2025 Q3 Goals Update

The lesson I've learned this year re: goals is that I was naive, ambitious, and foolhardy in January when I set them. What a fool I was.  

Also, I know I'm just now posting Q3 goals and we're more than halfway through October, but this is the slack I've decided to cut myself. 

Health

1) Spend 1000 hours outside.≈

July: 52 hours, 4 minutes

August: 55 hours, 2 minutes

September: 52 hours, 44 minutes

2) Do something in the yard every week. ✔

July: Sure, sure. I mean, the yard does look like a jungle, but at least the birds are fed, right?

August: Same, same. The birds are fed. 

September: Well, the birds have food.

3) Do at least five yoga poses a day. ✔

July: 30/31 days - I'm counting this as a win.

August: 30/31 days - I'm really counting this as a win. 

September: 30/30 days

4) Go to a new-to-me fitness class. 

    Accomplished in Q1.

5) Drink 20 ounces of water a day. ✔

July: 31/31 days

August: 31/31 days

September: 30/30 days

6) Exercise for 30 minutes at least 80% of days.  ≈

July: 23/31 (74.2%)

August: 18/21 (85.7%) - I did just take out the first 10 days of August or my stats would have been decimated. I've decided that this is an okay move. 

September: 23/30 days (76.7%)

7) Only eat dessert Thursday - Saturday (or special occasions like holidays and birthdays). ✖

July: I actually tracked this! I had ice cream four times in July and cake once. This is a success for me. Three of these were on Mondays and two were on Sundays, so technically I failed this, but it seems like a win. 

August: LOLOLOL. Bad habits were resumed. 

September: I didn't eat a dessert on only twelve days of the month. 

Added in July: ≈

Do PT exercises twice a day. I am having some issues with my bad leg and have been doing PT. 

July: Average of 2.3 times a day (starting on the 15th - the first day of PT)

August: Average 1.4 times a day (I mean, better than 0, right?)

September: Average 0.64 times a day - When I can't walk when I'm 60, we'll know why.

Connection

1) Message my accountability buddy every day and M/T/T at least once a week. ≈

July: 100%. 

August: 100%.

September: I was 67% with my accountability buddy and 100% with T&T. 

2) Do two Cool Blogger Book Club sessions.

    Did one session in Q1. Will do another in Q4.

3) Send at least one fun piece of snail mail every month. Track snail mail. ✔

July: I sent two birthday cards, four postcards from Seattle, and hand-delivered one card. 

August: I sent twenty-two postcards from California, one birthday card, a bill, and I hand-delivered a thank you note. 

September: A few thank you notes, a couple of condolence cards, a donation, a graduation present, and a congratulations card for a total of eight pieces of mail. 

Adulting

1) Figure out a will or whatever. ✖

July: Lol. Of course not. 

August: I think you all know the answer.

September: LOLOLOL.

2) Order new checks. 

Completed in Q2. 

3) Limit my clothes buying to the following: two new dresses/season, new mary janes, anything that was on my Christmas wish list that I did not get, necessary bras/underwear/workout gear/replacement leggings or tights (one-to-one replacements on those).  ✔

July: I didn't buy any clothing. I did get a permanent bracelet when I was with Bestest Friend in Seattle, so you decide if that counts. 

August: No clothes were purchased. 

September: I mean, I did buy clothes, but I think it's in the spirit of the exceptions I made for this. New mary janes, new dresses for the season, and a pair of leggings. 

Home

1) Paint the porch and garage. ✖
July: LOL for days.

August: Nope. 

September: *sigh*

2) Hem the stupid pants. ✖

Someone dealt with this in Q2. 

3) Consult an architect/contractor for our bathroom remodel.  ✖

July: LOL for days.

August: When did I think I'd have time for this?

September: We really do need to do t his. 

4) Clean and organize my closet and dresser and keep them that way.  ✖

July: LOL for days.

August: See above goal for this one, too. 

September: I have no defense.

