Author Archives: Christine

Saw the family doctor today.  It was an early morning one for me at 8:15a.  Didn’t sleep well last night.  Neither did Leo.  We both were worried about my health I think.  So the doctor put me on atenolol 25mg for the blood pressure and will see him again in a month.  Asked him to send the prescription to Drugmart close to us.  But his office sent it to Express Script and Drugmart.  So the insurance gave the pharmacist at Drugmart a hard time when he tried to fill it.  I love my doctor, but I really don’t think his office is on point most of the time.  He said I could call his nurse if I try to get in a bit sooner than his office normally would allow.  I told him I understand that his staff want to protect him from patients who always want to jump to the front of the line.  And not everything is an emergency.  But when there is a legit reason for one, his office should realize and get on it a bit better.  when I lost my hearing for a while, his office delayed me from seeing a specialist for a week when he was on vacation.  Asking me to see another associate before they would refer me on which further delayed a few days.  When I run out of prescription and notified by Express Script that they are waiting for the doctor’s office to respond. They never got a response.  I really don’t know what their system uses.  It is highly inefficient and lots of mistakes were made.  But that may be the standard practice of all doctors office.

Went to Yours Truely for breakfast.  As always, we love their food.  I had the eggs over bruschetta and vegies.  It was just the right amount for me.  And today I found a new YouTube channel I like.  Flo Lum As usual, I binge watched lots of her videos to get to know her channel.  I found that she is very down to earth, and she and her husband has a subtle fondness for each other even in their joke bickering.  Her instagram channel has good pictures too.  Another good find.

It was a bit stressful yesterday worrying about my high blood pressure.  So I wrote this to calm myself a bit.  Funny that knowledge makes one anxious.  Maybe that’s why there is part of me that doesn’t want to know or tries not to find out.

Seeing the doctor tomorrow to address it.  There is some opinion that the eye thing was caused by high blood pressure.  I cannot do anything about it now.  And therefore, no use worrying about it before I can do something about it.

This word has been the mantra for a YouTuber Christopher Allen in all of his videos.  And it is needed in today’s climate of finger pointing, selfishness, meanness all over the media.  There is no adequate Chinese translation I can think of.  What I wrote is ok but it lacks the “action” part for kindness.  It’s more passive and stereotype of a character.

Not much difference in my eyesight from yesterday.  But I’m slowly getting used to it.  I do still live in a kind of a dream world.  Because I know I am not seeing the reality, my brain thinks I’m just day dreaming.

Friends and family reminded me of the possibility of high blood pressure.  That got me concerned and the readings in the last couple of times did indicate so.  Monday, I see my family doctor and probably will go on a high blood pressure med.  Such is the life of the elderly,  Not admitting I am one, but the body surely seems to go that way.

This word has been on my mind since yesterday.  So it is easy today when I started on my calligraphy practice.  No need to search for inspirations, it’s already there.  Decided to just do black and white.  It fits.

Watached a YouTube clip on Keith Carter done by “The Art of Photography” in his Artist Series. And learned that Keith lost most of his vision in one eye and still went on to produce amazing photos.  It gave me encouragement knowing that there is still hope for photography after this.  A lot of people only have one eye and can live a normal life.  I still have vision in my right just not as good.  So I shouldn’t despair or lose hope.  I haven’t.  But I do know the reality is slowly setting in and it’s not a welcomed one if I can help it.

We went to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Lemon Grass.  I had my usual the seafood pho and Leo had his usual, drunken noodles.  It was a bit of a rough morning this morning for Leo to begin with. The parking lot was full when we pulled in and we had to go to the back where there is a toll away sign warning us not to park there.  Being a rule stickler, Leo was not comfortable to park there.  We had to.  So it unsettled him a bit more.  Not a good morning for him.  He settled down after lunch.  It just goes to prove that, our equilibrium can easily be disturbed by life situations, not matter how content or calm we think we are.  Learning to stay calm is a hard lesson.

Didn’t sleep well last night.  My own fault, I stayed up too late watching a meaningless movie and got myself too stimulated to sleep.  Paying for it today.  Slept in and still felt lethargic.

The physical ailments brings philosophical sentiments.  The realization of the temporary and fleeting life span brings the mind to the now.  Really, what do we really have if not the NOWs.  Full participation of the now is the only grasp we can have of the short time we have here.

Life IS short.  Be Merry, Be present, Be Kind.

