FUNNY COMBINATION

     Today Park declared that he will take Roberta to church and then they will go  have a picnic in a park nearby. They did that a week ago and had a very good time. I believe, some swings time (I mean, children's swings,   not the other kind) was involved. 
     Park was busy making wraps all morning. I showed him how to do it, and now poor Roberta has to eat them morning day and night. One time he used elbow noodles, 
grated potatoes, 
peanut butter and jelly . He wrapped it all in a tortilla   and felt that he created a masterpiece! 
     So, perhaps, because of the smells coming from the kitchen, Roberta put on her best sick face and made a declaration of her own. She said that she had a stomach ache. She accepted a tablespoon of shockingly pink Pepto Bismol. 
 I didn't know that she was faking, so she had to undergo some of my hovering and many suggestions and guesses as to what might have been ailing her.

    Fortunately, Park was too scared to have Roberta get sick during their proposed trip. He got ready for church and left in a cloud of Roberta's Tea Rose perfume. I finished coughing in his aromatic wake and went to see Roberta. 
     She already made a dramatic recovery and spent the morning reading and watching TV. I didn't see her that relaxed and happy in a long time. She got dressed and said that she will go to the picnic with Park after he comes back from the church. Hours passed. He was not back. I began to hope that he, may be, took off and left us for good.
     I fed Roberta and talked to her. Park called then and told me that his car, that he just paid off today, broke down. He also told me not to say anything to Roberta. 

     Of course, I told her. She took it in stride and had some more good time. A few hours later I gave her dinner. She lost a lot of weight again and looks like a Holocaust survivor once more, on a diet of Park's wraps. I made my signature dish today: Shepherd's pie
     (I mentioned how to make it in one of the past posts). She ate heartily. I said that she needs to call Park again to see if he needs help. I can't help but wonder, why that idea didn't occur to her. What kind of a couple are they, anyway? He steals money from and bullies her and she prefers to be away from him.
     Just then Park showed up. He told us that his car failed to start in a church parking lot. He was lucky: a member who is a car mechanic saw him, helped him to get the car started and brought him to his house, where he proceeded to repair the vehicle. Park then got lost on the way home. 
     I still dislike Park, but I find myself becoming involved in all that drama that his life is. I really don't want for it to happen though!

HMMM...

"Eat me, please, eat me!" That little mouse hit the nail on the head. Sometimes, the more extensive the family ties, the more we feel at sea with their problems! "Eat me, please, eat me!"

WARNING: HEAD EXPLODING CUTENESS! (watch 'cute kitten kisses')

http://lovemeow.com/2013/11/cute-kitten-gives-kisses/#GeRgslKWXywHaKXB.03

HEMP!

     Ever heard of the 'hemp oil'? For me marijuana is a reason for jokes, although I did once or twice have a heated discussion with Sonny about it. Until two days ago there was just a tiny doubt in my mind that it is a thing to avoid and pray that your children will avoid. Now Taka and I bought a lot of the hemp oil. 
     I'm afraid to tell you, why. I will wait until or - if - I know for sure. It's just too terrible to think that it might be true...
Anyway, instead let's talk about marijuana  and hemp. Every year the U.S. government and, I bet, every other government (except where they kill people for using drugs) spend enormous amounts of money trying to stop growth, dealing and using of marijuana. Enormous! I thought it was justified until two days ago. Now I don't know, what to think. 
     I saw a program about it. They said that the whole reputation of marijuana as a 'devil drug' came from a campaign started by the lumber selling companies, because they were concerned that there would be a competition for the territory from the marijuana growing companies. Is it true? I don't know! Sounds like "big business", though!

                                                              

     The same program talked about marijuana or just some of it's properties being a cure for cancer and a vehicle for other medications, like pain killers or the ones for nausea to be absorbed by the body much faster than on their own. 
     Recently, I tried to help a theater group that was doing a production about a research into marijuana as cancer cure raise money. Do you remember it? I asked you all for help too! I'm glad that I stepped away from my preconceptions to do so! I am still not 100% sure that all this information is true. Perhaps, you should research it for yourself.