Fun

1) Learn three new hairstyles: French braid, an elegant low knot, and something else TBD. ✖

July: No progress. I'm considering cutting my hair back to a bob, so this may not stay on the list for long. 

August: I'm lucky I even washed my hair once in a while. 

September: Not at all.

2) Have one day a quarter where I take off work with no plans. ✖

July: No.

August: I mean, I took lots of days off. 

September: As if that's a possibility right now.

3) Watch at least one makeup tutorial every quarter. ✖

July: No progress made. 

August: I better get to this in September. 

September: Maybe next quarter I'll do this to get ready for holiday events.

4) Go on a girls trip. ✔

July: YES!! Bestest Friend and I went to Seattle!

5) Go to at least four new-to-me museums. ✔

Completed in Q2, but I'm going to keep tracking if I go to museums.

July: No. 

August: J and I went to the de Young Museum while I was in California. 

September: TJC and I went to the museum at the Wisconsin Capitol. 

6) Once a month dates with my husband. ≈

July: We went to a local bar together to say goodbye to a colleague who moved away. 

August: We went to a wedding in early August.

September: Absolutely not. 

7) Actually train Hannah at least three times a week. ✖

July: Apparently I trained Hannah once. Poor neglected dog. 

August: Apparently I only trained her once in August, too. 

September: Absolutely not. Poor neglected Hannah.

8) Read big books over 500 pages ≈

July: An American Tragedy

August: Feed

September: No, but I'm currently reading TWO big books and I'll make up for it over the next month.

9) Make six new-to-me cookie recipes. ≈

July: No progress made. I'm hoping that once cooler weather sets in, I'll make more progress on this goal. 

August: I made these brown butter sugar cookies. They were good and went over well with my husband and my book club. 

September: I made ricciarelli. I am not sure I'd make these again because they were fiddly and require ingredients I don't usually have on hand, including almond flour and an orange. 

10) Do a 30-day project each month. ≈

July: My project was no candy. In June I ate a ton of candy (particularly at work, where we were doing orientation and candy was free flowing), so my goal was to STOP eating hundreds of calories of candy of day. I didn't eat any candy in July, so I was 31/31 on this. As stated above, I had cake once and ice cream four times in July, but no candy.

August: I just didn't do one this month.

September: I did a photo a day project and did it on all 30 days. 

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When did you last make cookies? What kind were they?

    

CBWC October 2025 - Week Three

It's Cool Blogger Walking Club (CBWC) time. Hosted by Elisabeth, we're trying for ten minutes of intentional movement every day. 

Tuesday, October 14 - A couple of walks with my girl Hannah and one of them was a family walk with Dr. BB, too. But I think you all know what made me sad.

Wednesday, October 15 - More walks with Hannah. It's always dark, though, for the poor dear.

"Hannah, go stand in the middle of the road." 
Hannah: No
"Hannah, come on. No one's coming."
Hannah: Fine. But I'm mad about it. 

Thursday, October 16 - One morning walk with Hannah, but the more fun walk was on campus today. I needed to go to the Fieldhouse for an activity with my freshman seminar (we do a wheelchair basketball activity and it's so much fun) and it's quite a hike from my office. But my work schedule has BEEN INSANE, so it was nice to have time blocked off to actually do the commute. 

On the way back to my office, I chatted with one of my students about the activity and what he had learned and it was the highlight of a pretty terrible week. 

Friday, October 17 - A couple of walks with Hannah the Dog. The park where we regularly walk is doing a haunted hike tonight and tomorrow and they were setting up while we were on our walk. I thought the people in costumes would be a problem for her, but it turns out that the wooden Frankenstein's Monster is what she could not deal with. 

Don't worry. Five minutes later she had forgotten her terror.

Saturday, October 18 - So many beautiful walks with the dog. I love a Saturday when I can let her sniff all she wants.

Sunday, October 19 - A few lovely walks with my lovely girl. I let her roll around in whatever she wanted because got a bath, too. 

