![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Post-Chap Goh Mei calculations
When I was a child, someone told me that for maximum luck, you shouldn't open your red packets for at least 2 weeks. I think that morphed into, you shouldn't open them within the first 14 days of New Year's, which culminates with Chap Goh Meh.
Since this last weekend was Chap Goh Mei I felt it was the right time to open up all the red packets to calculate my earnings, seeing as I'm unmarried still and all.
We went up to Penang on Friday, and had a reunion with my mother's family (almost all her siblings except her eldest brother, who went to Australia to be with his kids, since 3 out of his 4 are now living in Melbourne). I haven't seen my eldest aunt's sons in some time, not since their kids were toddlers, so it was kind of interesting, if a reminder of my age and how... not close I am to them. I mistook a niece for my cousin's wife which /o\ She just looks so much like the mom! But my mother's family is in many ways not "my people"--they speak Cantonese or Hokkien for most part, and it was hard trying to get to know any of the nieces without my mom interjecting all the time (which led to some ramble about how it's hard for girls to be dentists because you have to have strong hands for dental work which ?????????).
On Saturday, I followed my parents on an early morning walk around downtown Georgetown, which was mostly a trip down memory lane for them as they talked about what used to be there, or who used to live where, which is mildly interesting, but I was promised a yau char kwai at some point and got pretty hannoyed (hungry + annoyed, which is like hangry, but not so bad).
Had my dad drive me over to Charis Loke's place, where we had a nice brunch, and I was just gonna leave after, but my dad decided he wanted to nap, and so could I hang out with Charis for longer? And OF COURSE I CAN, because Charis is... really cool??? And she suggested we go over to the Thaipusam festival a few blocks away. It was a really interesting experience! In KL the place to go to for Thaipusam is Batu Caves, but it's usually crowded and my family doesn't really make it a point to go, so I've never been. Of course I grew up with the newspaper articles with the images of the intense body piercing and near mutilation that is performed during Thaipusam, but I've never seen it in person. So that took another two hours, and I posted an Instagram story of it.
I had every intention to working the rest of the afternoon but instead crashed the hell out, waking up in time for an evening dinner with some of my dad's cousins, in particular Uncle Jimmy's family. Uncle Jimmy passed away a year ago, and his sister also passed just last month (the day of the wedding I attended, in fact). Uncle Jimmy's three kids are more my kind of people, but I didn't get to sit with them, and haven't really gotten to talk to them much. I've not met them since they were teens (they're a few years younger I am; I think I last saw them in my first two years in Canada?). And sigh, my mom kept interjecting again, and it's really hard to have a basic "get to know you" conversation with her butting in with answers and questions that don't actually generate more conversation?? Anyway that was another wash, but oh well. I'll keep trying, since I do value my dad's family to some extent.
Anyway what with all the red packets!!! I've got some RM230 in cold hard cash!! Which is not bad for a season--I've had some really stellar years, but the last decade has been slim pickings since I'm not there to collect in person usually. It's also worthwhile writing down who gave which red packet... it's a bit of a surprise sometimes to see who's giving how much each year (you know the economy is taking a downturn when a wealthy uncle gives less than the years before, for example).
--
In other news, the FedEx box containing my new O1B petition has been shipped!!!! It's 18lb of paper--I need to get the PDF of the documents in the order that they are arranged and whatever else.
Since I paid premium processing, this time I'll get a response within 14 days, so the countdown now begins. My lawyer is VERY positive about my chances. After that I have to go to the US embassy here to get the actual stamp. Hopefully that all gets resolved in a month??
--
Went to the dentist for some scaling last weekend, which was in the realm of RM250, but had to go back to get my fillings fixed. The dentist told me that one of my teeth is ... 80% filling now, and one of the four remaining corners has a pretty high chance of getting cracked in the next few years, so she suggested getting an onlay. Since it's on my dad's dime, and also not in USD, I figure I might as well do that now and have less dental work to worry about in the future.
But an onlay takes about two weeks to construct, and in the meantime, I've got a temporary onlay that feels... like chewing gum?? Just the surface of it. When I scratch it, it feels hard like a regular tooth, but running my tongue over it makes me itch to remove it like an errant piece of gum!! So hopefully I'll hear sooner than two weeks for the onlay.