LIFE 'ND STUFF

     When they lived in New York, father and mother constantly complained that we were so far apart. When they moved into the apartments, they bemoaned the fact that we lived too far from them, 10 minutes away, in Hayward, so after our daughter was born, we moved in the same apartments as them, in San Leandro (they began nagging at us that the parking lot was too much of an obstacle and we should move into the same hallway as them). At first, it seemed like a perfect arrangement, especially, for me. Early in the morning I would bring my little girl to her Grandpa's and Grandma's place. They would take care of us the whole day; my only job was to feed Hanah, every couple of days take Mom and Dad shopping or to the appointments and rest up before I had to feed Hanah again. Sometimes my parents would even come to my apartment and clean up! The only person who wasn't happy with this situation was my husband. It seemed to him that, I came home later and later from my "other home" across the parking lot. I couldn't understand that. Didn't he get my Mom's wonderful dinners every night? Wasn't he welcomed at Mom and Dad's any time he was lonesome? What he couldn't convey to me was that it was hard for him to share my attention and time with others.
     What I also didn't immediately catch was that he and my mom were so much alike. They didn't only have the same attitudes and a belief that the world should bend itself to their wishes. They even had the same weird illnesses, like Shingles or frozen shoulders, or unexplained dizziness. We came to anticipate that if one of them had such a malady, the other will soon follow the suit. I suspected that they were the fraternal twins, whose eggs were separated and one of them sent to a woman in Japan. Mom and I would often have a fight, and I’d leave, only to have another fight at home. Even so, it was a sweet life for me.

OVERTHROW

     Yesterday was a bad day for Roberta. From the time that she woke up, she had a stomach ache and nausea. Still, she had a breakfast. I was going to give her some anti-nausea medication, but Sonny had to leave earlier than usual, so I hoped that her stomach would settle without the meds. 
     When I came back, much later that day, Park informed me that Roberta did an overthrow!
What came to my mind immediately, was a picture of 80 years old, frail Roberta, pushing her walker and waving a poster with revolutionary slogans, stopping only to shake her fists in the air and shout for the overthrow of a government! 
     I only guessed what Park meant because I knew how Roberta felt in the morning. She threw up while I was out. Far from the picture of a revolutionary in my mind, she slept since then and until about 4 p.m. She woke up. I checked on her and made sure that she was comfortable. In the evening she wanted me to make her some oatmeal with raisins. Sonny and I went to Safeway to buy oatmeal and raisins and Roberta had the meal that she wanted.

LIFE 'ND STUFF

This is a continuation of my family's life together.

LIFE 'ND STAFF 

I spent the day before my parents came to live in California looking for a new dress. I was eight months pregnant, so it was very difficult to find something that would drape my bulk and show it off to the best advantage. At that point in my pregnancy, I had the hardest time making up my mind. After visiting four or five shops in the mall, I ended up back in the first maternity store where I've been that day, buying the first dress that I saw. It was bright, red-pink and, after schlepping my way from one end of the mall to the other for 4 hours, I must've looked as wilted and worn out as Santa Claus on December 26th. I felt that the eyes of every person at the airport, including the unbelieving gaze of my parents, were drawn to my round, neon colored person, as my husband and I (in my dress) descended the escalator to meet them at the gate.  

I should explain a few things. Mom, Dad, and I emigrated to the U.S. from Soviet Russia, nine years before this. The ungrateful child that I was, I soon left them to join the Unification Church Movement, where I met my husband, Takahumi (Taka) Toyoda, from Japan. When I became pregnant at 34, my parents, who by then stopped hoping for a grandchild, eagerly quit their comfortable, settled life in New York and came to live close to us in California.  

We lived in a small, freshly done one bedroom apartment. Mom and Dad's furniture wouldn't arrive for the next two weeks, so they had to stay with us there for that period of time. Considering that they just left forever their roomy apartment in New York City, their mood was, understandably, glum. We let them have our bedroom, only to hear my Mom's complaints about our treasured futon's wooden planks cutting into her back. And so it began.  

My mother and I always had a turbulent relationship. She made a mistake of raising me to be an idealist and to challenge the authority. Hers was the first authority I challenged. We both would have gladly given our lives for each other, but  after all those years as a missionary when I lived in a, basically, positive, supportive atmosphere, it was very hard to go back to getting verbally slapped every few minutes. 

Fortunately, however long those weeks seemed to us, they were finally over. My parents and their furniture were successfully installed in their own place, about ten minutes away from us. We visited each other quite often. I had to help them get situated in California; I took them to the appointments and showed them around. It was a formidable undertaking, since I didn’t drive then, and we had to go everywhere by bus. People in my neighborhood became used to seeing me, on the last stages of pregnancy, galloping  across the three lanes of traffic to catch the approaching bus.  For some reason, we could never get the schedule right, so we ended up standing on the bus stops, sometimes, for an hour. A few times I stuck my belly and my thumb out and got us a ride that way.