Mornings at the Lie household

Mornings at the Lie household always begins with a good amount of singing. My dad, an entrepreneur and self-proclaimed workaholic, would belt out some sentimental Chinese songs in the shower upstairs.  My mom, who sweetly confesses that she loves to sing although she doesn’t really know how to (and she’s right. I love her, but the woman can’t sing for her life), would play one of her karaoke DVDs (her recent purchases in Celine Dion’s top hits collection and Beyonce’s latest album), and sing along merrily downstairs. 

Our house

The next activity on my dad’s morning routine list is to have a huge breakfast consisting of an interesting combo of Chinese and Western foods. A few days ago, while eating some sticky rice and pork and mushrooms, he barraged me with the “why are you still in school” and “when are you finally going to finish” concerned-parent type of questions. I understand where he’s coming from. After all, he’s been supporting my education for 20 some years now. I assured him that I’m sticking with my deadline, and that once I get some sort of decent job, even a post-doc, I can finally be financially independent. 

My dad's breakfast

We moved on to discuss other topics, including health and diet. I told him how I’d recently lost weight by reducing my sweets intake and giving up alcohol. He agreed that sweets are bad for you. But then, as soon as he finished making that comment, he proceeded to devour his white bread toast with nutella and blueberry jam! I obviously got my sweet tooth from him!

 

After her singing session, my mom would usually pray and light some incense for our 1,000 hand Guan Yin (Qian Xou Guan Yin), the boddhisatva we’ve worshipped in our household for as long as I can remember. 

1.000 hands Guan Yin

As my father heads off to work, my mom and I would usually do our power morning walk. That’s usually when we have our quality time, she fills me in with the family gossip, I share with her some of my Pioneer Valley/grad school adventures, etc.

My parents have their quirks. We drive each other nuts, in the properly dysfunctional way that only close family members could do to one another. Yet, I’ll never take their unconditional love and support for granted.  Being the only daughter in the family, they could have thwarted my dream of living abroad, and made me stay at home to take care of them. Not only did they give me the freedom to shape my life in whatever way I please, they also never questioned my decisions despite the fact that in my relatives’ eyes, I’m pretty much a failure (mid 30-s, unmarried, over-educated, doesn’t even have a decent job).

I’m heading to the airport to pick up my brothers who have been away in Bali attending their friends’ wedding.   Looking forward to having a reunion dinner with my whole family this evening! 

Mango tree in my neighborhood