Seattle

Well, I went to Seattle last week. From November 13th-18th. Main reason for this trip was to see my grandmother before she dies. We don't know how long we can expect her to live, but I don't like to act on the optimistic side of things, so I decided to see her as soon as possible.

She's actually still well enough to function normally, but she's lazy. All she does is lay in her bed and get up for meals or the bathroom. We've been telling her that she should be more active and eat more so that her health doesn't decline further, but she's quite obstinate. For a while, she would go to the senior center, and we assumed she was taking part in the exercises. But she told Auntie Jane that it was very tiring for her to sit and watch the old people do exercises. Ridiculous. Anyway, she's using oxygen tanks to supplement her breathing and will start on chemotherapy soon.

Grandpa's lifestyle is the same: eat and sleep. He likes to go to the casino and play the video slots. But he doesn't really understand what's going on, so we often have to tell him which button to press. Since I was watching him for a while, I decided I might as well put in a few dollars in the machine I was sitting at, and senselessly press the button for a while. Then I was mesmerized by turning my $20 into $100, and kept playing. I thought to myself, "I will stop when I have a profit of $100." Of course I lost it all before that happened, and was hooked on the silly machine for a while. Then I tried to make up for the loss by playing blackjack, which didn't pan out very well either. Next time, no machines.

So grandpa liked my beef/chicken/vegetable soup. I cooked for them that Friday, and made a huge pot of it. For lunch, I gave him a bowl, and couldn't figure out whether he liked it or not. My poor Chinese and his poor English creates a situation in which we have very poor communication. But when he finished his bowl, he motioned for more, so I gave him another bowl. About three hours later, he came out to have more soup. And two hours after that, more soup again. Auntie Jane and Uncle Rocky liked it too. I was told it was "very healthy and delicious".

I took a picture of the grandparents, and got a picture of myself with grandma. Simple straight-on portraits, nothing fancy. Haven't taken any good pictures of them recently because they're usually opposed to taking pictures.

We went to Pike's Market and walked around the pier. I think Seattle would be a nice place for me to live. Fresh fish and seafood. And I prefer colder climates. Scenery is really nice too. During the fall there's a brilliant landscape of greens, reds, oranges, yellows, and browns.