family, friends

Mom asked me to play cards with her and Floyd last night.  I haven’t done that in ages.  “Sure,” I said.  I put on some music, and Floyd dealt the cards.

The object of the game is to get rid of a stack of 21 cards by playing them, each person in turn, on stacks from A to Q in the middle of the table.  Sometimes we move one, two, or more cards during our turns, but most times we just take turns around the table and accomplish nothing – take a card to start, try to play, and finally discard a card.

We went around and around for 20 minutes without much action.  Mom & Floyd played several cards from their stack of 21.  Mine stood still.  I couldn’t move any.  I pointed this out to them.  “You haven’t moved any?”  “Not yet,” I replied.

I think Floyd took pity on me and played two As on the table.  My turn came around, and I used my first card.  Then another.  Then two As came up.  I used them to start two new stacks and built on them – A, 2, 3 … up to Q.  I kept playing.  Six or seven stacks were started on the table.  The cards just kept lining up, and I played them.

Why make an ongoing letter entry on this?  Not only did I win the game when M&F were miles ahead of me, but this is the first time in my life I used up the entire stack of 21 cards in one hand.

Glenn has been gone 4 years today.  We miss you, Glenn.  And, contrary to what you’d thought, you are not forgotten.

No word from the lawyer yet about Father’s estate.  I wonder how long this is going to take.  He did say it may take upwards of a year, so I wait patiently.  I called today to get an update, and his secretary said he’d call me back at 11:30AM, but no word.

Aunt Isobel is going to take Uncle Al’s ashes to Manitoba to the Johnston plot.  I would like to take Father’s ashes there, too, but I haven’t the funds to get there.  No work yet, and the price of fuel has gone up considerably lately.  It’s now $1.35 / litre.

I’ve put my portfolio online.  See one of my other webs, allansplace.net, to have a look.  As time goes on, I’ll put more work on and fine-tune other work.  As it is now, I’ve got Architectural and Civil work there.  There’s still a lot more to put on yet.

I gave Mom three roses for Mother’s Day a few days ago – two red for Aizlynn & I and one peach for Glenn.  She’s often said that one rose is just as nice as a dozen; it’s the thought that counts.  And, being Mom with three kids, I thought 3 roses would be nice.

OA, a coffee and college buddy, has made noises for a few months about getting his driver’s license but lacks a car to practise on.  His friends work and have little time to help him, so I’ve had him practise in my car.  We’ve gone out 3 times and need one more.  His test is next Tuesday.

So I’m at a late supper with a couple of friends from college, K & A, and somewhere along in the conversation the idea of mixed ethnic origins comes up, as it sometimes does.

I asked K what if he and his wife have chosen a name for their new child arriving in Sept / Oct this year.  (S)he will have two names – an English first name and a Korean middle name.  “You can have two last names, too, if you want,” A says.  “Passports from each country will have that nation’s family name.” Well how do you know this?  I never knew that.

Later, we were talking about jobs, living in other countries (A wants to study in Germany after college here).  A family ancestor was the USA.  I suggested getting his Green Card, like me.  It was then that he confessed that he already has dual citizenship.  “What?  Where?  Seriously?”

So it was sometime around then that he confessed.  As it turns out, the only other white guy (i.e. “Caucasian Canadian”) in the group spills the beans about not actually being a white guy.  Yup, he’s half white Canadian and half Taiwanese.  He speaks Mandarin and grew up in Taiwan and Canada.  Taiwanese Mom & Canadian Dad.

I was 90% surprised.  Why?  I knew since I met him that he’d had an accent.  Not a regional dialect, not a 2nd-generation ethnic accent, but a first-hand mixed-origin accent, like 5~10%.  I could never pin it on any region outside the general area of Asia, never down to one country.

He’d kept it a secret all this time because, I gather, he likes to surprise people and also, I think, finds it a cause of disruption of normal interaction.  He only tells those he has known for a while.  He told K & C (Koreans) but never me!  So I said during supper that I’m actually the only white guy in the group – a minority.  A reminded me that I am mistaken – that I’m half Korean, too.

Right.  Almost forgot, being around all these white people.  Haha!

I feel honoured that I’m counted among this trusted friends.

(By the way – I’m not Caucasian.  I’m white.  Caucasians come from the Caucasus region in Eastern Europe / Western Asia.  Look it up.  And yes, I eat crackers.)