5-Day Weekend in December

ONE OF A KIND SHOW AND WHITE BEAN CHICKEN CHILI

During Merchandise Mart's One of A Kind event, I snagged two ready packaged bean soups to satisfy my urge to splurge feeling. The first package of soup I picked up was the white bean chicken chili. I was really tempted to get two packages of the split pea soup but decided it would be better to try more things instead of one.

Since Dominick's was pulling out of the Midwest market, everything except fresh produce was on sale for 50% off. Sadly the tea section was raided so when Stella and I got there, there was nothing good left. I did however pick up a bag of sweet onion and white cheddar tortilla chips which I thought would be perfect for white bean chicken chili. Since the package contains seasoning and beans, I had to go to Trader Joe's to buy some chicken. I decided to throw in some roasted corn into the chili because I wanted some kind of vegetable in the soup and some mild cheddar because I like cheese.

Xiao took the Tuesday and Wednesday off the third week of December and offered to cook me something at my own place. Since I have a workout class on Tuesday and tutoring on Wednesday, he came over Monday after a pretty pleasant weekend of rug shopping and dining at Sola where I picked up a pint of sesame brittle ice cream.

Unfortunately on Sunday night, Xiao didn't close my freezer properly, so on Monday morning I found all my frozen goods melted. The fact that the ice packs were melted made me feel a little questionable about whether I can still use my thawed out vegetables and meat anymore. After much googling, talking with my engineering group in the morning, and my sister who is a cooking expert, the major consensus was that the products were still good for use. My popsicles ended up more like freezer pops, and I ate my frozen bao from San Francisco that day for lunch. The only thing that had to be thrown out then, was the ice cream we barely had the night before. Since it wasn't intentional there was no point in being upset or mad about it. Accidents happen sometimes. Monday didn't really get better though, because we both stayed late at work and then we kept taking the wrong buses to get back to Lakeview. It was a series of unfortunate events that day. Despite the lost time and pint of ice cream, we made white chicken chili for dinner around 7-8pm.

He wanted to eat more than take a picture so this was the best I could do :/

WINTER FLOWER SHOW FLOWER OF CONSERVATORY

My five day weekend started after the annual holiday part at the Ritz Carlton for the ADA. Since then I have been on and off bored. I really wish I had two more vacation days so I could have gone back to San Francisco but I guess it is okay that I am not. My sister told me I should just visit her for Christmas and as tempting as it was, I wasn't down with the holiday prices of airfare.

On Saturday I went to Michael's to do some shopping to find craft holiday stuff to do for Xiao's first Christmas since we were going to spend it together. As I was walking through the isles I saw some light weight frames that were much sturdier than the ones I got from Target and bought a few to re-frame one of my favorite pieces and have a few more for other drawings to come some day. In addition I got some letter stickers to put on the keys of my keyboard. I was making mini upgrades to my studio.

Sunday was a pretty eventful day. I had lunch with Ping Jing at Half Shell, went the to Flower of Conservatory, and watched the Book Thief with her. I was a little worried the Book Thief was going to be a depressing movie but it turned out a lot better than I thought.

This movie is narrated by Death during the genocide of the Jews around World War I and II in Germany. The main character of the story is a girl who was given up for adoption by her mother because she had no means of taking care of her and her brother. Although her brother dies on the journey to Germany due to lack of nourishment and harsh circumstances, the girl makes it to Heaven St and is taken in by her adopted parents. She learns how to read from her father and becomes enchanted by words and books. One day, a Jewish man stumbled into their home. It turned out to be the son of a man who was friends with the father and died in a war to save him. Since then, he gave their family his word to do whatever he can in their time of need, so they hid the young man in the basement of their home. The girl and the young man become good friends during his stay but eventually left the family because the military was starting to check the homes of the German people for refugees. The war eventually took her adopted family and friends away and left her alone again. Despite all this, a woman who lost her son in the military takes her in and she stays with them. After the end of the war, her Jewish friend and her were reunited and stayed good friends until their deaths at a ripe age of ninety. The girl who had lost her family twice survived, became a published and recognized author, and went on to having a family of her own and saw her grandchildren before her time has come.

After watching this movie Ping Jing and I talked about how lucky we are that we are not in the battle zone of war on our home front. Back then it was somewhat advantageous to have war on the home turf because of the knowledge of the terrain and the manpower. Nowadays, wars can be fought with drones and weapons of mass destruction, which means fighting on enemy turf is more advantageous. Crazy and scary stuff when you think about it.

