Loogie Is So Popular

I've a confession to make. I secretly like all the spitting and hack-a-loogieing that the Chinese do around here. To be fair, it's mostly older folks who do it, and students and bus takers and street walkers and, oh let's face it: Everyone hacks a loogie. It's the national pastime next to eating.

Anyway, whenever I'm out and about, I listen for the thunderous roar of the throat clearing that builds into the ejaculation of a spit. It's a comforting daily soundtrack and alerts me that, "There is a here." But the fun part? As soon as I catch wind of the phlemg song, I yell out "Expectorate!" in my best Hermione Granger voice and award myself 1 point for being an earwitness to this charming event. A 10-point day is indeed a good day, for it means I combed the streets of the Jing in pursuit of adventure.

So wave your wand and say it with me, Expectorate Now!

It's Your Birthday

Last Wednesday, September 30, was Hawkens' 15th birthday. Sometimes I feel the need to type it out in black & white, unconvinced as I am that it's been that long since he was born. The parenting journey is fraught with self-doubt and sighs of relief, and mine may have had more than its share of the former. Sometimes I think it takes sheer cockiness to decide to have a child, to think you have enough of a clue to raise another human being to a healthy state of mind and body.

Looking back I see it was indeed cockiness dabbled with cluelessless on my part, but tossed with a healthy pinch of intuition, a dollop of faith or wishful thinking, a barrel of luck, and a giant heart ready to bleed out love (gag). Trial and error, maybe that's all it's ever been throughout the history of mankind.

So here's our young hero today: enamored of Alice in Chains (proclaims it to be the greatest band, despite my telling him he's wrong); plays his bass guitar at all hours of the night; putting off doing theatre until the second semester in order to cope with new academic challenges ("do you know what Asian Fail is? anything below an A-!"); taking Honors Geometry and has a posse of Korean kids to eat lunch with; admonished me today for not raising him with a clearer idea of what it means to be a Democrat vs. Republican (I assigned him some internet research out of this); discovering athesism and annoying me with quotes. (I sure hope his grandparents aren't reading this post.)

Happy Birthday, Hawkens.