probably waltz into an antique shop and find the One Thing You Did Not Know You Could Live Without. But when I walk into an antique shop I am overwhelmed by the vast amounts of OLD SMELLY JUNK. Part of this is just my preference for straight lines and right angles and shiny and new. I can appreciate things like old china or ninety-year-old armoires or old timey signs and stuff like that, but I don't want it in my house. So I perused the giant table of old watches and dusty jewelry and typewriter keys and pages ripped out of Dick and Jane type books and a huge display of ugly figurines you'd find inside your great-grandmother's china closet, but I wasn't interested. I was also not interested in the "art" covered with diatribes against all the political leaders of the world. Oh, Fremontians!

We walked up to the chocolate factory, which is way more my speed, and tried to get in on the tour, but they were full. Blast! We consoled ourselves by scoring as many free samples as possible. It helped.

Next, because we didn't want to go home and, you know, be required to feed the baby or something, we fought for parking downtown and hung out at the market. I miss the market. I used to walk through those stalls EVERY SINGLE DAY, but then I switched jobs, and NOW I don't leave the house so I don't get my weekly fill of tourists ogling the fish throwers and the Japanese school kids taking pictures of the Starbucks and, all right, a croissant from the French bakery. We bought some cheese at the Italian deli and some satsumas and, all right, some croissants from the French bakery. It was fun just wandering around and not thinking about naptime and enjoying the parts of your city that other people are always talking about.

Today we're, uh, going to buy a treadmill. I think. I'm of the opinion we should go find some friends who also have the day off and do something fun, but Phillip says, "If we're going to buy a treadmill, we should stop talking about it and JUST BUY A STUPID TREADMILL." And I think I see his point.

Thanks for all your thoughts on the Staying Homeness. They really made me feel better. Honest! I was feeling squirmy because people were asking me to tag along to the zoo or to a Group or just wondering what in the world was up with me and I was caught between Friends! Who Want To Hang Out! And Do Stuff! and my usual Home Is So Nice And Also Where The Television Is Located. I think what I need to do is be At Peace with my homeyness and stop feeling guilty about never going to the zoo (I also hate! the! zoo!), while remembering that fresh air and other people are very good for us Anxious Types and it is often very worth the effort to Get Out. EVEN if it means going where there are smelly animals and tantrummy toddlers.

Comments

[Jen]

Oh, I so want Chinese food now. So, so badly. I blame you. And I can't have any. Argh! My husband started the South Beach Diet today under orders from his diabetes doctor and so no good food for me ever! (I mean, I guess I could get Chinese food for just me, but that might be the end of my marriage and is it really worth it?)

[Tara]

steamed buns... beef and broccoli... dumplings! What are you doing to me?! Oh Dim Sum... how I love thee. Sounds like you guys had a fun time!

[Jess]

Wow... what a great weekend! That Chinese food sounds delicious. Also, bubble tea is the only tea I like, mostly because it isn't really tea. At least not the kind that I like.

[annie]

Bubble tea? I have never heard of this before. Please enlighten me. I'm with you on the stay homeyness. Christopher and I really have only one obligatory (translation - class that we paid in advance for) outing per week and I'm fine with that. We go for our walks and hit the park. And target. Of course we hit target. But aside from that, my little guy and I just like to chill. And my husband likes it even more than we do, so you can imagine how life-in-the-fast-lane we are when Dad gets a day off.

OH. And even though I was completely FULL when I sat down at the computer just now, you made me hungry with all of your chinese food. mmmmm.

[Laura]

Glad you had a fun day...bubble tea, yum!!! Oh, and you do NOT hate the Zoo...come go with us!!!

[Lauren]

What is bubble tea??

All that delish Chinese food...mmmmm! My hubby won't eat it, but i recently discovered that my children inherited my love for the Chinese buffet (at least the orange slices and egg soup) which gives me an awesome excuse to go. (its for the CHILDREN). haha.

[Lisa]

Isn't it funny how such a day out, just the two of you, is absolutely TREASURED in a way that it never was before having a baby? We used to do stuff like this endlessly and we didn't appreciate it at all. Now, an hour of running errands together while baby enjoys some Grandma face time almost borders on actually being classified as a "date" because WE ACTUALLY GET TO TALK ABOUT STUFF NOT RELATED TO THE BABY. I so get where you are coming from.