i know what you mean!

With the movers out of the way, it feels soooo much better. This is the first time we use a moving company. It costs a pretty penny for their service, but if not for them, my life would suck so bad. It took 3 strong men 2.5 hours to lug everything from our house and stack them neatly, floor to ceiling, into 2 relo-cubes. Both Son and I were surprised at the relatively small size of these cubes, so just to be on the safe side, I ordered a 3rd cube. turns out, they didn’t even fill the 2nd cube, so the 3rd one was unnecessary. Just for your reference, prior to the men bringing the cubes, just order an extra one if you are not sure. You don’t get charged for it, and if you don’t use it, they just take it back. BUT, if you do it like I did, calling for a 3rd cube after the first 2 were delivered, then there is a $150 delivery fee. Gah. The guy who placed the entire order for me spoke like he knew his shit, and assured me that he would order a tv box for me. But he didn’t. Boo. If you consider using movers, and are new to this service like we are, here are a few pointers:

Tell the movers to use your tapes, if you have them lying around. Your tapes are cheaper than what they charge you for if you leave it to them to use their tapes. Costco tapes are the best deal in town.

Buy drinks for the movers in advance. I knew this, but I forgot. Duh.

Have cash handy to tip them. From what I’ve read, the tip runs anywhere between $15-$45 per person.

how many flies must a woman swash
before she can stop seeing them
how many times must a woman cuss
this sound of the damn flying buzz…

it doesn’t help that we have a gigantic fly magnet literally right next to our front door, courtesy of our next door neighbor’s dump. I think I just killed the 7th fly for the day. I don’t know how many more are around, but I think i’ll find out soon enough…

Movers will be here in less than 8 hours… This night isn’t going to be long.

tựa vai nhau
nghe sao hôi hôi
nách bốc một mùi
chọc quê nhau
cho nhau tức chết
bứt hết lông nhau…

đêm nay hành quân không ngơi nghỉ. Tiến lên tiến lên. Sắp hết thùng rồi… Mà sao chồng nói chồng pack với mình, mà mình chờ 2 tiếng rồi chồng vẫn không ra khỏi giường???

Vet called back on Friday to say that lab reports came back all clear, nothing abnormal. And then, knowing that my cat is still vomiting and had vomited blood in addition to having diarrhea, the asshole offered no other advise. No questions such as “has he stopped grooming himself? did he miss the litter box? Is he hiding?” (yes to all). No concerns whatsoever. fucking. ass.hole.

Anyways. Because of the striking similarities between Fatty and Crippled’s cases, I went ahead and already started Fatty on the Kaolin+pectin anti-diarrhea solution. I stopped giving him dried food, switched instead to wet food (same brand – Innova), mixed wet food with lots of water and 2ml of that stomach soothe med. I started that on Thursday night. Son reported that over the night on Friday, Fatty still had diarrhea and threw up once, still hid for a bit. Saturday he seemed better. By Sunday morning, he peed a lot (finally! exactly what I wanted him to do), was happy and alert, stopped hiding, stopped puking. His stool was still runny, but Son thinks it’s because he has been eating super diluted wet food. His appetite has returned. His anus stopped looking swollen and red.

Thing about this bout of sudden illness is, within the last year, I have heard of 3 other cases involving older cats vomiting and having diarrhea right before owners move, or go on a trip. It seemed like the cats get stressed out anticipating the changes, so their immune system got knocked out of whack. Next thing you know, cat’s puking and pooping all over your house. Here’s Fatty’s case, so you can compare and contrast, in case you, too, have a cat:

About 2 weeks ago, Fatty started puking up a few hairballs here and there. Then he ate some grass, and puked that up last Monday-ish. He was doing fine for a day or two, then he puked up some more hair, but just bits of hair. Tuesday night he puked up his food, and then had runny, dark colored, smelly stools. Wednesday he didn’t pee much. Wednesday night I fed him a large meal, and he puked up massive amount of undigested food, followed by bile, and also had diarrhea in the litter box, as well as outside the box.
Thursday morning I gave him dried food, but he made the motion to bury it instead of eating. I gave him some meat broth to help him get some fluid, but he only drank a little bit, then threw up that + blood within 20 minutes. He also started to hide. I took him to the unhelpful vet to run some lab works, insisted that they give him fluids, which they did. He perked up a bit after I picked him up from the vet, probably becaues he was rehydrated. He ate some food, rested, slept, drank some water. Was doing fine for a few hours, then he used the litter box, had runny stools still, went outside the box again, and puked up. Thursday night I gave him his first dose of Gamin Tummy Soothe with kaolin and pectin listed as first 2 ingredients. Friday morning he still had all the symptoms, so in the afternoon, I left instructions for Son regarding Fatty, and then drove down to DC with May.

At home Son continued to monitor the cat throughout the day/night. Fed him wet food mixed with lots of water. Cleaned up his litter box as soon as he used it. Gave him lots of attention. Friday he still puked and had runny stools. Didn’t urinate much. Saturday, some improvement, but still had all the symptoms. Sunday, major improvement. I hope. Lemme go check on him again.

the first weekend we arrived in the east coast 3 years ago, we headed straight down to DC to see Les, who gave us keys to his house and welcomed us to the East Coast. Because of Les, DC metro area has always held a warm place in our hearts, a sort of getaway destination for us, and also a sort of seeing a family member place, until Les moved out of DC. We had not been back to DC since, until this past weekend.

