 HELL O' KITTY WEEN
I liked Amy's Hell O' Kitty inspired pumpkin above (although I had to tell her the eyes were too close together). I was impressed by the bow.  This was Sun Su's (above). Classic, child-like, with a hint of grotesque horror. Daddy like.
 This was Ooseung's. She was a bit frightened by the final cut. "It's scary. There's no eyes," she whispered. I wanted to carve Pinhead's face on a pumpkin, complete with nails sticking in his head (inward for safety!). I didn't
get around to it. It was probably for the best.
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 Man, this Halloween, they were giving out Kit Kats AND little Corean babies. I like eating the ears first.
Overall,
October was a fun month. I went on a cider mill trip with Sun Su
and his class and then to two other hay farms with just our family. Sun Su was Optimus Prime. I think Sun Su and Ooseung had more fun giving out candy to the other kids than collecting it. There's something funny about having a little boy and girl greeting you at the door and putting a piece of candy in your bag like they're the parents. ______________________________
 There's a game at our house: How many Hello Kitty's can you find? ______________________________
"... Because ummah likes pink," Amy finally answered. "Get some other colors, umma." Well. I think this is our baby girl's cry for help. I should start looking for a Harley Quinn costume and a giant styrofoam sledgehammer for her next year.  "They're good guys because they're always laughing," Ooseung says of the homicidal couple Joker and Harley. I think she identifies with their mischievous nature. That would make us ... Batman. ______________________________
 Yep, if there's a Hello Kitty appearance in a mall, that's where the woman I married will be. Or is this Amy's closet? Ooseung was either too scared of the humongous kitty head or she was just eaten up by the humongous kitty head. ______________________________
 FRIGHTENING RELEVATIONS The class field trip allowed me to see how Sun Su acts in kindergarten. He's pretty shy with classmates and teacher alike. He rarely says anything in school. It got to the point where they actually got a Corean-speaking ESL (English Second Language) teacher to talk to him in Corean. Other than a few words he doesn't even speak Corean, but I'm sure he just nodded the way he does with his Corean-speaking relatives. It was as comical as it was concerning.  So yeah, my Sun Su is too much like me. We talk. We play games. We draw sometimes. I put him to sleep most nights. I know what he's feeling and he knows what I'm feeling. His favorite place is always right next to me and he always takes time to reciprocate a hug from his appah. If I'm not around, and Amy is joking about me or even says my name in conversation, he'll pout and tell her, "Don't say that about appah." He also vigorously defends ... The LIGER! too. (Amy tends to joke about our cat.)  Ooseung on the other hand is her mommy's clone. She's a joker and budding wisecracker herself like Amy. She's goofy and loud like Amy. When you ask her to count in her head, she counts out loud, just not as loud. Appah is a distant second place winner if her ummah is around. Hugs from appah are okay as long as it doesn't keep her from ummah for long. Sun Su's shyness concerns me but at least he'll have someone around (me) who will understand him. Amy doesn't understand what it means to be shy. It seems like her idea of relaxing sometimes is being surrounded by as many relatives as possible. She grew up with the whole extended Corean family and relatives and get-togethers every other week. I grew up with a party of three - brother, mom, and me. Even though my mom was an extrovert, that just drove me further inward. A room full of people can be like nails on a chalkboard for me. Pretending to be social when you're not is like cruising in your car and suddenly throwing it in reverse. I can't have a conversation with more than one person at a time. Even greeting a bunch of relatives is still ridiculously awkward. I especially fail at every Corean gathering with that last one. My dad always said, "Shyness is a disease." He said it with discouragement but empathy too. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with being perceived as rude or odd or too quiet due to my asocial tendencies. I can't stop it, I can't change it, and I'm old enough to know that by now. Anyways, maybe Amy will provide some balance to whatever Sun Su has inherited or learned from me. I suppose that balance is the cure. ______________________________
 DR. CROTCHSHOT I
guess there was a reason my favorite khaki pants were folded up in the
back corner of my closet for a year. And here I thought my patients
were silently awed by my Gustav Klimt tie. I actually
wore these all day at work. If my patients mention it tomorrow,
I'll just tell them it was their Alzheimer's or pain pills playing
tricks on them.
EMAIL: scott_to_trot[at]msn[dot]com |