Half Shell mulligan and tuna steak for lunch!

Pink poinsettias!

Fuzzy plant...

More poinsettias!

Toy train sets throughout the exhibit...

Christmas tree!

More trains and a pond...

Me and Ping Jing!

Trains and mansions...

Hidden home...

Flower up close...

Pretty backdrop with a cute girl!

And another one :P

Fishy...

Fishy...

FISH!

Pine cones in a box...

Santa statue :)

So Cold So Fast

It's that time of year again when the temperature  takes a dive and drops low enough for the snow in the city starts to stick. This is actually the first day that it snowed all day in Chicago. Strangely the night before the snow was much colder. Regardless, I hate the idea of having to go out to get groceries this time of year.

DUCK THANKSGIVING

Xiao and I bought a whole duck but I didn't know if i had to remove the guts from the duck and I didn't know how to get rid of the giblet so I ended up hacking it up and leaving the ribcage out. I was afraid of hitting the intestines or bowels of the duck which I read was dangerous when prepping a duck. The next time I get a duck, I am going to get a butcher to halve the duck for me.

The Thanksgiving potluck at my place :)

Cajun Spiced Duck- It looked better on the plate when it wasn't sitting in it's own gravy...

Ribs from Roxy!

Bamboo and Mushroom Stir-fry from Thet!

I also made some sweet potato biscuits but they looked nothing like the pics on the website the recipe came from. Lilyan also contributed a cheesecake.

REAL THANKSGIVING

On the actual day of Thanksgiving, Xiao and I went to Ping Jing and Anita's place for a southern style meal. I loved the turkey the best and the oyster stuffing the least. Xiao was vice versa. It was neat meeting Anita's mom and their friend Dawn. It seems Anita, Ping Jing, and Anita's mom are very altruistic people all in the business of helping people. This was Xiao's first traditional Thanksgiving in the 27 years he's been on this Earth.

Anita, her mom, and Ping Jing. Sugar the chihuahua was too short to be in this photo. It was such a sweet name for a gentle and old dog.

Ping Jing and Dawn

The Art Institute was wreathing the lions. I thought it meant admission was free that day but it was not. We did get free hot chocolate. We also ended up getting free t-shirts from my favorite art store from the wheel prize that Black Friday.

Naked lion...

It took three men to get the wreath on the lion...

SANTA TRAIN

I heard of the Santa train but never saw it the last two winters. This year I caught the train as I was heading over from the One of a Kind show at the Merchandise Mart to see Xiao at his place.

CTA Holiday Train

People watching

Santa!

Can you see him in the shadows?

Snowflakes!

While I was wishing for pizza I ate this instead. Black bean soup with rice, chicken andouille sausage, sauteed greens with garlic, and sliced vine tomato.

And the Nightmares Keep On Coming

For about two and a half weeks, I have been having reoccurring nightmares that mainly focuses on my mom. Each time, some other family member guest stars, like my brothers or sister, and a conflict in the different scenarios result in the same ending with my mom flying off the wall, turning violent and going crazy. Tonight was the first night that my dad was in the dream with my younger brother.

In this particular dream, one of the family cars was stolen due to the fact that my mom forgot to lock the door of the car while she was grocery shopping. She came home and she told my dad, brother, and me that she couldn't find the car. My brother, concerned about the car, went back to the location where she said she parked it and verified that it was missing.

Now this car, is shared between my younger brother and mom and was upsetting news to him. Flustered by my brother's disappointment and irritation, and our conclusion that it was probably stolen, my mom started to get defensive, shouting and screaming, and eventually becomes violent by taking household objects and destroying them. She had tried to forget about the whole thing while carrying on with some domestic duties at home like vacuuming when she suddenly snap and started to swing the vacuum violently destroying it.

During the whole violent act and crying, everyone started to leave the room. Being with my dad made me feel less scared because I couldn't tell if she was going to hurt me in her rampage and despair. At some point she grabs a stick and moves towards me and my dad. As my dad starts to leave the living room, I begin to follow him. My mother looked at me and asked why I was leaving her when she wanted someone to stay and comfort her, and I answered that I was afraid she would hurt me and followed my dad out of the room.

This particular dream seemed to be worth documenting since it was the first time my unconscious answered why I acted the way I did with my mom. In other dreams when she becomes violent with my youngest brother, she is usually about to hurt him and I would try to protect him from her. This dream with my youngest brother occurs the most. My sister almost never shows up in these dreams, and for the longest time, my dad never showed up in the dreams neither. I suppose these vivid scenarios are not so far from real situations in the past. It's the last imprinted image of how I see my mother and because it seems to haunt me, I rarely keep in contact with her. This was the first time she spoke to me, asked me questions, and was willing to listen... in my head.

