Bye bye

One of Noah's old friend's from the "brown playground." She is moving away. I don't think Noah really remembered her. But nonetheless I kind of feel sad. I've been feeling sad about a lot of goodbye's recently where as before I simply accepted it. I guess it has to do with the fact that these are my kids friends and in a way I'm, living again through them, in a way that I never even bothered to live through my own experiences. As if living vicariously was something more than actual living. I don't know that's just my theory.

Early Morning Lion Dance

My kids did their first lion dance today, sort of. I mean , they were in fancy uniforms and under a little head and they were on stage. Noah actually kept trying to hog the center of the stage but I didn't want the big head to knock him over. I guess I should have given him a little orange to do choi chiang on the side. The truth is I wasn't sure he would even get under the head because in the past he didn't. Jonah was still afraid so I ended up holding the tail for Noah. Originally I planned for him just to do the moves in the background next to the drum. But in retrospect he has been trained more in the ritual process than in the moves themselves, so I uess he felt out of place when he wasn't given a ritual to perform, instead being a back up to the big head, which was performing the ritual. If I had done the head, I would have been able to interact with Noah, but then what about Jonah, who dropped the tail and kind of didn't want to do it anymore? SO that's why I couldn't do the head this time. Anyway, the audience like my kids and I got a lot of comments about them.
Also, while entertaining my children with the Kung Fu Wheels on the bus, a few people talked to other members of the group asking if we sold DVD's of the Kung Fu wheels on the bus etc. I guess I should make at least one video to put up on Youtube. I know I should have done it already, but I'm just so bad with technology.

Parent Workshop and math

Did you ever have that feeling or thought, "what have I been doing with my life?"
Well last night during the parent workshop I was screaming inside my brain, "What have I been doing with my children's live?" Basically Michelle, the workshop leader, was talking about how playing with blocks is actually a child figuring out math. That playing messily with paint or bubbles is related to studying science. I.e. that is how you learn those subjects intuitively and that if you know them intuitively when you start learning them abstractly on paper it's easier. It's not that my kids have never played with blocks or paint. But have they done it enough?
There was also pattern forming. Basically learning patterns and filling in the next thing is like solving for x in algebra. Also being able to tell the story of what comes next is important to. An example was what you do for your morning or night time routine.
Ironically Noah is actually more structured in this respect than me. It's just his personality. I knew that already though when he popped out looking like Mr. Cheng (Grace's dad, who went to MIT)

For patterns I began to realize that there was a lot of this in a lion dance and Kung Fu class.
In lion dance there is a ritual pattern to how you go about doing the dance. I taught it for traditional reasons of not wanting kids to lose the pattern. But I didn't realize it had any other potential benefit besides that. That's coming back into an important role in my classes now.
There is also the patterned, almost annoyingly so, way we did basics when I learned.

You line up
You bow (to the highest ranking person of importance present or the altar which represents high ranking Kung Fu people that have passed on)
Then you do your opening form salute.
Down one two three into horse stance
Then you do 100 of one basic (10 in a kids class)
Maybe you do 100 of another basic depending on the endurance of the class.
Then you stand up you breathe in and out twice in a yoga like way.
You bow.
Then you walk around twice in a circle with your hands behind you back on your kidneys.


Then....

you line up.
You bow
You do the opening... etc.

One of my youngest students back in the day used to start narrating the sequence. I let her do it. (I know some Si HIng's that would have told her to shut up.) However, I didn't realize that there was any value besides teaching her to run the class at a young age.
I have since modified the pattern to make it not as long. For instance we only do ten basics each so we only go through the sequence once. Less ritual, more practice.
I guess that was a mistake since the ritual is actually teaching them math, which in today's world of programmed drones dropping bombs, is more important, relevant, and more powerful than the physical aspect of Kung Fu.
I guess the emphasis always was more mental anyway and the physical stuff was just a tool. I guess those Shaolin and Tibetan monks knew what they were doing.

T-shirt and a book.

