I realize I haven’t blogged much lately. I don’t want to say that’s because I was busy, which I was but I want to stay committed and try to write as much as I can. Anyway, some updates that’s happened in the last four weeks.

I flew to Illinois to visit parents the first weekend of May as I hadn’t seen them since Christmas. It is painful knowing that time is going by fast and my parents are growing old faster than you can say medicare. My mom’s already a senior citizen and chances for her to become a grandmother are pretty slim since I doubt my finger is going to be bearing jewelry till well after I’m 30 and that’s still four years away, then probably a few couple years more till I’m ready to have kids. So, my mom could be 70 before she can finally add one more word to make it compound. For now, I gotta bear with her for still calling me a baby boy.

While I was there, we went to deaf expo in St. Louis, which was my third trip to a such event. First one was in Chicago, second was Virginia, and now this city home to the Gateway Arch. I wonder why do they still call it a Deaf Expo. It should be called as a battle of VRS services because there are like 8 different VRS services invading 90% of the convention space. Also, I noticed that their booths kept getting larger, more colorful like one VRS company looks like they come right out of Wonka’s Chocolate Factory with their purple setups, and another company thinks they could be as cool as Apple company with their brushed metal design and shadowed lights. Then, I realized something, we’re just like cash cows. The more cows they could register, the more money they can make. That’s what we are to them. Seems like pretty much of our Deaf economy is based on how many minutes we use VRS, then those minutes are billed to the FCC, which gives out paychecks. So we still live on the government’s welfare, either directly or indirectly.

On that Sunday, my parents and I had a brunch with the Chances and one lady who recently lost her husband. It has become into a sort of tradition to have a get-together with them whenever I come in town. Tom Chance was my dorm head supervisor at Illinois school for the Deaf and I was under his wing from 5th grade to 8th grade. He is one of my role models and he carries a certain class that reminds me of Cary Grant. He is also known for making the best martini in town and has a wine cellar in his own basement. I was especially honored when he gave me his favorite light blazer that didn’t quite fit him anymore. I don’t remember feeling this honored. I immediately recognized the blazer because that’s the one he would often choose to wear to award events or graduations at the end of year. The feeling I got was like getting Michael Jackson’s white glove or Elvis Presley’s favorite leather jacket. Something like that.

To this day, I haven’t worn the blazer yet, still waiting for the right occasion but you can bet that when time comes, I’ll wear it with class and integrity that he has always showed.

The interesting thing now with the Chances is that their daughter has adopted two kids from Korea, and I remember I was a little kid when my parents and I attended her wedding. Now, they’re raising two Korean-American kids so I wonder if I had something to do with that.

Before I knew, the weekend had gone by and it was time to go back to DC. The last two weekends, I went on two bachelor’s party, which was accompanied with lots of beers.

to be continued…