ji kau meh (Friday)

This year there is 'sar chap meh'. No difference. It is still the day before chinese new year's eve.

Six years ago.....
The bowls and plates, the rice bowl sets, the chopsticks, the miniature wine glasses, the tea cups, the candle stands, the main table - they are all washed, dried and ready to be used for tomorrow. NY's eve is the day we pray to the departed - to provide them with their favorite dishes. Agree with dad that such traditional practice that do not make sense in the modern world and should not be continued. But does it really matter?
Ping miss it because it is one of the rare occasions when ahdik is actually contributing to it by not being a rascal. In fact, ahdik actually cares enough to take note of all the rituals and do's and don'ts, to know prayers protocol, to help out with serving. It is also one of the occasions that bring everyone into the kitchen. Ping learned how to serve the rice with the top a perfect mound, the proper way to arrange the utensils, how to cook jeu hu char. Lastly, and also the best part, the food!!! Those are the kinds of food that we only get to eat once a year - jeu hu char and kiam chai ark.

2007
Ping thought it was CNY's eve edi. But after talking to Panda, Ping realized that it is not until Saturday. Miscalculated the time. Had a nice talk with Panda EARLY in the morning. Initially Ping wasn't sure if she should make the call. Didn't know what to say. But it's CNY...it should start out smooth right? So Ping called to wish him happy CNY. But kept digging her brain for stuff to say. Ping also talked to Andrew. That was a lot less awkward 'coz sifu is really easy to talk to. He's excited about CNY and is pretty happy with everything right now. That's always good to hear.
Went to lab with Stephanie. Got there and realized Ping read the wrong paper for the seminar at noon. There were too many dehalogenation papers. Thankfully, there's still time to read the primary literature. After seminar Ping did a fluorescent measurement for one of Ping's E. coli strain and it turned out to be as expected! So the entire day went by pretty fast and CNY sort of slipped out of Ping's mind. It is hard to be excited and get all festive about it when the CNY atmosphere is not there at all. It's all white out and crazy cold - vs. the usual super hot CNY. There's no CNY songs playing. There's no CNY cards being sent or received. It is just another plain Michigan day.
But it ended pretty nice with a dinner at Thai Kitchen (but we won't be going back there) and Ghost Rider. The department had a prospective graduate student visiting and Steph and Ping volunteered to bring him out to dinner. But before we knew he was coming, we already had planned to watch Ghost Rider. So we decided to include him into our plan. It turned out to be a pretty nice evening. Ping was tired by the time we got out of the movie so Ping went straight to bed.

There goes Ping's ji kau meh (29th night). It is just another Friday. But on the side, it was an exciting moment for Ping because her abstract for the ASM 107th GM have been accepted!!!!!! While it is not a big deal for most, it is for Ping because this time, Ping will be doing the poster! Some of the data are Steph's data but Ping will be writing and designing the poster!!!!