Fun Things

Work has been a little too much lately. So much that I wanted to throw things. The TVs weren't working, the computers weren't working, the fax wasn't working, the printer wasn't working... And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Enough about work.

Since my last blog, I was told to sleep more and blog less. Instead of not blogging at all, I'll keep them shorter.

I accompanied my mother her school events last night and this afternoon. She's taking a leadership for women class at the Ketagalan Institute. The school was founded by Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's current president. They offer courses on leadership for influential people in Taiwan's government and industry, or people affiliated to them. I talked to my mother's classmates for the first time yesterday, and they were quite interesting and mostly very knowledgeable. It was at a banquet at Premier Frank Hsieh's residence. It's good to be with people that have something to share. I learned about the country life in Taiwan, how locally focused community colleges are popping up everywhere now, which is becoming something of a phenomenon, and what is likely to happen to the show I am working on. I saw some high-profile people and found out that the world is once again smaller than I thought it was. It turns out that the husband of several of the women were friends or acquaintances of my father. The deputy minister of the interior, who used to be the mayor of Taichung and who uncannily looks like my aunt on my father's side says to me: you look like Judy Ongg. I say: why, thank you. Sometimes that falls out of the sky. I usually don't like to talk about that unless someone else starts. My father says: actually, she's Michella's godmother. She says: what a coincidence, she and my husband are cousins and she stayed at our house in Taichung. What a coincidence indeed.

This afternoon, there was a K-school get-together at the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology. I brought my 18 cm x 12 cm sketching pad and pencils along, and once things got a little boring, I started drawing. After the lecture on Puyuma (an indigenous Taiwanese people in Taiwan) craft and pride, everyone moved outside for tea. The conversation became a little boring, and I started sketching. I tried drawing the vase on the table, but it was going nowhere so my mother suggested the elevated wooden structure that was behind us. It looks like a very long gazebo that started three meters off the ground. I didn't get to go up there, but I'm sure there's a good view of the Danshui river and of Danshui on the other side.



Well, the sketch wasn't great and I had a very hard time, but I think it's not so bad for my first architecture sketch.

That sketch, however, gave me drawing fever. After an hour and a half, it was time to go home. I was still sketching on the car ride home, and nearly threw up at the end of the journey.


After dinner, I took out the only two art books I had and decided to do a picture of a picture. The first one is from the cover of the Munakata Shiko Museum collection book. I gave up pretty quickly. I think I need a Chinese brush to make it look anything close to what it's really like. Then I found a print of a Camellia in my godmother's art book and started drawing away again. This one lasted four "I'm in town!" phone calls.


When it rains, it pours; and it goes for friends who are visiting as well. Eddie from Bilingual messaged to say he's in town. Jack from UCI, Yi-Chen from Bilingual and Cindy from Dominican all telephoned tonight to say they're here. Amazing. This will keep my mind off work for sure.

Where has all the time gone? I've been writing for an hour now. I will be an ugly monster again tomorrow.

This was taken by my paparazzi mother.