I will have my T-shirts this weekend. They depict Noah and Jonah flying on a giant White Crane. I've been thinking about writing a children's book to go along with it. I write out the words. But now I would like to do the illustrations. That seems to be more work mainly because I don't think my kids would let me do it by myself. Also, it would be great if I had imaging software so that I could tweak the images as I saw fit on the computer. Maybe I could just put the thing online and maybe from there print it out. I guess I could sell it with the T-shirt if I printed them out. Or maybe just look at it on my facebook page. Nowadays my kids like to look at the computer a lout anyway for videos, pbskids.org, or pictures of themselves. So a little story about them riding a crane would be cool. I guess I don't really need imaging software, but it would be nice to have the picture and the words put just so on the computer in just the right font. I have done that sort of thing by hand before, but these things always get lost. That's why I want it on the computer but still in book form where you could look at this page then that page, turn the page back if you wanted. It's probably a lot easier than I'm thinking it is.

Little Kung Fu Panda

Day two of my new gig teaching little preschoolers Kung Fu. I have to say, it was pretty hot out. And for some reason Jonah just started crying when I taught the class. I guess he doesn't like to share my attention with this new group of kids. Also, while doing push hands I could tell the teacher that was my partner didn't want to touch my sweaty wrists. What's more, none of the kids wanted to touch each other's wrists. They did it last week. But this week was no go. Push hands is usually my excuse to be able to do something while holding Jonah, but it didn't work out.
They liked drumming though. I think the heat just made them not want to move.
Then again, when we were doing the form, some kids were really into it. It's just that the one's that weren't were starting to run towards some toys and if I didn't find something everyone was into fast, the whole system would break down. Of course I did go way over the 15 minute mark too.
I think I'll bring the foam sticks next time and one at atime Kung Fu will be a sword battle. Maybe I'll bring a pad for the hitting the target pad drill too.

Voting Day

Today is voting for a special election. Did I vote yet? No. i'm getting to it. Believe it or not despite having no job I haven't had a chance yet. My plan is to wait in line during Jonah's nap.
Who am I voting for?
It's funny, I'm an Independent, and increasingly my ideology is leaning more toward what Republicans say they are about. I say "say" because in the end, I don't think they are really about small government at all. They just like to say it. But I do see a point to the "hands off" approach. Here's why.
I was never on WELFARE with a big W. The W with stigma and anger from those who "pay their taxes proper"  But I have benefited in many ways from welfare small w. For instance, I grew up in the projects. Housing that is artificially cheaper due to government subsidizing.
I was never like, "Thank you father government for providing me with housing. I will remain forever loyal and in your debt."
I was like, "Why does the water sometime come out brown and smell like sewage? Why do we have to put up with surprise inspection where people can come in and snoop around whenever they want so long as they put up a piece of paper to say they are going to do it that morning? Why does the power go out? Why to the stairs have heroin needles and underwear with poop in it? Why do we always have to worry about being robbed on the way home?"

Now if we hadn't ever had the option of affordable housing we wouldn't have been homeless. I guess my mom would have moved in with her Parents in Philadelphia. Then again that might have been awkward at first because my Father was Chinese. But Adam Smith's invisible hand would indeed have corrected the situation one way or another. Maybe I would have just ended up dead and the problem would have been solved that way.
Now the counter argument (my counter argument) is that it's probably cheaper for the government to provide  housing than for other organizations to step in and provide it. Why cheaper? Because the organizations that will take in flocks of people will be Churches, Cults, Political organizations, gangs, and when these organizations take in people off the street, starving, even if the  housing isn't ideal, these people will swear loyalty to the private organization that saved their life and will vote accordingly at the ballot, or if you are not in democracy, with fists guns and bombs. The Government will then have to restore order, possibly put down a rebellion... so you see, it is just cheaper to provide housing in the first place. That's why we got here.

So I guess I don't agree with the Republican (okay more like the AYN RAND ideal) ideal of doing away with welfare big and small W. small W being, public schools, breakfast and lunch programs, government healthcare, unemployment, police departments, fire departments, public works... all things which technically can be provided by private investors.. people I will never get a chance to vote for.