Originally Son, May, and I were all set to visit Donny in VA starting Friday afternoon. However, due to unfolding complications with the cat, Son ended up staying behind to keep an eye on the cat’s condition, while I drove May down south to see DC during our last “whole” weekend in town.

May napped in the car for about 1.5 hours while I drove, and then afterward, she woke up to witness DC traffic at rush hour with good cheer. We arrived around 5:15pm, rested for a bit and watched Duke lovingly calling out to May, while May played it cool. We then had a great seafood buffet dinner at Blue Pearl, hands down the best buffet I’ve been to in ages. I felt sorry for Son as I chowed down, but ultimately it was better you than me, sucker. I know, minus one wifely point for me. After dinner, there was still a bit of light, so we walked the 2 kids out to the neighborhood playground. This playground has all sorts of cool climbing structures, which normally May would have been weary of, but because of dusk, she couldn’t see so well, and therefore was much more daring. Up she went onto one of the climbing bars after commenting, “this structure is similar to the green one [that she climbed last week].” Duke was fast at her heels, to our surprise. Duke is not a climber, he’s much more reluctant to climb than May, who isn’t a monkey to begin with. Up and down they went, and they were both so happy there. Unfortunately, it soon got really really dark, and the adults were getting eaten up by mosquitoes, so it was time to go home. The first night of our visit, Duke went to sleep at 11:30pm, and May, 1 hour later (she slept like a log, nice!).

Saturday’s morning began with Dao’s question “where is May?” which I could hear from where May and I slept. Then after some time, “May’s sleeping” was heard intermittently until May finally woke up, at which time Dao bursted in and said “May!” this went on after every nap and subsequent morning. He’s also very interested in May’s eating activities, heh heh. Saturday was our big day, with the Kien’s coming down from OH, chi. Cap coming to town from FL, all convening in DC for a brief meet up before everyone dispersed once again. I need to stop cracking jokes, because without fail, every time I crack one, it becomes reality. At 10:30am, when chi. Cap and I first touched base with the Kien, i joked that we’ll see them at 1pm. We met them at 1:30pm. By then, the Kien juniors had already spent 4 hours in the Smithsonian museum all morning and were exhausted, while twins had just arrived at the museum after lunch. chi. Cap, Donny, the Kien’s and us stood around outside the museum, took some pictures, hugged, pointed, blah blah, and then, 20 minutes later, the hyped meeting was all over. The Kiens left for another museum, chi. Cap, Donny, May, and I went inside the museum to join Dana and Duke (I think their 2nd kid will have a name that begins with a D, how about you?). At least that was the plan anyway. But once we got inside, each kid went into a different section, so we didn’t see each other until it was time to go home. Chi Cap left us afterward while both kids napped in the car until 5:30pm (we kept the engine running while it was parked in front of Donny’s house).

As soon as the kids woke up, everyone went over to Dana’s sister’s house, where they put out a kiddie pool so the twins could splash around. That was great fun for them until we got the bright idea of bringing out the soap to bathe them in there, ha ha. After it got dark, we moved the party inside the house, and then it was dinner time, Dana’s sister’s treat.

On the way back from Dana’s sister’s place, Dao made “achoo” sounds and totally cracked May up. She laughed until she had the hiccups… for about 3 minutes. And then after that, we heard her “Ha.ha.” diplomatic laughter. That was a sweet moment for me to remember. I think I’m sort of spoiled with the peaceful vibe of coexistence the twins display. I have forgotten until now that I had just come back from a weekend with 2 toddlers smack in the middle of their terrible-two phase. When they were together, I didn’t really have to intervene to settle conflicts or discipline unwanted behaviors. They don’t snatch things from each other. They don’t fight. They don’t hit each other. They don’t compete for anything. They communicate for the most part, or if they are not pleased with something, they go to the adults for help. Occasionally I heard Dao cooed “Maaaaaayyyy… Dear Maaaayyy…” if anything. Isn’t this surreal? Ha ha. Maybe it helped that they were interested in totally different things. Like with Dao’s bowling set, there are 2 bowling balls, pink and green. Dao’s fav is pink. May automatically went for the green one, since it’s her fav color. Things worked out like that.

The kids went to bed an hour earlier than the night before. May slept like a log again.

Sunday. Last day. We woke up at 9am. Took the kids out to the neighborhood playground again. Guess what? In broad day light, May wasn’t so hot about climbing ladders as before. The weather had been very nice the entire weekend, to our delight. We were there for almost an hour, but unfortunately, Duke fell at one point (thanks goodness he was OK) so it was time for us to get going. D&D took us out for ba’nh be`o at Saigon Cafe opposite of Eden Center (yum!). May ate a whole order of cha? Hue^’ by herself, minus one piece. Cha? Hue^’ had whole peppercorns in there, so occasionally May would complain and ask for water, but when asked if she wanted to stop eating the cha?, she refused. We bought a few food items to take back home, and then said our goodbyes at around 2pm, but it was just “see you next week.” The D’s will be up in PA next weekend to rescue us from an empty house with no car to go anywhere, yay.

Why did I spend the whole night writing this blog entry instead of packing is beyond me. But I’m super grateful for the D’s great friendship and hospitality. May and I had a terrific time, felt very comfortable in their home, was treated with so much generosity and allowed so much freedom. Maybe we’ll be back every year around this time. I’ve already decided that we’ll celebrate every July 4th in Boston, so why not a week in DC before Boston, eh?