I spent 2 hours with Ms. Chin last weekend.
After our last meet-up last month & the movie, I thought she would not agree to meet up again (or perhaps find reasons not to). Meeting up just to spend time with me and talk, about random things in life. Socializing is a rare occasion for me and most of my life I hardly have any close friends that I meet up occasionally with. So this is rare, thankfully I really enjoyed the time. We meet throughout the years but not as often as this past few years.
I wish we started sooner, and I hope she enjoyed her time too.
Ps - Ms. Chin is my former English teacher when I was 15.
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2 weekends ago we did a potluck CNY party at my brother's house - with my siblings + mom. I made pumpkin soup and chicken curry (because my sister made roti jala). It was a good potluck party because everyone participated and was home-cooked. Then this weekend we did another potluck party and this time with my dad, but I just bought some sushi because I didn't feel like cooking anything.
I think getting older teaches me to appreciate real connections with people, or at least I promise myself to make a bigger effort in maintaining social relationships. I realized that a special relationship is a rare thing in life; having someone to talk to, to fully be yourself with, to have engaging conversations with, or to just be. Friendship is a rare commodity.
The older I get, the clearer I see, that we are all strangers.
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Here are the books I read and listened to in January :
- Matilda by Mary Shelley. I read this book in 2018 and I don't have any recollection of the book. How odd, it was that plain.
- I realized that I don't enjoy reading Dostoyevsky's classics at this moment, perhaps I can't appreciate his pessimistic views on life, and most of his characters seem a bit too depressed for me. I might try again next year after I try Tolstoy?
- I also don't really like Mieko Kawakami's style of writing - I already listened to 3 of her books and I can't really appreciate it.
- I love Noor Naga's If An Egyptian Can't Speak English, so I'm trying to get her other early book - Washes, Prays about a young woman's romantic relationship with a married man and her crisis of faith as a Muslim.
- Mona Awad's All is Well was a bit odd, experimental maybe? A nice twist in the end, I don't think I will reread this one.
- Frank Bruni's The Beauty of Dusk is written by a journalist, so I appreciate his direct tone, it reminds me of Joan Didion.
- I decided to love Yiyun Li. In the past few months, I listened to The Book of Goose, Gilgamesh, and A Sheltered Woman, all I enjoyed and want to reread.
- Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux is an eye-opening realization of how humbling falling in love with a married man can be. It is a pain that we can't really share with the world because of how scandalous it is but Annie Ernaux wrote it from her heart and she shared it with the world. Not for the man that she loved, but for herself and I salute her for that. I needed that.
- I'm making a promise to read Herman Hesse's books this year. I just finished The Journey to the East, and I'm reading Narcissus & Goldmund at this moment. I forgot Steppenwolf because I read it in 2016 and gave it 2 stars on Goodreads, so I might listen to it to refresh my memory this year.
- The End of Getting Lost by Robin Kirman - Did I enjoy it? I'm not sure. It's a meh story, just to fill my time while working. Nothing really profound from this.
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