But I do believe there is a point to that kind of thinking and that the current systems could be tweaked to work better and cost the government less money. For instance, what if there was a partnership between companies in the housing and school system? Like if schools taught students in a way that benefited the company that would eventually hire them. I'm sure you would have plenty of computer programming classes and schools would vary differently company to company.

This sounds like a horrible idea for people who will say, "that's like slavery where companies own you", or "they will do away with the arts for sure."

Well first of all. Could our school's get worse? Plus you could go to Private school. And also, these companies and school's will compete with each other to create the most successful students instead just outsourcing to India or China. (India has a huge population and therefore has more honor students than America has students.) If these competing school's find (as it has been shown) that music classes make you better at math. That school will have music classes. If they find that sports or Yoga or a certian diet or whatever makes you have better health and therefore means you will work longer for the company and will be cheaper to the company if you have no health problems they will do that. And the companies will compete against each other and use different methods and the government can see which one does better.


Far fetched or a stupid idea? Yeah after all I'm just writing on my blog to myself.  I guess I will vote Democrat today, mainly because I cannot bring myself to vote for the Republican candidates that run. Not because they suck as people. Not that they don't have a point with their worldview. Ultimately I just don't like the look, the aesthetic feel of their advertisements.

Noodles and a nap

It's pretty hot today and pretty much I've been walking around everywhere today. Mainly because Jonah fell asleep on the way to the library and I pretty much knew there was no way that we would be going back home to nap. Jonah would be napping outside today. I guess I could have sat down at the library while he slept. Actually no I couldn't have because other kids were being really loud. I could have rested outside. But then when he woke up, then what? No I took the opportunity to browse books and find nothing of interest. But I picked up Ferdinand the Bull for the kids later on the train.
I went to pick up some stuff from Stop and Shop, and after all that Jonah woke up on our doorstep. I guess when you are a kid you can doze of in the middle of your travels and wake up at home and it isn't anything unusual. Your parents always carry you there and it is expected. That's pretty cool when you think about it.
In fact someone passed by me and said, "Hey I wish I was him" as they saw Jonah chilling in his stroller.

I think the real reason why Jonah clonked out so hard was because we did several playgrounds followed by, not baos, but Chinatown Cafe. Fau Yuk Wonton mein. Roast Pork Wonton Noodle soup. It was awesome. It wasn't really lunch time yet  so all the meats were hanging there fresh and dripping. The truth is nothing is better than eating that meat right after it's been cut. Eating it even five minutes later is not as good. You have to eat it right there. And then there is really only so much you can eat of that meat anyway. So there's no point in getting so much. Just a few slices on something interesting and fun to play with like Wonton noodles. That's right I said  play with. That's why kids like noodles. Their interesting to try and pick up in you chopsticks. You know I was all excited to eat various snack yesterday because there was a festival and the streets were closed off, but is that food better than what's normally in Chinatown? I don't think so. It's just the excitement of it being sold on the street for just that day.

Chinatown "Spring" summer festival

We did make it into Chinatown and got the kids into uniforms. It was a good thing too because the school ended up needing us. The kids got way too hot when they were on stage though. The stage was black and absorbed heat. This year the festival ended up being ahead of schedule and Randy AKA Shen Long sang to stall. Randy is a bit of a Chinatown celebrity. He is a African American man who sings Hong Kong pop songs from the 90's at banquets weddings and events like today. He sings well and his pronunciation is good. It's pretty cool. I wanted the kids to get a picture with him but I actually had to take them off the stage After my form because they were overheated and Grace went to go get them ice water. I did two forms and then Tony Yee asked the group to stall until the next performers showed up. We were short people, which was an opportunity for me. I went up and did Wheels on the Kung Fu bus. It was actually difficult because I had to hold the mic in one hand. Eventually I got a child from the audience to hold the mic for me (though he kept drooping it lower and lower) and a few others and even Noah emerged to perform the Kung Fu Bus and then a section of Sup Ji. Actually Noah just came on stage and hid behind me laughing. He told me later, "Baba I only like to do Kung Fu at Shao Baos house and at the school not in the Chinatown."