Today’s word is “character”.  We all hope that we have character and we strive to do the right thing even when people are not watching.  It has an unyielding sense to it and it has the positive connotation.  In Chinese, I found these two words to fit best for this definition.

And we went to the neighborhood eatery “Longitanos” for lunch.  I am alarmed at my “fat” reading going up on the scale so I picked a salad.  I like their Crazing Nut Salad.  And surprisingly, their pita bread is much better than Alladin’s for some reason.  It’s hot and soft.

Think I’m going to finish my daily tasks earlier today.  It’s become my daily routine to

1. Find something to write
2. Write it in Procreate
3. upload to Instagram
4. Upload to the blog and write something there.
5. Write in the journal in Goodnotes with the Apple Pencil and do some minimal planning in the digital planner.

When I do all these things, I feel I didn’t waste my day.  I thought, I created and I wrote.  I’m happy that I have kept this up for a few days now and it is adding positive vibes to my slightly depressing eye situation.

 

Got a late start today,  Just finished this quote and uploaded to instagram.  I am getting more and more comfortable using Procreate.  Still tons of features to explore but I have got a few tricks under my belt.  Another positive out of this inconvenience.

We went to 3 Palms for lunch today to get the meat balls we craved yesterday and missed.  They were closed for Memorial Day and didn’t bother to update their hours online.  We saw quite a few people trying to get in yesterday as we did and the door was locked.

We got the meat balls and a goat cheese pizza to share.  I had a white sangria.  All of them were delicious.

Enoch called and we chatted and I got to see and talk to Esme again.  She is growing into such a cute baby.  He is trying to get her passport picture ready and wanted to print it on 4×6.  So I spent some time trying to collage it.  Haven’t done it for a long time, so it took me a while searching for the right tool to do it.  And finally put together a not so satisfied file using Lightroom to adjust the exposure, magic eraser to get rid of the background, collage on the Mac to put the picture into a 4×6 grid.  Hope it works for him.  Don’t know how well it would turn out still.

Tried two versions of this today,  The first one seems too dull yet it reflects the meaning of simplicity.  The second one seems to pop a bit more but lost that simple feeling.

In the last few days, I found a daily rhythm.  I look for inspirational word to practice calligraphy on Pinterest or google search.  I write it in Procreate.  I upload to instagram then I put it in this blog.  It seems to give me a purpose every day.  Since I’m stuck at home, so to speak, I can’t drive before I get proper glasses for my left eye.  I can’t do strenuous lifting or exercising, I spend a lot of time on the iPad.  It actually gave me the benefit of practicing my calligraphy and exploring new apps.  Got the “graphic” app, but OMG the learning curve.  Really want to learn how to put a word I write on a curve but haven’t got there yet.

We went to Aladdin for lunch and I found some new things to try.  The farmer’s pizza is really good!  And the waitress told me that I can ask them not to add lemon juice to the hummus.  Now it is just right for me.  It has always been too sour for my taste  So yay for two new discoveries.  And I saw tiramisu, so of course I ordered it with coffee. Super full but super good lunch!  Didn’t follow the simplicity vibe for eating though.  🙂  21 followers on instagram.  I’m very humbled still.  And I like the organic growth.  Facebook likes sometimes seem like a twisted arm move.  🙂

This quote jumped out at me on Pinterest today.  Lately, similar thoughts have been on my mind.  Especially when I’m kind of stuck at home now before I can get a pair of glasses to drive with and to know the final result of the surgery, life is on semi hold.  This gives me tons of time to reflect and also to learn and practice more on Procreate and now the Autodesk Graphic app.  LIfe has been pretty full albeit not active.

Made this one yesterday but didn’t Iike it at first.  I just couldn’t get the procreate brush to behave for the second stroke to the right.  The source is a flat oval, I need one that rotates a bit to the left so I can smoothly tapered to the right like when I did with a Chinese brush pen.  But I decided to upload it to instagram anyway.  Surprisingly, I got a couple of likes and a follower.  I like Instagram better than Facebook.  It is meant for the public and you get an honest feedback more than a facebook friend who feels they need to like your post.

I did some search on google to find a proper word for mindfulness.  Found this one but I don’t think it really conveys the meaning.  Still, I didn’t come up with any better word for it so I went to write them out.  Ended up spending more time than I should in Procreate trying to adjust the brush to behave correctly for me.  But back to the mindfulness.  We all need to bring our wandering mind back to the present and stay in the present.  The only thing that a wandering mind brings is usually negative or have nothing to do with the present moment and do not benefit us anyway.