Mary Oliver has a poem called "If You Are Holding This Book":

You may not agree, you may not care, but
if you are holding this book you should know
that of all the sights I love in this world—
and there are plenty—very near the top of
the list is this one: dogs without leashes.

I wish Hannah could be off leash more because she is so happy when she can run around like a little lunatic. 

Monday, October 20 - A few walks with Hannah, but I forgot to take a photo. Here's Zelda. She never gets to go for walks outside.

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Have you been to any spooky October places this year? Haunted houses? Haunted woods? My creepy basement?

CBBC Week Two: The Joy Luck Club, Part II

Past discussions:
Week One: Part I

Welcome to Week Two of Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) for The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This week we'll be discussing Part II, "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates." 

Suz was the firs to send in a photo. Confetti for Suz!

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What happened in these chapters?

This part begins with a parable about a mother not allowing her daughter to ride her bicycle out of sight. The mother says it is a warning in a book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, but the book is in Chinese, so the girl cannot read it. When the girl hurries to get away from her mother, she falls. 

Then we move on to follow Waverly Jong, who is Lindo's daughter. After Waverly's brother gets a chess set for Christmas, Waverly becomes a chess prodigy. Lindo brags about Waverly and takes credit for her success. This culminates in a scene in which Waverly yells at Lindo in the middle of the street and the family freeze Waverly out.

The next chapter is told from Lena St. Clair's perspective. Lena is the daughter of Ying-Ying (she who fell off a boat) and her English-Irish father. Ying-Ying never learns English very well and her husband talks for her a lot. When her father gets a promotion, the St. Clairs move to the North Beach neighborhood where Lena hears the girl next door, Teresa, fighting with her mother all the time. Ying-Ying delivers a baby who dies immediately and then Ying-Ying sinks into depression. Lena comforts herself that at least things are better for her than Teresa, but that is later proven false when she heard Teresa and her mother "laughing and crying, crying and laughing, shouting with love." ("The Voice from the Wall")

Allison has two copies.

Rose is An-Mei Hsu's daughter (she who sliced off part of her arm to feed to her own mother). Rose is getting a divorce from her husband and is nervous to tell An-Mei. Then Rose tells a story from her childhood in which the family went to the beach where she was supposed to watch her younger brother Bing, but Bing drowns. The family cannot find his body, so Rose and her mother go back to the beach the next day to no avail.

Lastly, we go back to Jing-Mei Woo (June), whose story of her mother's fleeing from China without her children was recounted in the first chapter. June and her mother want June to be a prodigy, but she's just not. Suyuan wanted June to learn to play piano and June went along with it, but she was not really trying because her piano teacher was deaf. At a performance before all of Suyuan's friends from the Joy Luck Club, June absolutely bombs. "Waverly looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. 'You aren't a genius like me,' she said matter-of-factly. ("Two Kinds") Suyuan and June have a fight when Suyuan wants June to continue piano lessons when June says "I wish I were dead! Like them," referring to her Suyuan's daughters in China. 

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Nance, Ernie, and Lisa all have the same copy. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Winston and Vincent decided they were more interested in roaming the streets afterschool in their Hopalong Cassidy cowboy hats. ("Rules of the Game")

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Lines of note:

Inside, the butchers with their blood-stained white smocks deftly gutted the fish while customers cried out their orders and shouted, "Give me your freshest," to which the butchers always protested, "All are freshest." On less crowded market days, we would inspect the crates of live frogs and crabs which we were warned not to poke, boxes of dried cuttlefish, and row upon row of iced prawns, squid, and slippery fish. The sanddabs made me shiver each time; their eyes lay on one flattened side and reminded me of my mother's story of a careless girl who ran into a crowded street and was crushed by a cab. ("Rules of the Game")

Seriously, this book has such repulsive passages in it. 

