Chinese Buffet: All You Kan Eat

Well, Andy and I have had a few life changing experiences lately. Andy accepted a job back home, and I nearly gave a sweet old lady a heart attack.

Andy first: we have been hoping this whole year that we could move home afterward and be with family. Now this is a realization! We were able to fly home a couple weeks ago for an interview and to spend time with Andy’s dad who has been recently diagnosed with cancer - and we would greatly appreciate your prayers for him. But it was a wonderful time of prayer and encouragement. I have to admit, I left feeling more blessed, and wishing I could have been more of a blessing! It was so awesome to see Fil, Mil, and Sil (our affectionate abbreviations for the “in-laws”) trusting God and praising him during this time.

Meanwhile, Andy was sweating away in a six hour interview, producing the brain cells that spur one to early graying (though Andy claims one can’t actually “produce” brain cells). Apparently they noticed none of this (perhaps the change was too gradual), or if they did, offered him the job anyway. We are now signing our lives away, re-budgeting, and going blind from looking at houses online. All this on the side of course. Andy still has school work, senior design, grading, senior design, SHARE, senior design, LSM, senior design…to name a few. And get this. His senior design team is going to be presenting the project to a group of professional engineers at some big conference. Dr. Kim, the faculty in charge of Andy’s project, said that only the team leader needs to go and present. It’s more important that the rest of them be at the lab trying to get more work done. Of course, this doesn’t bother Andy. He takes a different kind of pride in his work. A pride that doesn’t have to show off at some big meeting. I like that.

I’ve had lots of exciting things going on in my life as well (such as my job promotion in a couple of months to being a stay-at-home-wife-of-a-professional-engineer and aspiring-writer-if-I-can-find-the-motivation). One funny story (yes, the one in which I nearly gave a sweet old lady a heart attack) happened in the airport on our trip home. Andy and I had a short layover in Charlottesville, and we had to make quite a trek to get to the next gate. We didn’t exactly have to run, but we were, as the phrase goes, “booking it.” (One of those phrases I have never really understood…my book reading has no imagery connection with hurrying through an airport). Anyways, I have one of those awesome backpacks that makes me look like I really know my way around the mountains. You know, the one with the belts and hooks that go around the west and around the chest, to keep the weight balanced and comfortable for extreme activity (I doubt they had airports in mind when they designed these things, but you never know). Anyways, their a little annoying, and I never really buckle them. They just kind fly freely.

Well, we were going fast enough to pass those little trolleys that transport the old and disabled people. I figure to myself that the busy traffic and narrow paths (especially when those things try and weave in and out) is a little like the Mother Land (China) that Andy always describes.

So I’m concentrated on keeping right behind Andy, and we pass closely and quickly by one of those moving trolleys. Actually, Andy passes closely and quickly. One of my free spirited straps decides to get caught on some part of it. With the speed at which I was going, you can feel free to let your imagination run wild as to how silly I must have looked being jerked backward (I convince myself that I was practicing a “Dick Van Dyke” move). Thankfully, I remained on my feet, but the sweet old lady who was sitting on that trolley nearly had a heart attack. She first screamed, and then fanned herself while saying “Oh my!” Poor lady probably thought she’d been in a trolley wreck. Probably thought to herself, “Why, we plum ran over this poor little girl.” I thought to myself, “Really lady, I was going twice as fast as this thing. What damage could it have done me?” The lady driving it probably thought to herself, “If this girl is hurt, I’m going to lose my job. If this old lady doesn’t calm down, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Of course, all this happened in a matter of seconds. I quickly freed myself and wisely buckled the straps while I ran to catch up with Andy. Of course, all observers of this event were probably just as amused at the hunched over way I was running because I was laughing so hard. Poor Andy missed the whole thing.

In closing, I would like to say that I have really appreciated the encouragement I get from all of you to keep writing on here! It means a lot to me that you care about the silly stories in our lives, but even more than that, that you care about what writing about those stories means to me. It means a lot. So thanks!