Here’s my direct answer: I am a “take-carer”. I know that’s not an actual word, but that’s how I would describe myself &, more aptly, describe the best part of myself. I wouldn’t exactly categorize that part of myself as being a caregiver, per sé, because that sounds like I’m a certified licensed nurse or something. However, I dolike to & tend to give care to those around me. Also, since having a child, I have noticed my motherly instincts & mentality ramp up ten fold.
Perhaps that is one reason why I, in some ways, enjoy having my mother live with me & my family unit. It’s not only that multi-generational living is engrained in my family’s culture, & I don’t mind multi-generational living at all, but me wanting the role of taking care of others plays a huge part. It has been especially important for me to take on this role & responsibility ever since my mom became a widow. It gives me great relief to know that I can provide my mom a sense of stability, consistency, & comfort, filling the gap between the loss of my father & standing in his shoes (partially).
I also take pride in caring for those around me. My main role these days is to give care to my little offspring, but I also take care of all the other significant people in my life, & that gives me the greatest feeling of fulfillment.
How I care for the others around me varies, but I’d like to think of myself as a constant or consistent being that each person can attach themselves to at any time. I can be a helping hand, a guide, a shoulder, a listener, a hostess, a gift-giver, a person to make others laugh…although, I’ve only been able to make myself laugh lately, as only I am able to laugh at my own stupid mom jokes.
Yes, I would very much say that my ability as well as my desire to take care of others is my most favorite thing about, well, me. Do I make time to take care of myself? Yes. The thing I do best to take care of myself is to make myself laugh at least once a day, & I don’t mean a chuckle at a silly little anecdote, or an ‘LOL’ at a friend’s text. I’m talking about a nearly in tears, can’t stop clutching my belly, full blown knock my socks off laugh. That’s all, a fall-out-of-my-chair laugh at least once a day. I’m giggling even as I write this line.
Recently I have found myself drawn to background noise videos on YouTube. Sometimes I will listen to Lo-Fi beats or soft café jazz music. Other times I will play a stream of sounds from a busy coffee shop. Even more recently, however, I have been very much enjoying city street background noise, especially the ones with light rain. I will put on a long-stream video & let it play in the background while I’m puttering around the house doing chores, or while I’m click-clack typing away on my computer. I know ambient static noise has become quite popular these days (i.e. white noise, brown noise, pink noise, etc.), but I have really found these everyday background sounds to be the most soothing/calming for me personally.
I live in a very stereotypical, quiet American suburban neighborhood. Sometimes I can catch the sounds of a delivery truck or a neighbor speeding up our hilled street, or the sounds of a lawn getting mowed. If I am in my backyard, looking out past the wooded area behind my house’s property line, I can not only see the freeway overpass, but I can hear the distant noise of the cars & motorcycles whizzing by. Every once-in-a-while, an airplane from the nearby airport can be somewhat heard flying over our neighborhood.
I would love to be able to crack open a window in the house & listen to all the sounds coming from outside, but I can’t for various reasons. For one, my mom dislikes anyone opening a window unless someone is cooking & it’s making the whole house smell. Secondly, she has a fear that someone will forget to shut the window at night & a random intruder will sneak in to burglarize our house. On top of that, my mom has removed all the screens on all the windows for easier window washing. So now we can’t find half the screens for all of the windows, which means bugs can get inside if we open a window…& not just one or two, but an annoying amount of bugs. Plus, we don’t get much ambient outdoor noise except for my next-door neighbor’s super irritating dogs barking at everything. (She has 4 fur balls.)
That’s when I discovered this completely new-to-me rabbit hole on YouTube of random background sounds. I have been listening to the Café Music BGM channel & the Chillhop Music channel on YouTube for the past couple of years already, but I have never thought of putting on ambient noise before now. This latest idea originated from something completely inane that I have already been doing for years, but never gave it much importance. It’s one of life’s small, yet impactful, pleasures that really brings me comfort & joy…listening to the sounds coming from an open window. Yes, it really is that simple, generic, & kind of dumb action that we take for granted every single day.
I started consciously & actively doing this from the time Jian & I started traveling together. Whenever we stay in a hotel somewhere, if there is an openable window, I’m going to open it. I love letting the everyday sounds from the outside waft in to our room while we’re settling in & unpacking our suitcases, or open the window when we wake up in the morning to circulate the air in the room. Obviously, due to hotel regulations, the windows do not open wide enough to get a full breeze circulating around the room, but at least we can feel a modest flow of air.
When we take breaks in our hotel room, I like to crack open the window & listen to the sounds coming from outside, rather than always have the TV on in the background. Some of my fondest memories are of the times when I’d accompany Jian on one of his work trips, & I’d be on my own for most of the day while he was working. I’d explore the city on my own for a while. Then, I’d grab an afternoon coffee & snack, head back to the hotel, & just listen to the sounds from an open window while putting my feet up on the chair & taking a relaxing break.
