They Carried Him

"What time am I picking you up from the airport" my sister asked?

After the details had been arranged she mentioned that our mom and aunt had kidnapped Granddaddy from the nursing home.

She was being a little dramatic. They had simply decided to remove my grandfather from the nursing home he had been checked into one day prior and take him home.

I picture the two of them sitting in my grandfather's room, both with the same thought. They turn to face one another and without even speaking they take their places on each side of his bed lifting him up and into his wheelchair. I imagine it like a scene that Pedro Almodovar could have directed. The two sisters able to lift their father only because of his recent and significant weight loss.

They knew he would be more comfortable at home. This dingy nursing home was no place for Jim Daniel.

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Kids Castle

Anyone can be a freelancer in Taiwan. I miss this. I find myself becoming jealous of people that work for themselves and stumble upon ridiculously cool jobs that have them working from coffee shops and going to Portland to "help my buddy get his business off the ground".

In Taiwan if you wanted a little extra money, you just picked up a few kindergarten sub jobs. You could drop off your resume one day and be in charge of a class of 3-year-olds the next day. A couple of times I judged speeches for this shady mega-school called Kid Castle. This involved riding my motor scooter about 25 minutes across town and listening to kids repeat a memorized speech (or freeze up completely unable to say one word in English). I was paid 1000NT/hr to do this. That is about $31 right now. I just got an email today asking if I would like to judge another speech contest. At that rate, 27 hours of judging speeches could pay for my roundtrip ticket.

I don't know why I haven't told them I am no longer living in Taiwan. I like the idea that someone thinks I am still scooting around drinking bai xiang lu cha (wei tang, chu bing), shopping at Mitsukoshi. Sometimes I have a hard time cutting that last stubborn tie.

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