Another dream I had that seemed to tie into this last dream, was one without my family. It happened at work with no one believing in the work I was doing, and that lack of believe left me with a feeling of sadness, betrayal, and disappointment.

I wonder now if that's how my mom feels. She's pretty much alone, everyone feels bad for her, but no one feels like they can do anything about it.

When I was in high school I remember my mom and dad being interchangeable in those dreams, but that my dad was not crazy, just angry and violent. Some time towards the end of college, post college I told him that I had nightmares about him, and since then the dreams of him being angry and violent exited from my mind. That time I told him about these nightmares, I was pretty scared to let him know. But I did it because it was the first time I felt he was receptive to something I could say to him about me. Often times, it is hard for me to confess when people have done something or said something that hurts me. It usually doesn't sit well with me, and the shock factor usually allows me to just brush it off in the moment, but it usually comes back two-folds for not dealing with it right away. As much as I like to think I can handle it, I guess in the end, I am not handling it at all. I suppose for me to confess these things to people, I need to believe they are receptive to what I have to say.

It's kind of weird to think that this might be some sort of nightmare breakthrough... and I don't know what will change after this, but I think it's funny that my mind psychoanalyzed itself.

Asian Feast

In the past week I think I have eaten out once or twice a day except for last Friday and Saturday. All the eating out has left me feeling a little sick to my stomach so I decided to do some massive cooking with the intention of eating my home cooked meals for the week. These days I haven't been around my place very much and I wonder how this affects my productivity. I guess I am just spending more of my time elsewhere and my place is just turning into a place I have to come back to for maintenance. I suppose I should do something about it. Ever since my sister organized my place, I have been meaning to do more at home. My art, keyboard practice, walking or running. Anyways, I was pretty determined to finish a lot today. I cooked my meals for the week, did two loads of laundry, and took a short walk around the neighborhood just to move around a bit. Unfortunately, I still have plenty of cleaning left to do.

Massive cooking usually last me for a week and a half assuming I eat out once or twice with friends. Usually when I do this, I have my music on to keep me going. This week I went the all Asian route with my cooking. 

Setting everything up for a half day of cooking...

Eggs, pork belly, bean thread noodles, green onions, shrimp, ground pork, memphis rub, shallots, brown rice...

BBQ pork, cabbage, and shitake mushroom!

FRIED RICE! My version just has shrimp, eggs green onion, and BBQ pork.

I mixed some of the rice with shitake mushroom, shallots, green onion and then wrapped them in egg. I got tired after a while so I stopped making the crepes.

My mom used to make this at home all the time. I guess it's just bean thread noodle soup. Chicken broth, shrimp ground pork, cabbage, and shitake mushroom. Probably the healthiest thing I made this weekend.

Memphis rub pork belly... harder to cook than I thought. I was pretty excited they had this at Trader Joe's.

I am super tired now...

Halloween and Hot Chocolate~!

 The end of the year is usually a lot of fun because a vast majority of the people start gearing up for every big holiday of the month. In October it is Halloween. In November it is Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas in December, and New Years in January. I guess the gap really starts after Valentines day in February and St. Patrick's Day in March. Maybe it makes sense to have so many eating and giving holidays during the Fall and Winter months to keep people's spirits up as the weather gets colder and the days shorter.

MEXICAN FOOD DAY

Xiao really likes Taco Bell, so one weekend we walked from my place to Wrigleyville to get his favorite Mexican food. I thought about bringing this downtown for his Birthday back in September but decided that the food would not be as good after traveling with it for about an hour. He really wanted to get the Volcano sauce packets from there so we had lunch and brought it back so I could make some homemade Mexican pizza for dinner. A lot of people talked about how awesome the new flavored shell tacos are but I really thought it was just okay. Maybe it depends on the shell.

The Bell is in Chicago...

As I was making the filling and prepping the toppings for the pizzas, Xiao was sneaking spoonfuls of meat into his mouth. When guys talk about helping in the kitchen, I think what they really mean is, "I am here to be your food tester". The good thing about a guy not cooking is that if you need something from the grocery store they usually have to run out and get it. I am glad he liked the version we made better. We ended up making the pizzas really thick because he wanted a lot of meat in his pizza. In that sense, it looked more like a deep dish Mexican Pizza.

Hearty pizzas!