Since this last weekend was Chap Goh Mei I felt it was the right time to open up all the red packets to calculate my earnings, seeing as I'm unmarried still and all.
We went up to Penang on Friday, and had a reunion with my mother's family (almost all her siblings except her eldest brother, who went to Australia to be with his kids, since 3 out of his 4 are now living in Melbourne). I haven't seen my eldest aunt's sons in some time, not since their kids were toddlers, so it was kind of interesting, if a reminder of my age and how... not close I am to them. I mistook a niece for my cousin's wife which /o\ She just looks so much like the mom! But my mother's family is in many ways not "my people"--they speak Cantonese or Hokkien for most part, and it was hard trying to get to know any of the nieces without my mom interjecting all the time (which led to some ramble about how it's hard for girls to be dentists because you have to have strong hands for dental work which ?????????).
On Saturday, I followed my parents on an early morning walk around downtown Georgetown, which was mostly a trip down memory lane for them as they talked about what used to be there, or who used to live where, which is mildly interesting, but I was promised a yau char kwai at some point and got pretty hannoyed (hungry + annoyed, which is like hangry, but not so bad).
Had my dad drive me over to Charis Loke's place, where we had a nice brunch, and I was just gonna leave after, but my dad decided he wanted to nap, and so could I hang out with Charis for longer? And OF COURSE I CAN, because Charis is... really cool??? And she suggested we go over to the Thaipusam festival a few blocks away. It was a really interesting experience! In KL the place to go to for Thaipusam is Batu Caves, but it's usually crowded and my family doesn't really make it a point to go, so I've never been. Of course I grew up with the newspaper articles with the images of the intense body piercing and near mutilation that is performed during Thaipusam, but I've never seen it in person. So that took another two hours, and I posted an Instagram story of it.
I had every intention to working the rest of the afternoon but instead crashed the hell out, waking up in time for an evening dinner with some of my dad's cousins, in particular Uncle Jimmy's family. Uncle Jimmy passed away a year ago, and his sister also passed just last month (the day of the wedding I attended, in fact). Uncle Jimmy's three kids are more my kind of people, but I didn't get to sit with them, and haven't really gotten to talk to them much. I've not met them since they were teens (they're a few years younger I am; I think I last saw them in my first two years in Canada?). And sigh, my mom kept interjecting again, and it's really hard to have a basic "get to know you" conversation with her butting in with answers and questions that don't actually generate more conversation?? Anyway that was another wash, but oh well. I'll keep trying, since I do value my dad's family to some extent.
Anyway what with all the red packets!!! I've got some RM230 in cold hard cash!! Which is not bad for a season--I've had some really stellar years, but the last decade has been slim pickings since I'm not there to collect in person usually. It's also worthwhile writing down who gave which red packet... it's a bit of a surprise sometimes to see who's giving how much each year (you know the economy is taking a downturn when a wealthy uncle gives less than the years before, for example).
--
In other news, the FedEx box containing my new O1B petition has been shipped!!!! It's 18lb of paper--I need to get the PDF of the documents in the order that they are arranged and whatever else.
Since I paid premium processing, this time I'll get a response within 14 days, so the countdown now begins. My lawyer is VERY positive about my chances. After that I have to go to the US embassy here to get the actual stamp. Hopefully that all gets resolved in a month??
--
Went to the dentist for some scaling last weekend, which was in the realm of RM250, but had to go back to get my fillings fixed. The dentist told me that one of my teeth is ... 80% filling now, and one of the four remaining corners has a pretty high chance of getting cracked in the next few years, so she suggested getting an onlay. Since it's on my dad's dime, and also not in USD, I figure I might as well do that now and have less dental work to worry about in the future.
But an onlay takes about two weeks to construct, and in the meantime, I've got a temporary onlay that feels... like chewing gum?? Just the surface of it. When I scratch it, it feels hard like a regular tooth, but running my tongue over it makes me itch to remove it like an errant piece of gum!! So hopefully I'll hear sooner than two weeks for the onlay.