Sorry about the absence. I hate to be the kind of blogger that drops off the face of the earth for extended periods of time while people log on to see old posts...

Well, the busy week is coming to a close, thankfully, and the mom visit was fairly successful, really. My brother took my mom up and there was little weirdness from the last visit, which is good. We had dinner and all that, and my mom really enjoyed seeing the little guy.

The next day at the doctor's was a bit interesting. The doctor came in and the first thing she said was, "So, it says on the chart that he wants to be called Alex. Hi Alex!"

And my testicles rolled out of my pant legs.

My Mom didn't really say too much about that, just kinda let it slide. The doctor asked her if she was really proud and she was - I was glad that wasn't really too much of an issue. I think in the end, as long as his official first name was Andrew, it didn't matter much to her otherwise. I could be wrong.

So, my mom spent a lot of money on us on this trip, buying diapers and baby food, groceries for us and even springing for the title change for my car, which was 23 bucks. Imagine, 23 bucks to drop her name off a title, and nothing else. State of Washington 1, Driver 0. So I felt a bit guilty about that, but she reassured me that it was fine, because it was something that we needed.

In the end, all and all, in conclusion, and overall - the thing that I remember the most about her visit is actually when we had just gotten Chinese food (Chow Mein, actually) and was heading back to her place in Redmond. She said that she really wasn't trying to not enjoy life, complaining about work and always talking about dying and nobody caring about her. She just felt really hopeless about her existence and derived little joy in life. But she said that seeing Alex really opened up her heart - she feels happiness when she sees her grandson. And I told her that I wanted her to feel welcome in my home, and that when she does live with us, she doesn't have to work full time just to pay the mortage on the house, and she can go back to just living life, and enjoy being a grandmother. She can leave that negative environment at work and just putz around a job or try to get something in social work.

In the end, it just goes back to being Chinese for me. Taking care of my mother in her elder years is the very bare amount of gratitude that I can show her for bringing me up and making me who I am. It's beyond a son's call of duty or responsibility, it's just a matter of showing my love to her in a tangible way.