He'll come around. The other kids, who I'm pretty sure I had never seen before (but you can never be really sure) followed along pretty well. That little stunt seemed to get me noticed by the director of Main Streets. To bad I didn't bring business cards with me.

We bought some fish balls and hot dogs on sticks and that along with some baos previous to the performance was the children's not quite lunch.

Then we strolled around a little bit and I knew Noah really wanted to go home because he asked to go through the smelly Chinatown elevator to get to the T to go home. That ordeal really brought my Chinese Festival experience home for me because it truly smelled like a port a potty in Hong Kong. I noticed when I was in Hong Kong that its seemed like pee just was that much more pungent. I think it's because of yeet hei.

We road that blissful air conditioned orange line train to Green Street where we passed that playground and went to the Tot lot instead, where Jonah slept and Noah played for pretty much the rest of the day until I bribed them to leave with promises of cake, which turned into ice cream instead. I had planned to go back in for the 4:50 Federation performance with Noah.... but it didn't work out. But the kids had fun and at least we got to go.

Strawberry picking

Today we went strawberry picking. They hay ride to the picking site showcased the vast orchards etc. I have a friend whose family owns a nice farm and I wondered why they didn't do what this farm did, what with the whole tourist thing and vast orchards. Then I thought about it and realized it must be a lot of work and a lot of investment.
I decided that I want apple orchards of my own. Not in the realistic way that I will plan on how I will acquire one or anything like that. But in the way a little girl builds her little castle in the sandbox with stables here and orchards there. In fact the other day I saw a girl complaining that some little boy (not Jonah) had stepped on her orchards. You know what. While we're at it, I want a Castle.
No but seriously it always seems more cool when the thing that you own, is a business and potentially makes money. Where as owning a mansion or a swimming pool, or that sort of thing is a lot of work and not only costs a lot of money to purchase but also to maintain. Where as owning say, a house up in the woods that you can escape to for a weekend, is also a house that customers can escape to and therefore a potential source of income.
Like owning a skyscraper. That's cooler than owning a castle. What would you do with a castle? Pay for it. Pay taxes on it. I guess you could potentially develop it for tourism. It's difficult though. But if you own Disney World, or Story Land, you are probably making money. And if you're not, you sell it and at least you have that money right?
Anyway the kids were pretty good at Strawberry picking. We only took a few because they go bad the next day anyway. And it was more about the general experience of it. The last time we went Noah would pick the green ones too, which was annoying for us and would have been annoying to the guy who owned the little strawberry field if he saw it. This time he was better about it. And ate quite a few strawberries. His hands looked kind of like he he had murdered someone. Whatever they still made money of us I think.

Wild Geese

I've always heard that if a dog and a goose fought that the goose would usually win by whacking the dog in the nose with it's wings in a "cup cuen"  haymaker like motion. Today while walking around the pond, Jonah pushing his little car, there was a very small dog walking in front of us. Suddenly walking in between geese it became interested in something. Later I saw that there were baby gosling geese right there. They were fuzzy instead of feathered and were as big as ducks. I actually never saw goslings before. Anyway one goose came flapped his or her wings down on the dog seeming more to shoo him away than whack him. The dog left but the call the goose made brought all the geese coming over. It was like an HK gang movie, gu wak jai, except geese. I was actually worried now because Jonah is pretty much the same height as them and now they seemed to be more interested in us than the dog. Like there was a call to warn of danger but no follow up language to say that it was the dog and not the child or that the dog had left. After all they are geese. Their language is limited I guess. Actually I've seen humans behave just like this too so maybe I shouldn't talk smack about geese.
I put Jonah into the stroller instead of having him walk through and I walked ahead of the stroller in case they decided to nip at him with their beaks. Because they are prey animals they all stood perpendicular to us with their beaks facing the pond. So they were facing the pond but their eyes are on the side of their heads so that is the only position where they can stare at us. It was interesting to me because of course the white crane is also a bird and I do white crane Kung Fu. And we always have our chest facing perpendicularly to our enemy. (This is a generalization of course, and actually our system has other animals too so I shouldn't say always) We do this by turning our waist. Our faces still face our enemy because even though the movements are crane-like there is no changing the fact that we have the faces of primates. I didn't really learn anything new from this encounter, but it was just interesting seeing  a bunch of geese rush over like a gang or soldiers and then square off, only their squaring off looks like their all suddenly staring out at the water until you realize they can only stare from the side of their head.

