Farewell Brunch at Sharon & Dorion's

It seems as though they all made a deal to leave Taiwan around the same time. Roberto's leaving on the 15th; Tash and Patrick are leaving on the 21st. Dorion and Sharon threw a "brunch & game" day for them. Who could say "No" to free food and fun games?



Dorion's super Belgium waffle

with assorted fruit, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and cherries.




Pre-game Warm-up

Roberto: "I have no problem leaving Taiwan, but I don't ever wanna leave this guy."
Bill: "I'm special and I know it."



Ben: "That's pretty disturbing if you ask me."





Brook: "I thought the bond between these two was quite touching, actually."






Jingjing: "Yeah, Ben. Look! There's nothing wrong with getting physically close to a friend."
Sharon: "I second that."





Ben: "Let me take a picture of you two. Get closer."
Bill: "Let's make funny faces. Bleh~~~~"
Kate: "Make WHAT?" *click*




Ben: "Take the camera. Let me show you how it's done."







(from left to right)

1. Kate: "Oops! I think my hands shook. One more time."
2. Jingjing: "You're not making funny faces, are you?"
Ben: "Who says I am?"
3. Kate: "How is this one different from the first one?"
4. Ben: "Hey, I'm trying to teach you something, alright? So show some respect!"

Kate: "Fine! Let's take another shot. This time's for real."
Ben: "Deal!"

Kate: "You're hopeless, Benjamin!"
Ben: "This is how it's done, Katherine!"





Game Time
Ben brought the bilingual Pictionary. Bill and Ben were explaining the rules to everyone.

Ben: "... and then you do this."
Bill: "Wait! And then you do THAT, not this."



Patrick: "When will these two ever agree with one another?"
Brook: "Never. Get yourself another coffee, man. This is gonna take a while."



Gabriela: "I don't know if we should listen to them."
Tash: "I wouldn't trust them. No."




Ben: "What? I understand why you wouldn't trust Bill, but how could you not trust me? Just look at this face!"






Bill: "Wait, wait, wait!The rules say that when you do this, you blah blah blah..."
Ben: "Which is exactly what I just said. You should've just listened to me in the first place."


Ben first drew a fly. The he quickly drew a lot of them in one corner of the paper.
Bill: "Flies! Bugs! Insects!"
Ben circled all the flies together and kept pointing at the circle.
Bill: "Lots of flies! Bugs! Did I say that already? A group of insects! A group of flies!"
This is when Ben gave up and rested his head in his hand.
The word was "swarm".

At the end, it was a game between Bill, Ben, Sharon and Gabriela, Tash, Dorion.

Gabriela was confident.






Bill was nervous... so nervous, in fact, he had to stand up.





Unfortunately... I mean, finally, Bill's team won the game!

Bill could not be more proud.

Type A Personality

I’ve wanted to post something since I came home on Thursday. The last line of Bill’s post haunted me like a broken record. I felt obligated to post something. The problem was (and it didn’t really show as much when I stare at the TV with my mouth open), it was when I sat in front of the computer I really noticed how foggy and empty my mind was.

I didn’t want to report what I’ve been doing since I got home ‘cause that would just bore me and you to death. However, I didn’t have anything exciting to tell you about ‘cause the road to recovery is often repetitive and uneventful (well, most “events” involved bodily functions and I didn’t want to abuse or assume the bond we've established).

Though Lisa Martin caught me red-handed for sweeping stuff under the carpet last time, I seriously considered putting another picture of a cute cat to indicate that I am here without actually writing anything. I thought maybe Lisa wouldn’t notice this time ‘cause she’s busy with Jordy. Well, that was until I saw her comment! Did you tug Jordy under one arm when you typed?

How about dropping a one-liner: “Hey everyone, I’m back and I’m doing well”? I could never. I’m a story teller, not a Hallmark card writer.

So I retraced my steps and started thinking what made this surgery different from the last one. Well for starters, I wanted to check out of the hospital the morning after the surgery.

I didn’t know why they wanted to keep me in the hospital… Okay, I knew why, but I really didn’t want to stay in the hospital. I kept trying to prove to them I was fit to be discharged.

7 hours after I woke up from anesthesia, I told them to go ahead and pull the pee tube out ‘cause I wanted to be on my feet and go to the bathroom on my own. A veteran’s hunch told me I needed to fart if I wanted to eat. Ha! Let me tell ya! Not only did I pass gas, I was farting up a storm, loudly and proudly. I tried to joke around with the doctors and nurses too. I asked if I could have some food instead after they denied me a swig of water (the nurse didn’t get that I was joking). I told them I had a New Year’s Party to go to when my blood pressure was something like 86/42 at that time.

When we wanted to leave the room for a longer period of time, Bill put me in a wheelchair. We raced down the creepy hospital corridors. We sat out in the courtyard until someone drove us away by blowing smoke our way. Bill also slammed me (or let me slam) into walls a few times, but of course, he “didn’t mean it.” (Sure, babe.)

On New Year’s Eve, a senior resident told us to find him in the Delivery Room. He would open the Fire Exit so we could see the fireworks at Taipei 101 on the balcony. Bill even bought a small bottle of red wine (he was gonna wet my lips with it and drink the whole bottle himself). We got all bundled up and went to the Delivery Room… no sight of the Resident! We told the nurse why we were there, all of a sudden a handful of doctors and nurses showed up from nowhere, and they were all running around looking for the ever-so-mysterious place to see the fireworks. We ended up counting down with a couple of interns in front of the TV in the Waiting Lounge. The senior resident never showed.

………………………………………………………………………………………….....................................................

We were in the cab coming home. I was talking to Simon about when to meet up to get the textbooks so I could prepare for classes this weekend. After I hung up the phone, Bill said, “You’re the typical case of a person who can seriously injure herself again because she wants to do too much too soon and too quickly.”

I wonder if I'm Type A Personality.

A Wiki Moment:
Type A personality, also known as the Type A Behavior Pattern, is a set of characteristics that includes being impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about one's status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive, and incapable of relaxation.

Type A individuals are often high-achieving workaholics who multi-task, drive themselves with deadlines, and are unhappy about the smallest of delays. Although they may exhibit some or all of these characteristics, it does not mean that people with the type A personality are incapable of showing love, affection or other types of non-pessimistic behavior. Many are also capable of "coaching" some of these behavior attributes with proper treatment and medication. Those who do not seek treatment have been described as stress junkies, and often display some of the following characteristics:

1. An intrinsic insecurity or insufficient level of self-esteem, which is considered to be the root cause of the syndrome. This is believed to be covert and therefore less observable.
2. Time urgency and impatience, which causes irritation and exasperation.
3. Free floating hostility, which can be triggered even over little incidents.