Seventeen years ago she was chagrined when I started dating Ted...Ted and I met in a politics of ecology class when he leaned over and offered to pay me two dollars for the last week's notes. I refused the money and accepted a cup of coffee instead. This was during my second semester at UC Berkeley, where I had enrolled as a liberal arts major and later changed to fine arts. Ted was in his third year in pre-med, his choice, he told me, ever since he dissected a fetal pig in sixth grade. ("Half and Half")

I am married to a Ted (for seventeen years even) and we met in a political science program in grad school. If anything about this book is prophetic, I don't want anything to do with this divorce future. 

mbmom11 and her cat Espurr and Birchie and Doggo are reading along.

We used to discuss some of these matters, but we both knew the question would boil down to my saying, "Ted, you decide." After a while, there were no more discussions. Ted simply decided. ("Half and Half")

I feel this is my soul. Neither of is is really a good decision-maker (hence why we've been test driving cars for literal months and still haven't bought one - remember when Sarah and her husband bought a new car on the spur of the moment? - that does not go down in our house and if someone asks a question and the other person shrugs or says I don't know/care, it can set off a true marital conflict. (Wait...is this book prophetic? I want NOTHING to do with it.)

And although my father was a not a fisherman but a pharmacist's assistant who had once been a doctor in China, he believed in his nengkan, his ability to do anything he put his mind to. My mother believed she had nengkan to cook anything my father had a mind to catch. It was this belief in their nengkan that had brought my parents to America. It had enabled them to have seven children and buy a house in the Sunset district with very little money. It had given them the confidence to believe their luck would never run out, that God was on their side, that the house gods only had benevolent things to report...("Half and Half")

I am not even sure I'm capable of truly being responsible enough for the care of a dog and a cat and people think they can raise children and be successful in countries where the majority of people speak a different language than you. And, I mean, to be fair, many immigrants are successful people! I just can't imagine the confidence. 

Jacquie's reading in Japan and J's in California. 

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Things I looked up:

sanddab ("Rules of the Game") - fish also known as the soft flounder, mottle sanddab, or megrim, it has a sweet tasting meat, but savory skin

By Frank Schoonover - Delaware Art Museumfrom “The Fight at Buckskin,” by Clarence Edward Mulford, in Outing Magazine, December 1905, Delart, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6055688

Hopalong Cassidy ("Rules of the Game") - Originally a character developed in the early 1900s by author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote Cassidy as a rude, dangerous man who had been shot in the leg during a gun fight, which is how he developed the Hopalong nickname. From the 1930s through the 1950s, actor William Boyd played Cassidy in a series of films and children-oriented radio and television programs. Boyd's portrayal of Cassidy was much more squeaky clean and had little relation to Mulford's original character.

By Employee(s) of Paramount Pictures - http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/E/Eagle%27s%20Brood,%20The.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28279699

Devil's Slide ("Half and Half") - a coastal promontory in California, United States. It lies on the San Mateo County coast between Pacifica and Montara. Its name comes from the rocky edges prone to slope failure. I mostly looked this up because I wanted to see photos of the beach.

Devil's Slide (far left) with the southern portal of the Tom Lantos Tunnels (far right) under construction in late 2010. Note the steeply eroded cliffs immediately above and below Highway 1.

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates (all of it) - this is a fictional book created by Amy Tan for The Joy Luck Club - I will admit that I was uncertain if it was fiction or not when I looked it up. 

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Questions to ponder:

1. There is a stereotype about Asian immigrant parents pushing their children. Waverly and June represent two ends of the spectrum - Waverly is a successful chess prodigy and June doesn't even really try with the piano. What do you think will be the result for each of them as they age? 

2. I have a question about what is going on with the names of Rose's brothers. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing. Now, I'm a heathen, but even I know the four Gospel writers are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (to be completely transparent, I had to ask my husband for the term Gospel). The assumption I made reading this book was that An-mei lost her faith the day Bing died, but the naming him Bing sort of presumes that it happened before this. Is Bing a nickname? What am I missing? 

3. The last line of "The Rules of the Game" is "I closed my eyes and pondered my next move." What do you think Waverly's next move will be?