Kung Fu outfits

I got Woo Ching White Crane Kung Fu uniforms for Noah and Jonah yesterday. Basically because this Sunday is the "Chinatown Spring Festival" and I will be going. And I will be in uniform. So I figure my kids should be in uniform too. If things go well I will probably do a form. But my main goal is to just show up with my kids all in uniform and hopefully be present when our team performs. I'm worried that Jonah will not let me do forms. He usually doesn't. Noah has in the past. But to bring one and not the other seems silly at this age. The where the shirt part of the uniform like a gown or robe now and we have to hem in the sleeves. But that makes it look even cooler.
At first me and Grace decided I would just bring Noah and Jonah would stay with mommy. But I think it's time for Jonah to come too.  Woo Ching White crane performs at around 12pm. And then the Federation, goes on again at 4:00pm or so. The truth is the schedule is always off, sometimes by more than an hour. So it is quite possible that I will have to just take the kids to a playground or something. But Our unforms are pretty festive looking so just walking through Chinatown dressed like that will be something. Even if we only watch the lion heads bow at the school that will be something too.

Little Panda

Today was my first day teaching at Little Panda Mandarin immersion. I'm going to have to relearn all my Kung Fu in Mandarin or at least figure out simpler Mandarin names for some of the moves. I went over some of the words, and learned them but have since forgotten them. Their similar enough to Cantonese for me to hear them and know what they are, but dissimilar enough that I will forget the tone.
Jonah liked the place. He placed with their toys. Then when his drum was taken away he cried. Not used to structure. He's used to Baba doing whatever he wants, only with him. Also I guess he's not used to these kids yet. Next week he probably won't cry.
Surprisingly, the older group of kids lasted for a half an hour. I didn't mind going over my time because of the location. Jonah was just hanging out and playing anyway, and the little play yard is fenced in. In fact after all the kids left Jonah was still playing with their cars and the director said it was cool. I might start teaching an adult class there on the weekends as well. When I say adult I really mean adult and older kids. Older like Noah's age. So a family class. Anyway, Noah has to be able to come and enjoy it and any adult that wants to come has to be willing to play fishy fishy cross my ocean.
I guess my "Sifu's test" to see if you're "sincere" is not making you kneel for a few days or a ton of cash, but it will be to see if you're willing to learn with children and be a positive influence on youth. Of course observing your character is still important. Not all adults are good role models.
Well I definitely felt good after that class. The kids were tired which made the teachers happy and Jonah fell asleep in the stroller.

Double Double Rainbows

Yesterday in Boston there was a double double rainbow. That is to say not just a rainbow with two ends, but two such rainbows one on top of each other. Based on that Youtube video where some guy is crying because he is seeing a rainbow with two ends I guess just seeing one is pretty rare. In fact before this week I had only seen one other clear and striking rainbow in the sky. I mean not one made from spraying a hose or a prism. The first one I saw was not at all complete, but it was very bright and beautiful.
In Norse mythology the rain bow is supposed to be a bridge from the realm of the gods to the realm of man. The gods realm is above earth. This idea really only makes sense if you see a one sided Rainbow. Because a double rainbow would just be going somewhere over there. And if anyone had gone, somewhere over there, it was the Vikings, so they would know that Odin and Thor didn't live there.
My point is, when we see a rainbow in the sky, we see a beautiful phenomenon caused by light being refracted through water droplets. So seeing a double double rainbow is amazing and beautiful, but readily understandable. But if it is supposed to be a bridge you walk on and suddenly you see two double ones what do you make of that?
It would probably be an earth shattering event. I mean, why are there suddenly two bridges? Maybe people told these stories back then but didn't exactly believe in them the way we believe in scientific fact today. Probably it was just a story the way we have Urban myths and legends. And the point is more about entertainment than education, with morals to the story of course. Either that or nobody ever saw what everyone in Boston saw yesterday.
I mean if there ever was a sign. That was it.

