FUNNYACCENT

Alley One

Still Water

I saw him again this morning at the intersection of Mass Ave. and Tremont Street. The light was green and the blinking digit was getting down to 10. He wore the same faded quilted jacket and a worn out gray pants when the first time I saw him two weeks ago. I thought he was a woman then .

He had the jacket hood on. A few strands of his long gray hair strayed out of the hood. He stood at 45 degree off the walking path and rocked his body as he was trying to make up his mind weather to continue to walk ahead or stop. As I passed him I turned around to look at him sideway, then I realized he was a man.

He was thin.  The veins criss crossed his boney hand that held the walking stick. The tip of the cane was missing. After about 12 paces I walked from him I heard the sound as one metal was dragged on another metal. The sound continued for about 30 seconds. I turned around and found out he was blind. He dragged his missing tip walking stick along the metal fence along the sidewalk.

When I stopped at the intersection of Mass Ave. and Columbus Ave. to wait for the green light, a traffic lady asked him where he was going. He said, down the street.

The lady held out her arm, he switched the walking stick to his left hand and he held the traffic lady's arm and they crossed the street.

The traffic lady wasn't at her spot this morning. When I got to his side I asked him if he would let me help him to cross the street. He nodded his head and said, "Yes, please."

"Here is my left arm." He switched the walking stick to his left hand and held my arm.

When I asked him where he was going, he told me the same thing he told to the traffic lady, "down the street."

When we reached to the other side I asked him would he be okay. He looked directly at me and for a split second I thought he could see me. The pupils of his eyes seemed to blend together with the iris. His eyes reminded me of still water. What struck me most was his face. He appeared so calm, so sure of himself.

"Yes, yes, thank you so much for your help. I'm fine now."  He switched the walking stick to his right hand and walked away from me.

Memory Can Be Deceitful

Eli, my senior citizen client called me at my office this morning. He was at BMC.

"Ana, the girl told me I don't have doctor's appointment thir mornin'."

"Yes, you do. I wrote down here in my calender. Eli - Eye Doctor at 10:45 am."

"Eye doctor you said? You mean I have appointment with eye doctor this mornin'?"

"Yes Eli, you do. Where are you calling from?"

"I'm at Doctor's Patel's office."

"Dr. Patel is your dentist, Eli. Okay, hang up the phone now and go quickly to Dr. Shah's office. He's on the second floor, right? You still have 5 minutes."

"He...he...he......I'm getting old."

"You are old, Eli." I said with a huge smile in my voice. I heard him chuckled before he hung up the phone.

Alley

Walk all the way to the end to Washington Street, Downtown.

Looking Without Seeing

After 45 minutes on Elliptical Trainer, I was a bit hesitant to ride an upright bike, but after 10 minutes I was surprised I didn't feel even a slight pain or twitch on my right knee.

The day was exceptionally bright and beautiful but the wind was pretty strong. I changed my mind about going for a stroll to Fanuei Hall. I went to Border Book Store instead. Where else? Two books that I've wanted to get were on Buy 2 books get 1 free shelf, but I stopped myself from making another transaction. I bought a cup of chai and sat between two aisles at traveling book section and finished my journal.

In a subway, I sat on a single eat at the end of the car. Opposite me, sat a bag lady with a shopping cart full of plastic old plastic bags and worn out canvas bags.

As soon as I sat down she asked me if I had fifty cents. I told her I only had a quarter in my pocket.

I fished out the quarter from my jacket pocket and dropped in her palm. She asked the man who stood next to me for fifty cents. The man snorted and turned his back to her. He spoke in Chinese to his friend. They both looked at her with smirk on their faces.

The bag lady asked me where I was going. I told her my stop. She said she was going to Braintree. She told me her house in Cambridge was being fixed and wouldn't be ready until June.

I asked her if she carried all her belongings when she travelled. She said yes. But, I have more at my house, she added.

I asked her if could take her picture. Sure, she said. After I took the second picture, I asked her if she liked to look at them. She told me she was blind.

I felt like an idiot and apologized to her.