Xiao doesn't like olives but I do!

Advertising the Volcano sauce...

HALLOWEEN AND BEEF WELLINGTON

Beef wellington is a holiday meal often served during Christmas if you're not having goose. I however, decided that I wanted to make it for Halloween because I watched a bunch of little kids do it on TV and felt encouraged that it would not be a difficult task. I thought I was going to make dinner for my friends on my own but Xiao told me he wanted to help and a great help he was. He had to run out to get some more shallots since the ones we got the first time were not so great. He also had to pick up the garlic because the one in my fridge was not useable.

I don't really know what the circumference of beef tenderloin should be for beef wellington, but I found it very difficult to get the prosciutto around the whole tenderloin and the pastry puff around that. It took two people to seal that sucker with pastry and although it didn't look beautiful like the ones I saw on TV, it tasted really good.

I was also really grateful that Xiao helped with serving the guests at the dinner party.

Stella and Rich contributed a delicious golden beet salad, Catherine brought roasted duck from Chinatown, and Ping Jing brought us a blueberry fruit pie to go with the scalloped potatoes with carrots and beef wellington!

Looks so much better when you can see the meat...

Now that looks really good!

 I was glad everyone dressed up! That was part of the reason I wanted to have a dinner party. I am pretty sure everyone thought the treat was well worth the dressing up!

HALLOWEEN AND TUTORING

Every Wednesday evening, I tutor a third grader in the City Lights program. For Halloween, I thought it would be lots of fun to put on the Minnie ears I had for their year's costume since she told me she never celebrated Halloween before. A couple of surprises happened that evening. One, my tutee gave me a bag of candy for Halloween. In the end I gave most of it to other kids and her but it was a really thoughtful and sweet act. Then, we had to fill out a Christmas wishlist for the program and she said she wished I could join her family for Christmas dinner at her house. I am very lucky I get to work with a sweet and thoughtful girl.

Ms. Serenity Mayfield!

My ears!

She had lots of fun taking pictures :)

Had to get a shot of us together!

HOT CHOCOLATE 5K NOT 15K

The long await sibling reunion happened here first in Chicago on November 3rd, 2013! I have to say we had our fair share of disagreements but among all that there were some good times too. The first to arrive in Chicago is Mrs. Tiffany Ong!

We decided to go to Intelligensia while we waited for Derrick to fly into O'Hare International Airport. Clearly delicious coffee!

The caffeine will keep you perky!

We met up with Derrick and traveled back to my neighborhood for some Kuma burgers. The Ong verdict: too salty! We enjoyed it at first but after a while the heaviness really settled in...

Terrible eating happens a lot on vacation. My sister loves baked goods so I took them to Molly's Cupcakes.

The gluten-free molten lava cupcake was good! No pictures of Glazed and Infused Donuts... but we also had those too o_O!... and a rum ball from the Austrian Bakery O_O!

We started out looking happy... but then our margin of happiness with each sweet dessert decreased unless we had a couple hour break from all this snacking...

Some walking around the neighborhood took some of the eating guilt off!

Some tea after sugar also makes every feel better!

Made it all the way to Old Town!

 The sibling who had the hardest time getting to Chicago happens to be the baby, George! There was a shooting in LAX that closed down the airport and canceled all the flights. He ended up flying later in the evening and had to pay more to get here :(

Finally, the morning of the Hot Chocolate Race! We had to get up at 5am and bus over to the location. We decided to stay in the same Corral and run together. It turned out to be a beautiful day that Sunday as we waited for our turn to start running.

L corral, second wave!

The boys...

the girls!

Movie star shot they do before a movie premiere! Haha! Sexy!

Too much chocolate all over...

 Unfortunately baby got sick from eating everything in the Hot Chocolate cup. It was too much sugar before breakfast, plus there was no place to wash our hands after riding public transit. He was okay though because we found him a bathroom at Subway since the mean lady at the Chicago Cultural Center would not let us in 8 minutes from opening. Lame!

Later that day, we had brunch with Lilyan, Stella, Rich, and Gigi at Frog and Snail. I was glad they came out to meet my siblings.The eating didn't stop at Frog and Snail though, the group ended up buying a few things from the Wiener Circle and Crisp before calling it quits.

As the guest from late morning left to run their errands and go to their next event of the day, the time was drawing near for my sister to leave us Sunday evening. We had planned to eat dinner earlier with Xiao, but because everyone was not really hungry, we just hung out at my place until my sister had to go. We rode the transit with her part of the way and split off at the Blue line where we said our last goodbyes.