4. Poor Ying-Ying. I don't know if I have a real question here, but if this were an IRL book club, I'd want to spend a lot of time talking about how hard her life is. She can't communicate well with her husband, she has this terrible stillbirth and no one to talk to about it or maybe it was just a different time when people didn't know much about postpartum depression. What a difficult life for this woman.

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Homework for you:

If you're comfortable, ask a first- or second-generation immigrant about their relationship with their parents. Was there cultural miscommunication? Were they close with their parents? 

If you don't know anyone who you would feel comfortable asking these types of questions, do you have book recommendations that explore this parental theme in immigrant families?

(If you didn't send a book photo in this week and you want to send one in for next week, please do so.)

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Upcoming CBBC schedule:

October 27: Part III - American Translation
November 3: Part IV - Queen Mother of the Western Skies

November 10: Wrap up!

Five for Friday, Edition #31

1) CBBC homework - CBBC friends, don't forget to send me a photo of your book if you want it included in next week's post. I don't have very many, so it would be nice to get some more.  Deadline for sending it in is Sunday by noon central. dominique100 @ hotmail dot com

2) Workity work - I am just going to show you my work calendar for this week. 

Just to give you a comparison, here's what the previous week looked like. Still busy, but at least I had time to eat lunch and I left at 11 on Friday. 

I am so tired. I am behind in email, grading, and life. And it's the fault of workity work.

3) Weekend! My weekend "off" - in the sense that I am not traveling - includes plans to attend a fundraiser tomorrow night, test drive more cars (maybe buy one?), and go to Costco. We also need to make sweet potatoes and chicken for Hannah, give Hannah a bath, and put up Halloween decor. It would be nice if I could catch up on grading at some point, too. 

4) Songs that I repeat when they come on Spotify: 

"Am I Okay?" by Megan Moroney  - When you find that right fit, the world does seem to align better. 

"Blood Money" by Jon Bon Jovi - I have no real justification for loving this song. It's from the Young Guns Two soundtrack (JBJ's first solo album) and I sing along to every song on the album, but this one is not-so-secretly my favorite.

"Yankee Sailor" by Great Big Sea - I love GBS. I have the studio version of this song on Spotify, but I really like a live version. If this song isn't your jam (SO SAD), maybe listen to "Have a Cuppa Tea" instead? 

"Always the Last to Know" by Del Amitri - I might be the last living huge Del Amitri fan. This live version gives me feeeeeeelings.

"Another Saturday Night" by Sam Cooke - Look, if you're not excited by the line "Instead of being my deliverance, she had a strange resemblance to a cat named Frankenstein," maybe you shouldn't go on a road trip with me.

"Riding with Private Malone" by David Ball - I mean, this is '90s country at its best. 

"Small Town Saturday Night" by Hal Ketchum - Speaking of '90s country, is this the best country song from the '90s? My favorite line: Lucy, you know the world must be flat / 'Cause when people leave town, they never come back. When I was in college,  this line was in my email signature.  I was cool. 

5) Songs that are on my Spotify playlist despite the fact that they make me cry: 

"Elephant" by Jason Isbell - The line "There's one thing that's real clear to me: No one dies with dignity" does it every time. (There's an unnecessary f-bomb in this song, so it's explicit if you care about that.)

"The House That Built Me" by Tanya Tucker - I don't actually like the Miranda Lambert version of this song very much, but the "But once the kids were grown/It was just too much for me" in the Tucker version makes me want to crawl out of my skin. The line is "Daddy gave life to Mama's dream" in Lambert's version. 

"Long December" by the Counting Crows - Right now I'm clinging to the "Maybe this year will be better than the last" line. 

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What song do you always listen to more than once? Do you have songs that make you cry? 

CBWC October 2025 - Week Two

It's Cool Blogger Walking Club (CBWC) time. Hosted by Elisabeth, we're trying for ten minutes of intentional movement every day.

