SPI July 2006

Ive realized I have the gift of Tom Sawyering people.
I agreed only to go solo with the rents as long as I had a project - which turned out to be painting the condo green. I talked it up the whole way there and got them so excited on the idea that once I got them started they never stopped. It was a sweet trick. We only planned on doing one wall but mom got so excited on finishing that we did the whole place.
I also have a new interst of handstands on the beach. We cleaned out the old furniture and wierd decorative things and replaced with pictures of us. We discovered Isabellas, a sweet breakfast place (we ate there every morning) that serves dads favorite - chile relleno - and 2$ breakfast burritos 18'' long. You can get a full meal for 3 for less than $10. Also we discovered St. Piers, a sweet not-too-fancy place that occasionally has live music and has a big deck on the bay. In closing, cheak out mom in a bathing suit and her sun rash that she went on and on about, she worked hardest to not get any sun (100spf umbrella + 50spf sunscreen) but endedup most tan out of all of us. So Ill leave you with the Don Chaffer lyric of the day:
"now Jesus was a lover, he had fire in his eyes. . . that could burn away excuses and cremate your alabi's. . . he had a gaze that would expose to you all the subtle lies. . . that your soul permits your heart to tell, concerning all that it denies. . . " Chaffer 'Against the Window Pane'
So in e's theme of regaining that sense of wonder (SPI really helps in realizing that), I think about the subtle things in our hearts that we often feel but deny.

got my cast off

i got my cast off today. in case i didn't tell you, i broke the next to last little
bone on my right ring finger playing flag football. it was the first ten minutes of
the first game in a new league that was started in shanghai (the same group that
runs our basketball league). i broke it diving for this guy's flat - and in case you
were wondering, yeah, i got his flag. the incident forced me to visit a shanghai hospital,
which is never a good experience. how i got my cast: you go into emergency room, find the
bone people, they send you to the cashier, who sends you to register, then back to cashier
to pay, then in line to see the bone guy. he tells you you need an x-ray, so you romp across
the hospital campus, find the x-ray building, which is deserted, snoop around and find
someone, who tells you you need to pay first. go to cashier, who says you need to register again,
after which you pay again, then take your x-ray, then wait half an hour, get your picture, go back to
dr., who says you need a cast, then you go pay again for the cast, then you finally get
your cast. i have to say it is a pretty frustrating experience. maybe abi and david can
shed a little light on how this compares to the ER experience in the states, i guess
i haven't been in a while. but to be fair, i guess i can't say much positive about the
experience of going to the dr's office in the states either, where you wait 45 min in the
waiting room, then wait another 20 min in the examining room, then see the doc for 5 minutes.
and at least it is cheap at the chinese hospitals. i think my entire casting experience
cost about US$10.
so anyway, i have had this retarted little cast on my finger the last month, which has made
life extremely difficult. no, not extremely difficult. i know we all live priveleged lives
compared to a lot of the world, so we can not classify our lives as difficult. so the cast
added a few inconveniences to my life that i was not used to. i couldn't ride my bike and
had to take the bus. and it made typing difficult, also showering.
so the point of this post is that after seeing my finger today, i realized that it is
probably going to be a little crooked for the rest of my life (i already have crooked toes).
at first i was pretty upset about that, but then i thought, you know, who even knows how long the rest
of this life will last? i should be overjoyed if i get to spend another 50 years living with
this little crooked finger.
we should thank heaven above everyday for our health and for what we do have, because
every day is a gift. i have been blessed in so many ways that i can't believe i would consider
feeling sorry for myself for a little crooked finger. maybe this finger will be a reminder
to me to be thankful for what i do have.

this reminds me of another don chaffer quote:
"Mercy's born on every morning..."
-O Virgina

or something like that. maybe i will start ending all of my posts with don
chaffer quotes.

well, that was my thought for the day. i need to
stop now because my crooked finger is getting sore from typing.
-elias