The next morning, the boys and I rented the divy bikes around the corner and cruised down Lake Michigan to downtown. I always knew the boys could ride a bike, but I have never tried riding an adult bike before. When I mentioned it to them, Derrick just made me feel bad about renting bikes when I didn't know how to use one. George, however, just spent his time teaching me how to get going on a bike and encouraged me enough that I actually did it! It was pretty thrilling and a little scary at the same time as I was not very good at steering the bike. It was a good thing everyone was at work on a Monday so I could wobble down the path all the way to the finish!

It was much colder and windier Monday morning!

DIVY BIKES!

The Chicago skyline is beautiful from the lakefront!

After all that biking and stopping by my work place downtown. We headed to Chinatown to get something Asian and met up with Ping Jing who is like a sister to me! We ate at a noodle shop called Sing Noodles because they have hand pulled noodles. It was pretty good! Then we had to part because Ping Jing had to get back to her busy day at work and we had to head back downtown to Navy Pier for the Architecture Boat tour.

Standing behind the dragon...

The Fire Tiger in the family...

the earth dragon...

... and the wood ox.

We stopped by the green house inside Navy Pier.

We also checked out the stained glass museum!

 For our last meal, we decided to have dinner at Lou Menati's for the Chicago deep dish experience with Xiao! George loved the pizza and said it was one of the better pizzas he has had. What I thought was really funny was he had a glass of Stellas with his slice. The baby is drinking beer now~! Oh how the times have changed!

Then, to finish the night off we went up to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock Building for one of the best views of the city. Xiao bought the boys drinks. Since Derrick did not like his Old Fashion, the baby switched his Russian Mule with him. Even then, Derrick did not feel like drinking, so George had both drinks.

I think the thing I noticed about George is that he just tries to go with the flow of things. He never complained about his flight delay and airport switch, he never complained about the food, and he finished the drinks that were bought as a good gesture. He's the perfect guest who doesn't make a fuss and doesn't mind if he doesn't always get his way. In that sense, I feel George and I are similar and it was good to know. When Lilyan joined us here after work, George decided to have some cider just so she wouldn't drink alone. I decided to drink half his bottle so he didn't have to keep drinking while Derrick and I were not.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the boys. We had an easy time printing out a boarding pass for Derrick, but had a difficult time trying to get the boarding pass for George printed due to technical issues with Spirit's website. Apparently, Spirit airlines charges for everything you do there. If you wanted to print a boarding pass they wanted $15.00, if you wanted to use the overhead bins that is another $25.00. Since it was their website that was the issue, the baby had to go straighten it out at the counter for the boarding pass when he got to the airport.

The last meal we had together before they both left for O'Hare International Airport was at Brazilian Bowl. It felt like a good choice because it was close to the 77 Belmont bus and the food was hearty but not rich and overwhelming. We also got some felafels from next door.

The baby had some Feijoada!

Derrick had Brazilian Beef Stroganoff...

 I rode the 77 bus with the boys until I reached the red line and said goodbye.

Unfortunately for George, his flight was once again delayed due to weather. He not only had a flight delay, but he will be flying into a different airport from where he park his car since he had to go to Long Beach airport to get to Chicago in time for the Hot Chocolate run. That means he won't be back home until midnight today and will be back at work tomorrow morning at 8am.

I hope my siblings still had a good time overall. I tried my best to be a good host, but it was difficult to cater to what everyone wanted to do. Despite hard times, harsh words, and disagreements the last weekend, I think we all cared a lot about each other.

It was easy for me to see that despite the fact that we are all adults now, the oldest child still takes care of the younger ones.

Tiffany showed she cared for us when she organized and cleaned my living space and helped clean George's hands when he had Chocolate all over it. She also tried to give advice to Derrick even though she knows he would not take it well. In that sense, she has the touch of a nurturer in her. It will be perfect when she becomes a mother some time in the following year or so.

Derrick to me seemed the most lost and least happy on the trip. Perhaps it was because he is stuck in a rut about what to do about his career or the fact that he does not want to live at home. Despite all that, it was nice that he showed he cared by letting me play Zombie and Plants 2 on his phone, covering some meals, and buying snacks to share with us.

George grew up to be a really mellow fellow. He doesn't let difficult situations get to him, he does not complain when other people complain to him, and he tries to enjoy things and make the most of any situation. His ability to adapt and stay positive the whole time I think helped Derrick a lot on the trip. I loved that he had the patience to teach me how to ride an adult bike and that he remembered my birthday.