Jian is not too keen on my penchant for window-opening. He likes to colorfully express his fear of pervy voyeurs peering into our room, especially while we’re getting dressed or getting ready to take a shower. It doesn’t matter if the hotel room is on the 3rd floor, 20th floor, or 50th floor, or even if the windows are shaded. He believes there’s always someone out there trying to sneak a peak at us, either partially or fully in our birthday suits, perhaps with an HD resolution, military-grade, telescopic lens. Much to his chagrin though, I still enjoy cracking open that window, however much the hotel regulations allow. As long as we can hear the sounds from outside filtering in to our room, or we can feel a slight breeze, that makes me feel content.
Seeking these kinds of little pleasures in life is what truly lifts my spirits. It gets me in a good mood & puts a smile on my face. Like Gen Z aptly puts it, it’s giving chill vibes AF. I’m in my “vacation mom” era. Ahem, I’m only kidding. I don’t talk like that in my everyday life, let alone write it out. Let’s forget all that nonsense & just enjoy the ambient tunes of idle café chatter & cars passing by some nondescript city street, pretend we are people-watching as we sip our iced lattés at the sidewalk table under the awning. It’s getting closer to happy hour, & the sky is no longer a vibrant blue. Shades of pink & orange are starting to streak across the skyline. The 21 and over spot next door just put out their $1 dollar oysters sign. I’m about to reheat some leftovers for tonight’s dinner. Until the next cup, cheers!
My little family trio just got back from Los Angeles (again). I was excited to finally meet my cousin’s new baby, but that still did not spark my interest in going back to Los Angeles. The amount of times per year my little family unit has to travel to Los Angeles for family events has now become a chore. Yes, we love going to visit our extended family based down in Southern California, & we love spending time with them, but it’s just become an obligation at this point. In case you’re wondering, none of our relatives from down south ever come up to visit us in the Bay Area…at least nobody from my generation, except for my siblings, & my mom’s siblings.
Well, however that may be, our little trip still had a fun time this past weekend. We had a typical Chinese family dinner with our aunties & uncles straight away, to pay our respects to the older generation. Then we took some time for ourselves as a little family unit before we had to attend the all-important (& the reason why we came in the first place) banquet dinner celebration of the newest addition to our ever-growing family. My cousin & her husband, along with her two sisters, coordinated a warm & wonderful party to celebrate our new nephew’s 100-day milestone. The 100 Days celebration is a popular tradition among many Asian cultures.
The party was raucous & fun, & I was totally shocked when my little bean adapted to the lively festivities like a champ. I mean, she barely had a decent nap in the car, at most 30 minutes…when she normally naps for at least two hours. Then, she normally freaks out at seeing rowdy kids, but this time she was cool as a cucumber. The only time she freaked out, even a little bit, was when we had to change her diaper in an empty banquet room (’cause the restaurant didn’t have a diaper changing table in any of the bathrooms).
Overall, we spent the weekend at a pretty chill pace. The weather was actually not hot for once, & it actually rained a tiny bit on the day of the big celebration. We ticked a couple of eating spots off of our ever-growing list of “Want to Eat” places. I was on the hunt for more interesting/unique children’s books for my little bean’s already full bookcase. More surprisingly, we ordered room service for breakfast each morning, mostly because there were no western style breakfast spots or coffee shops with breakfast-y foods near our hotel. Jian is usually the one who dislikes ordering room service, thinking the prices are a rip off & the food is mediocre at best. However, he was the one to suggest room service breakfasts on this trip.
In other news somewhat related to this post, I did a mini haul of stationery goods. I didn’t go nuts on shopping this time like I have done in the past. I didn’t get much of a chance to hit up many of my favorite spots, so there really wasn’t much opportunity for me to go wild anyway. I made sure that my purchases were modest & intentional. I mean, I honestly have a huge stationery supply already. I couldn’t possibly use everything in my collection, even within the next 10 years. So this time I picked out a few much-needed everyday use pens & added 2 more sticker packs to my does-not-need-to-grow sticker stash. Also, more recently, I’ve been really into collecting mid-size to large format vinyl decal stickers.
See below images for reference.
Well, that was my small rant-to-recap of my family-packed weekend. I am seriously counting down the days until my little family trio goes to Japan. We just received our little bean’s very first passport in the mail the other day, & that got me super excited. I mean, that’s just one more thing to solidify our big overseas trip. The moment we actually book our flights, that’ll be the final piece to our planning puzzle. By then, it will finally sink in that we are going on an epic adventure abroad, taking our kid on an airplane for the first time, going out of the country with our kid for the first time, also our first big-format travel plans since the pandemic happened. I hope that I will be able to take enough photos & get enough content to put in one of my long-format blog posts. Until the next one, cheers!
Rabbits & Foxes 
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