The season of pollen and sneezes

It is lovely, waking up to bright sunshine, blooming flowers and a thick coat of yellow particles called pollen encasing one's car. Especially lovely if the person happens to have hay fever and would turn into a sneezing coughing crying runny-nosed mess if she breathes in too much pollen. Yay spring.

Spent eight of the last twenty-four hours sleeping, two of those hours eating and six hours driving. Went home to Charlotte late last night for a mediocre dinner, slept then drove back to Chapel Hill this morning.

Make no mistakes, there was nothing mediocre about the food served last night. It just lacked the interesting conversations, laughs and giggles, leisurely pace of eating and of course, desserts. So it was just an ingestion of well-prepared food, lacking the qualities of a truly good meal.

Menu:

• Sea cucumbers with scallions and ginger in a dark soy/garlic sauce
• braised fatty pork and pickled bamboo shoots
• stir-fried broccoli with garlic
• stir-fried cabbage with garlic
• shredded pork with julienned bamboo shoots, pickled mustard greens,marinated firm tofu and green onions
• fu-gian style fish balls in clear broth

Apparently that was an especially festive menu to celebrate the rare occasion of me coming home. Sea cucumbers, not something one would see on the table everyday.

My step-brother has somewhat "bling-ed" my car and rice-ified it a bit more than I'd like. He put a pair of super bright xenon headlights on it, making my little Honda one of those much hated cars that shoot out blinding beams at unfortunate cars in front of them. I drove with my bright new lights last night, and felt like every other car around wanted to race me. On the upside, it is an advantage to have a mechanic in the family. Free car-fixin. Wee.

Mom is still sick, and I think overdosing a little on pain killers to help with this mysterious pain. The doctors still don't quite know what's wrong with her; it's been two months. This is depressing matter that I try not to think about.

It's been a pretty intense couple months, of deaths and illness, academic stress and life worries. I think I'm just beginning to come through the fog of a more than mild depressive period. Hopefully my mood will brighten with the increasingly beautiful (though a bit too warm) weather.

I finally heard from unnamed person of far far away, whom I heart. Really hasn't been that long since I last heard from him, little less than a month ago. Feel guilty for sending him many babbling emails and tried, unsuccessfully, to cut said person out my life. Not anyone's fault, just coincidentally bad timing of stressful events.

If person is reading this, I sincerely apologize for ramblings and negative feelings.

Due to little contact, I'll just leave that part of my life alone too, for now, and try not to think about it much.

Not the ostrich approach of burying head in the sand. Just whatever it takes to cope with the hurdles one come across in life.

Hungry, once again. Looking forward to having tasty and comforting Indian food tonight.

[LCD Soundsystems - Tribulations]