What – two posts in one day?
Another gorgeous October day – only it’s HOT – 25 deg C! Some random thoughts for a Saturday:
1/ Going to a wedding today! I haven’t been to one in a couple of years, and I can’t even remember the last Chinese wedding banquet I went to. I’m looking forward to the festivities.
They will also be having a traditional tea ceremony, and my mother has been asked to participate. It is a formal tradition where the bride and groom offer tea to their elders – and in return the elders give them good wishes in the form of lucky red envelopes with cash, or jewelry. We never had that at our wedding – back then my generation wasn’t as keen to be so traditional, and my husband isn’t Chinese, so it wasn’t something my parents thought was necessary.
Tradition is highly underrated these days, so it will be nice to be witness to that.
2/ Street Dance – Speed Demon – dial up the funk! I learned some new choreography last night, to the new Justin Bieber single, which is so catchy, I can’t get it out of my head. I was practising before bed last night and it registered on my FitBit, which is hilarious. I had no issues getting to sleep and had a decent sleep score. I guess more dance is good ?!
3/ Finishing up on some stuff, like books to be read (hence the previous book review); writing to be done (journalling here and more meaningfully, taking pen to paper), getting to my scene writing.
4/ Just had a Facetime call with my boy – who’s chilling for a Saturday morning. He showed me his sourdough bread starter, we got caught up. Turns out he’s pretty caught up with his grandma, who had some issues with her cable company earlier this week, and I had to be her IT to help re-set her PIN. The last time she had this issue my son helped her out. He already knew that from her texts – and says it is a bit scary that I am her IT support these days. In fact, “I’m surprised that you figured out Facetime without a hitch this time, Mom!). Yeah, he’s funny, good thing he’s not within slapping distance. :).
I do miss him a lot, though – especially during family occasions, like a wedding. Neither kid will join us this time, but such is life when your kids are young adults.
5/ Changes coming up, good ones. I guess, like spring, fall can be a time of new beginnings.
At a time 
Storytelling
People tell stories so others don’t feel as lonely.
I heard this being discussed on an episode of Q on CBC. The author and actress Zosia Mamet was being interviewed about her new memoir “Essays: Does this make me funny.”
It made me think about the reason I write, the reason I have started writing a memoir, the reason I blog.
At various points in my life, I have been lonely, very lonely. I have felt very alone.
I am a storyteller. That must be it.
(Tangent …while we’re talking about writing, can I take a moment to ask what the heck is going on with the English language. People making up words. For words that already exist? Have you heard “on accident”? “Oh, I did that on accident.” What is that even? In my world, the phrase is “by accident”. Grammarly even says so. And yet I have heard that on the air and in conversation. The worst I heard the other day… “it was informationable” – I googled it and apparently it IS a real word. But it was used in the context of being “informative”. Call me a writing snob. I can’t help cringing.)
OK, I’m back on track. Loneliness, telling my story to share experiences. If there is one quiet girl out there who doesn’t know where she belongs, who strives to be good enough as she is continually pushed beyond her comfort zone. Who carries scars from bullying and the weight of self-perceived underachievement buried under an outward successful persona.
If she reads my writing and sees herself in my story, then my writing will be worth it.
What drives you to write?