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New Year Holidays
The New Year holiday was rather dull and quiet. Went to get my fourth vaccination shot on Friday (30th) around noon. Afterwards, I went back to the studio to do some work before joining my annual high school friends gathering in the evening. The bivalent vaccine shot had familiar side effects as previous shots and I slept rather poorly that night.
Thought about resting at home the next day (31st), but I reluctantly headed out in the afternoon to shop for the sole purpose of using up the credit card’s cash dollars. Dropped by the studio after shopping before heading home. Managed to finish up the last of my Inktober52 cartoons just before crowds started cheering on the street for the arrival of 2023.
Had the opportunity to rest finally on New Year’s Day. Besides the usual online Sunday service in the morning, I skipped the usual afternoon painting session and evening dinner at my parents place (my dad caught covid last week 😢, but fortunately only had minor symptoms).
Went out for lunch with a few UW friends today. Besides the couple of meetups with friends, I spent most of my time watching shows on Netflix this New Year holidays. Binge watched all the movies and TV series that interested me. Feels like I’m now ready to get back to work for what looks to be a busy Jan. before the CNY holiday starts. Add oil!! 💪🏻🙏🏻
Holiday Season Begins
The holiday season had started. It began with Winter solstice on Thur., Christmas today, New Year coming Sunday, and CNY on Jan 22nd.
Had Winter solstice lunch with my calligraphy class on Thur. Turned down my mom to go home for dinner because our family already celebrated in advance last Sun. This Christmas weekend felt more or less the same as other weekends. Went for my running practice on Christmas Eve, the park was more quiet than usual, and I ran for about 10K. Christmas Day today started with an earlier Sunday Service, I continued to do it remotely at home. Spent the afternoon to continue painting my endangered animal caricatures series. At night, I went back to my parents’ place to dine with them as usual. It was like any other Sunday.
Have been busy catching up on the Inktober52 cartoons in the past couple of weeks. Drew a piece of cartoon almost everyday. Happy to have finally caught up yesterday, now left with just 2 more prompts to finish up before the year ends!
World Cup
The final game for World Cup was a super exciting one! I was watching it at a neighborhood study/co-working space with mostly strangers whom I had never met before. There were about 10 of us watching the game, but the atmosphere was cozy and vibrant, much better than if I were to watch the game alone at home. Everyone was rooting for the Messi-led Argentina team, and everyone was thrilled to see them win the PK shootout after tying the overtime game at 3:3 . It seemed the whole world was cheering for Messi for his first and probably last World Cup win!
Also watched the 2 earlier semifinals even though they were broadcasted live starting at 3 am. I was able to split my sleep into 2 parts to accommodate the eerie hour live coverage.
Besides WC, some other highlights of the past week included seeing large scale 3D printing using a robot arm in person and assisting my calligraphy teacher to teach at a secondary school for the first time. Both of those special experiences were from my friends’ spontaneous invitations. I’m truly grateful for friends.
3 Months
The sermon this morning was delivered by our church’s lead pastor who recently returned from a study leave. He visited his family in Canada during his leave and it had been 4 years since he last visited. He got a bit emotional when he talked about seeing his elderly parents and noticing how they had aged over the years.
It reminded me of my summer vacation in Canada and the many emotions that aroused when connecting with my friends and family there after 4 years. I do miss the simple life in Canada, but at the same time, I know I’ll be missing my elderly parents if I do decide to move back to Canada and start life anew.
Met up with a few friends at the studio on Wed. to see if there might be projects we could collaborate on. The youngest one whom I only got to meet after returning from summer vacation was sounding very ambitious and almost ready to invest a large sum of money on buying machines. I started thinking about the possibility of partnering up with him to initiate some big green projects, but I was wary of investing in this deteriorating city.
A friend from LA messaged me early the past week asking for my address to send out his annual Christmas card. We exchanged greetings and I told him how suffocating it felt living in this city, he seemed to understand and offered his sympathy. Another friend from Canada whose family I hung out with most often during the summer vacation also messaged me in the middle of the week. Without me saying a word, he seemed to understand the suffocation I have been feeling since returning to this city for 3 months.
There was a poem I came across in my daily devotions. The poet told God that he wanted to stay in the field because there were flowers, but God insisted that he should follow His guide to the city despite the smog and other nuisances because it’s in the city that the poet will find the crown.
I probably would like it better to start life anew in Canada, but it seems God would like me to stay in this deteriorating city for a little longer. Is that right, God? 🙏🏻
Back To Normal
After an unusual week filled with meetups with family and friends and a daily schedule that was skewed by the World Cup, this past week was back to normal.
No social meetups occurred this past week other than my regular Chinese calligraphy class on Thursday. The only gathering that was scheduled for Sat. afternoon with my UW friends was postponed to later this month.
With more time on my hands, I got busy with work. Spent many hours to troubleshoot a 3D model for my studio neighbor who is in the yacht-related business. The owner is super nice and environmental friendly, he found an old abandoned 3D printer and many spools of filaments and gifted me for free. So I was glad that I was finally able to fix his 3D boat model and print them out using the printer and materials he gave me. He seemed happy too when I gave him the models on Sat.!
I seem to be picking up the passion for my work again. It’s all thanks to a few friends I recently got to meet, they reminded me of my younger self who started a studio and naively thought he could bring about changes to the world with his work. 8 years passed, I still can’t quite support myself financially with my ideals and passion, but perhaps I can pass on my experience to the younger generations and hope that they’ll be able to sustain themselves financially doing the things they’re passionate about?