The Beautiful Warrior.

I just borrowed a children's Kung Fu Book from the library. It basically tells the story of Ng Moi and Wing Chun, or one version of the oral history anyway. I remember writing a paper about this type f oral history in Highschool and actually also wrote about Ng Moi on a College application Essay to Emanuel. It asked what historical woman I looked up to. (Emanuel had just gone coed from being an all women's college.)
Before whenenevr I talked about these stories, because I didn't have written sources people would just think I saw a movie or made it up. Actually I heard most of the stories from my Sifu and most of the versions on TVB or in the movie varied drastically from the stories he told me.
This book was purposefully vague when talking about the Kung Fu training but had nice historical details  too. The pictures are cool too. They are simultaneously very Kung Fu Movie-esque and very Children's book illustration-esque. We'll see if Noah even likes it. It has a lot of words so it's not the type of book for Jonah.
It also is pretty much the same story I had heard. So now thanks to the white woman who wrote the book (or at least woman with an Irish last name) I have a Children's Kung Fu book about real (more or less) characters who are said to have founded the Ng Moi and the Wing Chun system.
Looking forward to story time tonight.

Dragons and playgrounds and Pandas oh my

I taught the Dragon's class Kung Fu today. No Lion Dance, much to their disappointment.
"Where's the lion Head?" I told them it was raining outside and they didn't seem to care/
"Well what is the lion head made out of?" I asked them.
"Paper." they replied.
"And what happens to paper when it gets wet."
"It gets broken and it loses it's color."
After Dragon's class I had scheduled an interview at the Little Panda's Mandarin immersion daycare.
Too close to the time class ended. Well i had scheduled it because as I was doing Kung Fu in the playground across the street from Tufts, a middle aged Chinese woman was looking at me. I looked behind me to make sure she was looking at me and she said, "No.. you. You teach the Kung fu at Kwong Kow right? I remember." Well in any case she had tught at KKCS as well, and like me was no longer teaching there. She wondered if I could teach at the school she taught at now. So basically the interview was scheduled quickly in between  Kung Fu moves. I didn't exactly have my calendar in front of me.
Today the interview went well though. My judge of whether something is worth it for me to do is now whether it is worth it for Jonah to do. And since I will be teaching children around the same age as Jonah and the facility is therefore childproofed for that age it is worth it. The director also said I could use the facility to teach adults. That would be good to because then I'll have someone to buy those T-shirts I ordered.

Dragon Boat Festival

Yesterday Noah's teacher asked me if I knew it was "duen MMM jeeet." I asked her if that was the same thing as the Dragon Boat festival, the whole thing about wut yuen. Yes, Yes it was. Hadn't it already passed? The first day had passed but the fifth day the actual day was yesterday. The truth is I only knew it was that time because of Facebook posts and the posters for the Dragon Boat races.. which I have never been to. Some people might think that is weird because I do lion dance, and am half Chinese, and even white people go to the Dragon Boat festival. But my only memories of actually participating in this holiday are from the The kung Fu school. Eating Jong, and a big feast (but there's a feast holiday once a month) and I think there was burning of offerings too. Not money, but purple paper roller up and then a group of those rolled up. Maybe that was something else though. I don't know why I never got into this holiday. The races, or the idea of them are cool. Maybe when my kids get old enough we will do that.
The only memory of this holiday growing up was the chapter we read about it in Kwong Kow Chinese school. and then hearing the story again two other times in my life and being able to recount what I already knew. Basically Wut Yuen was a poet/official who was very close to the Emperor. (rumor is Wut Yuen was gay too so exactly how close he was to the Emperor I don't know. I don't even know if he really was gay) Anyway Wut Yuen suggested certain policies that needed to be enacted otherwise the country would go to shit. (sounds kind of like America right now) But the Emeror's other advisors were like, "Don't believe Wut Yuen, he's a liar and is corrupt and is trying to pull the wool over eyes and" blah blah blah. So Wut Yuen had  bei yun WUT jau.. he was set up. And the way to say you are set up in Chinese is a verb form of Wut Yuen's name. THen Wut Yuen pulled a "sei bei nai tai" die let you see, killing himself to show he was telling the truth.
The Emperor's Dragon Boats RACED to find him or his body and everyone made Jong's (sticky rice and yummy fillings of sweet or savory favors wrapped in Ti leaves). The text books say the Jongs are to keep the sharks from eating his body. Everyone else says the JOngs are for Wut Yuen himself. And that infact they are made to this day for Wut Yuen himself to eat, now. But that's a very pagan superstitious way of thinking that text books usually try to minimize.
I remember the chapter because there was a nice landscape and sharks. I drew other sharks eating Wut Yuen in my book and despite (or because of the stress from) not actually being able to understand most of the Chinese that was written or spoken, the chapter imprinted itself on my mind. Yes I did learn something at Chinese school.

