The Asian parent syndrome

After taking several bites of some satisfying pesto linguini, a patron came up to me inquiring some information. I took a gander at their appearance and immedietly thought, "they're probably Chinese, I'm pretty certain at that." It was most likely a mother and her young daughter and later I found out they were. The mother's pronounciation of English triggered my noggin,which recognized the accent as Chinese-English accent. She asked if we had any Jane Eyre books. Knowing the stacks I quickly responded that Jane Eyre books (and other English literature) were located on 3C of the Norlin stacks. I began a search of Jane Eyre books on the library search engine and jotted down a call number. I then asked her, "do you know your way around the stacks?"

Her answer, " not really."

"well then, I can go up there with you, it's a headache if you don't know your way around"
then I asked, "do you just want the novel "Jane Eyre" ?"

she replied, "is there analysis, crititicals??"

"you want criticisms as well? alright let me do a search."

I realized that Jane Eyre basically has a huge section taking up several shelves. Not only did the shelves contain your many versions of the novel, but also literary analysis, criticisms and reflections by numerous English literature analysts.

As I pushed the button to signal the elevator I asked if she was looking for these books due to a dissertation or thesis she needed to write, but in actuality she was looking for literary criticisms for her daughter who was still a little girl. The emotions that exhaled from my being was both feelings of surprise and yet predictable. I know for a fact that a lot of Asian American nuclear families strive to nourish their angelic pre-teens with material that are way ahead of what they should be reading.
"for her?? What are you, 12?"
"I'm 1o" said the shy voice

"your 10???? and you want to read Jane Eyre."
the elevator ascends.
her mother speaks for her as if she is her daughter
"too much Harry Potter, it's not good, classics better."
I started getting a little snipy.
"what's wrong with Harry Potter? Harry Potter is still literature (although sorta crappy, but for the soul of the 10-14 year old age group it is still decent) and hey in 100 years it will probably be considered "classic."
"well I'd like for her to read you know Jane Eyre, the classic literature." (her English was very staccato to me, still has a huge hint of Chinese in there)
I felt sorry for the little girl. Jane Eyre is fairly steep for a 10 year old. Even though Roald Dahl showed us that a little 5 year old by the name of Mathilda could read Dickens, Kipling and C.S Lewis, it's more like pure bull shit that all young little children have the patience to read "Oliver Twist" which by the way was one of the most tedious novels I've read. I'd rather read Twilight than "Great Expecatiations." No offense my dear Dickens. I'll grow a tolerance on you later.
I then realized that her mother was basically taking over the microphone that belongs to her daughter and speaking out loud. So I diverted my attention to the girl (who I later I found out her name's Casey) and asked, "what do you like to read aside from Harry Potter...Lion, the witch...and the wardrobe..?"

"yeah Narnia? I like Narnia."
Okay so the girl is into C.S Lewis, I'm going to progress the relevance of this genre.
"hmm, then do you like Golden Compass and such?"
"yeah it's pretty good."

When the elevator arrived onto 3C I headed towards the PR call numbers where Jane Eyre and other lovely English authors can be located. As we headed into that area, I made comments politely suggesting that for a 10 year old Jane Eyre is a heavy read with a lot of themes that can be steep for the mind of a 10 year old, plus the older novels are a tedious read sometimes. I tried reading Jane Eyre around the 7th grade because I being bit of a snob and hey that failed epically. Why? Because the language was boring to me and I was 12. What more to say?

The mother commented that she's only aware of the older classic British stuff because she grew up watching these novels on the silver screen and I can relate to that story. My parents identify with those movies too because they too also grew up with "Les Miserables", "Oliver Twist", "Le Rouge et le Noir," and "the Hunchback of Notre Dame." Then she mentioned that she's closer to Chinese classics. I thought of this moment as the perfect cue to reveal that haha I'm also Chinese bitches!!!! Most of the time I get mistakened by nearly all Asians for either Japanese or Korean.

The peak of being an organized freak

It has boiled down to this single moment where I have reached 'organization overload'. The red alarms are shrieking down below and everyone is starting to panic at the momentum of the situation. Has she really gone this obsessive with organizing everything? Probably. I recently purchased a pretty looking cook book at borders. It had a shot of a lemon as the cover with transparent plastic front and back covers bounded by rings. It's organized by tabs which state various food groups; starters, meats, fish, vegetables, baked, and dessert. I thought to myself, and took another gander at the groups "baked and desserts" I would say that they are similar don't you think? Fine borders can be even OCD than me about the difference between baked and dessert dishes. I guess it's about time to scribble down the baklava recipe that I stumbled upon at allrecipes.com. I'm not plagarizing the idea of this recipe! I simply want to enjoy the rich taste of walnuts and honey on the tip of my taste buds.

Right now I'm really entranced by Beyonce's latest song "Halo". I can say without a doubt that she is stunning in every possible aspect. Her voice, her attitude and that body! Dear God! That is a beautiful, and hey real women have curves. I hope my mother can appreciate that notion.

Grr I need to go swing and tango dancing soon. Why have I put it off this long? Sadly I can blame work and class. I'm going to change my schedule as July rolls around the corner. speaking of July, I'm pretty stoked to visit Idaho and see my tall ass mother fucker (aka Steve) I swear everytime I hug him I really think I'm hugging a tall lanky tree and my head is at his hip bone when in truth I'm at his chest area. I don't know why my brain is conditioning me to feel that way. Then again Steve is one of the tallest guys I know. The tallest being Mezger from high school. I think he was almost 7 foot and I would almost trip on his size 14 or something feet during AP US History class. Oy.

Random thought: I am a night owl and all my posts are typically from 11 pm to 3 or 4 am. Susan needs sleep. PFFF screw that. Sleep is for the weak.

Currently listening to: American Boy by Estelle ft. Kanye West