She chuckled. "You didn't know, eh?"

"No, I didn't and I didn't notice your white cane."

She smiled. Two of her front teeth missing. "A lot of people thought I can see until I told them."

Then I noticed a white cane behind the cart. All the times when we were talking she looked directly at me and I didn't notice the iris of her eyes were grayish.

The train arrived at my stop and I thanked her for letting me took her pictures.

Saturday Brunch and Minuteman

The last time I met with Jane was in November when Jane and her boyfriend L invited me to their house in Arlington for a Thanksgiving Dinner. Last month we planned to meet again for lunch. Then I got hit by a bad cold. We scratched out the plan.

Sometimes in life we meet a person who has an opposite personality or ideas about things in general, but somehow we find out we have a lot in common in other aspects that we never thought we have them before.

That's how I see my friendship with Jane. We get along on issues we agree or disagree. We respect and embrace our differences.

There were times we found ourselves on opposite sites, but then we have always agreed on a lot of humanity issues.

This morning, Jane picked me up at Alewife subway station and we drove to a diner on Mass Avenue for a brunch. The place was packed but we got seated less than five minutes after we walked in.

I had french toast topped with blueberry and Jane had cheese omelet with hash brown.

The food was delicious. We chatted and updated (updated anasalwa? boy, now you sound like writing your client's progress note) each other's latest story (which was not much with mine).

Jane and I met six years ago at Arabic for beginners class Cambridge for Adult Learning Center. Jane asked me about my name and she told me about her trip to Morocco. We didn't finish the class, we got the refund,  but we became good friends.

After the brunch I told Jane about the fabric store I used to go when they were in Harvard Square many years ago. I remember the woman at the store told me they were moving to Arlington. We headed to Fabric Corner Inc.

I went a little nut in here with rows and rows of batiks and marble fabrics on the wall and on the floor.

I said to Jane, "You can go now, I'm all set here."

We laughed. After a quite long walked around the aisles over and over, I bought two shades of pink and two shades of yellow batik fabric for my current quilt project.

We drove back to Jane & L's house, I said hello to L and we chatted for a little while. It was past noon when Jane and I set out to Minuteman Trail for a walk. The sun was high and bright in the sky. I was glad I had a thick sweater underneath my jacket.

I was impressed how cleaned the trail was. No empty bottle water, soda cans  or empty chip bags tossed aside.

It was an interesting walk, as trail  crossed   crossed the Arlington town and goes all the way to Bedford.

I got myself a cup of coffee and we walked along a row of stores on Massachusetts Avenue when I noticed a letter u was replaced by letter v on Finance Bvilding. We found out later from L the reason behind the missing of letter U. Do you know why?

It was almost 5:00 pm when Jane and L dropped me at Alewife subway station. We didn't plan for our next outing, but we'll get there.

Photo Hunter

Metal

My Pinky Toes

I'm not fond of pink, but my latest quilt project is putting together the slimey creatures/reptiles into more desireable view.

The first one is Wallace Tree Frog.

Ohh...Femur, Femur My Love, My Patella

I was almost blown away by powerful wind when I stepped out of the gym earlier this afternoon. I kid you not. It wasn't like the wind could have lifted me off the ground and smacked me on the wall of the ugliest building in Boston, but I wasn't prepared to face the strong wind coming toward my direction. I cannot imagine the force that flew the cows, the houses, the cars and the woman hiding in a bathtub in Oklahoma a few years back.

I haven't run seriously since the beginning of March. My right knee is still bothers me. Patti, the NP at the local health center referred me to a radiologist at BMC to get it x-rayed. Perhaps a couple of ridges under the patella have been exposed by overwork cartilage. Perhaps femur don't mesh well with patella. I doubt it, but who knows? After the x-ray, I will learn.

kneecap

thighbone

I'm not being a pain in the ass, but I love to say femur....., femur...., patella....., patella...... The words just rolled deliciously on my tongue.

Fifty One

Kak N sent me this lovely birthday card. I wish I could fly back to Taiping and give her the warmest hug and kisses. She knows me well.

Today, I am 51.