Playground workout

I have resumed my new routine of pull ups at the playground across from Tufts Medical Center T stop. The playground is for bigger kids, but Jonah can navigate it unassisted pretty well. In between my pathetically low number of pull ups I do Kung Fu, slow first, well actually pretty slow the whole way through. I do it as a stretch, a warm up, a bit of light cardio. But a warm up to what? Certainly not a more rigorous work out. By the time I have "warmed up" it is time to move on to other playground's or just another activity. Jonah does not stay interested in this playground by himself for long.
As I threw pows cups and a stiff bodied jump kick this older black man, maybe 40 or 50... heck maybe 60. A lot of black people look much younger than they are.. was like, "Okay." as he passed by, looking at me from behind the playground structure, as I did stuff with Jonah still in my vision. I more or less freestyled it, taking combinations out of the forms. But doing it in a way that can't be called shadow boxing. Not really. I don't do it that explosively. Like I said it was more of a stretch and warm up, but faster than an internal way of doing it. I didn't have the focus for that. My focus was on Jonah, who was occupied by the Tic Tac Toe wheels, that was near a ledge.
"Okay" he said.
I either said "what" or "okay" or something of the sort back.
"I do that too." he said smiling
and I smiled back an " okay" as I continued my moves.
I don't know if he was saying, I was okay or only okay, or my idea of working out at a playground was okay.
I just know that what I was doing probably wasn't that impressive. Actually another time I did a jump kick and this old Chinese guy started clapping and gave me the thumbs up. But I know that with my kicks, especially recently, I look like a beginner student. Mainly because my legs are just stiffer than they were. i can feel that the muscles aren't smoothly doing the motion that I want them to do. But what am I going to do. Not kick in public? The only way to get more flexible and get the motion smoother is more kicking. Which means throwing my awkward kicks when I have the chance. Which at the playground when my child is distracted and where Anyone passing by is free to judge and issue comment.
 just take them positively no matter what they mean.

The man watched me for a while, but soon I had to stop. Not because he was watching, but because Jonah had started coming over to the ledge and saying, "X's!... O'ses! I see you!!!" when he wasn't right at the ledge I just repeated what he said or taled with him while still doing my moves, but when he came right to the edge I had to put my hands up. He wasn't going to jump, but he was leaning forward while depending on the metal bars he was gripping to keep him from falling. If for some reason his grip slipped  or his feet slip because he leaned over too far... well anyway, my hands were up just in case.
Jonah moved on to slides and other things and by that time my audience had moved on to, bored or done with me.

Misty Kung Fu class

It was too wet to bring the paper mache lion head out. But not to wet to bring out the little dragons.
Instead of doing the class in the sugar bowl we went around behind it and just had the class on the asphalt path. Dragon dance to warm up. Then a piece of sup ji, chuen pow cups, 100 punches (counting all 100 thereby learning to count to 100) 100 kicks, then ten of each basics, Sword fighting and then just some running around.
I've been thinking...
While in Florida, the dance studio we visited had group lessons and then a dance every few days a week. Something like that at 10 bucks a class might work with the Kung Fu school, but would it work with Jonah? probably not. I like how they just taught the basic moves of a dance. Each night would be a different dance.
I guess you could do that with Kung Fu. Maybe learning the basic aspects of one type of move. Say the straight punch one night, kicks another night, Pows another night. But then how do pair up? That could be dangerous with beginners. Well not so much dangerous but some people might be aggressive and hit or "injure" each other or perhaps just start fighting, and then what. Lawsuit? Push hands might work. Pushing drills. That type of thing. Maybe just holding hitting pads for each other. Ehhh maybe it's not such a good idea. Besides, can't do it with Jonah anyway.

Well I did get my class in despite the light not quite rain and Jonah did plenty outside today I think. Maybe we'll put boots on later and jump in puddles. That's all he seems to want to do anyway.

The Giant Crane

Two little boys played in the park.
One was a bigger little boy.
One was a smaller little boy.
The two boys were brothers, and friends..
sometimes.

They ran down a valley,
and up a hill.
The played with sticks.
They played with rocks.
Sometimes they shared.
Not always.

They went to the big pond.
They made big and little splashes in the water,
which made the ducks come over, looking for food.
The two little boys didn't have any for them.

Then there was a strong wind,
and a giant shadow of a something that blocked out the sun.

With a great big woosh.... it landed.

A giant, huge, great, bug, humongous,
Crane!

"Hok!" said the Crane.

"Scary." said the smaller little boy.
"Can we ride you?" asked the bigger little boy.

The crane turned its head and replied, "Hok!"


The two little boys flew onto the crane's back.

They flew over mountains, and rivers, through forests of giant trees,
around the biggest tree in the whole wide world, past clouds, airplanes and helicopters, and between the sun and the moon.

"Let's go home for lunch!" said a voice.

"Po po Baba," said the bigger little boy.
"Carry me too Baba," said the smaller little boy.

And they flew into their father's arms, and all the way back home.





Dragon-time, Snake-knowledge, Tiger-Ferocity, Leopard-Stealth, Crane- Endurance and tranquility, Lion-power, Elephant-Strength and dexterity, Monkey- Speed and cunning, Horse- Hard work, Ape- use of tools  

Vacation

When you don't have a job, vacations can actually be more work than your everyday routine. Especially with kids. First of all we were in a new house that was not childproofed and of course Noah was not in school. The result? Jonah got to play with a glass Dolphin whit broke on the floor and then bounced onto his foot, thus cutting him even though I pulled him away before he could step on anything. Four stitches and two hundred dollars later we were ready to meet up with my cousin for lunch instead of brunch, which is what we were doing when we were trying to get out the door in the first place. So basically, being in Florida, the  ocean became forbidden for one of my sons. No matter, he can't really swim anyway. But still it would have been nice for him to have the freedom to stomp on waves and other such activities.
We went to the Zoo down there in Tampa, which was awesome. We went to Clearwater Beach which had playgrounds with roofs to shelter from the sun and the rain. Good Thing.
We went on the pier, saw people fishing, cranes stealing bait fish from them, and saw a guy catch a giant Manta Ray, prepare to through it back because he didn't want it, and then instead give it to some Vietnamese Fisherman who said they would eat it. '
The pier experience was pretty cool cause there was a community feel about it that transcended race and culture. Sharing and trading of catches was common because there are laws on how big a fish you can take etc. I never considered eating a Manta ray before. Apparently there is an overpopulation of them because of the under population of sharks. I wonder what Vietnamese style Manta Ray tastes like. We didn't see many Chinese in Florida, but a lot of Filipinos and Vietnamese. Maybe next time we should see if there are any good restaurants of that sort down there. Last year we ate Cuban food at two different places. One was at the mall food court and was surprisingly good. So we went back this year. We also went to a Ballroom Dance studio where now two of my cousins dance. Noah liked it but is still too young to actually learn it I guess. Well not too young. Too rebellious.
Well now we are back in Boston, with our house full of toys and books and crayons and activities for children. Where we have 10 playgrounds within walking distance and so many trees that shade is never an issue. Where Chinatown is a T ride away and yes we have good Cuban food here anyway ironically called El Oriental. Florida was fun but it's good to be back.