Tuesday, October 7 - A couple of walks with Hannah. This was the most cooperative I could get her to be for a photo op. She mostly wants to chew sticks and roll in the grass.

Wednesday, October 8 - Am I pissy about having to go outside in a coat and a hat? Yes, yes, I am. I had a few walks with Hannah the dog today - she's loving the cooler weather and has taken to rolling around in the grass like a champion who has never had any problems with her back which I think is the cutest thing ever - but the best walk was an afternoon walk around campus where I just wandered.

Thursday, October 9 - This dog. Are you seeing the attitude? We went for a few walks today, the two of us. I also wandered around campus an awful lot. I actually enjoy days when I have meetings in buildings that aren't where my office is located.

Friday, October 10 - Raining morning walk with my girl. I'm leaving work early and driving to Michigan, so this is our one and only walk for the day. 

Saturday, October 11 - I did some yoga in the morning, but I didn't get a walk in. I was staying with friends and thought it would be rude to just get up and leave for a walk. 

Sunday, October 12 - Walk with my girl Hannah first thing when I got home! It was windy and felt a bit unsettled, but we did it. 

Monday, October 13 - A few walks with Hannah. Here you can see her pretending she's a hunting dog in a full pointer stance. What's she looking at, you ask? I wish I could tell you. 

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Who's your favorite walking companion? 

CBBC Week One: The Joy Luck Club, Part I

Welcome to the first week of the Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) where we will be discussing The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan! CBBC makes it sound like this is some exclusive club, but anyone can join, blogger or not. You're already cool if you're here. I'm happy you are here and making this journey with all of us. As always, the ground rules for CBBC are:

1) Don't apologize. Don't apologize for having a lot or a little to say in the comments. Don't apologize because you're not an expert on something. Don't apologize because you don't have a doctorate in English literature. Don't apologize if you fall behind or can't keep up. Have fun and say what you have to say. You and your thoughts are important.(If you need more information on this, see my post on Foster's How To Read Literature Like a Professor.)

2) Feel free to come back and respond to comments more than once! I love it when there's a dialogue in the comments.

3) Have fun reading, thinking about the book, and discussing it! Don't feel limited to my discussion prompts - talk about whatever you feel like talking about.

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Who is Amy Tam?

Amy Tan is an American author best known for writing her debut novel The Joy Luck Club, a 1989 book that was later adapted into a 1993 film. She is the second of three children born to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan. Her father was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who traveled to the United States, in order to escape the chaos of the Chinese Civil War. When she was fifteen, her father and older brother, Peter, both died of brain tumors within six months of each other.

Her mother Daisy subsequently moved Amy and her younger brother, John Jr, to Switzerland. During this period, Amy learned about her mother's previous marriage to another man in China, of their four children (a son who died as a toddler and three daughters). She also learned how her mother left those children in Shanghai, which is an integral part of the story of The Joy Luck Club. 

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What happened in these chapters?

In the first section, "Feathers From A Thousand Li Away," each chapter focuses on one of four women who make up the Joy Luck Club, a club formed in China under Japanese occupation that was revived when the women met again in San Francisco. 

The first chapter is told from the perspective of Jing-Mei Woo, whose late mother Suyuan Woo has recently died. Jing-Mei has taken the place of her mother in the Joy Luck Club and she recounts the story of how her mother Suyuan was forced to flee from her home in Kweilin and abandon her children. Suyuan later found out that her first husband died. After that she married June's father and immigrated to the United States where June was born. June learns from the other female members of the Joy Luck Club that her half-sisters are alive. They ask June to go to China and meet her sisters, and tell them about Suyuan's death.

The next three chapters finish the section with a childhood tale from each of the founding women in The Joy Luck Club. 

An-Mei Hsu's story relates how she was raised by her maternal grandmother. Her mother returns only to cut off "a piece of meat" from "the softest part of her arm" ("Scar") (!!) to cook a soup in hopes of healing An-Mei's grandmother, though An-Mei's grandmother still dies.

Lindo Jong explains how a matchmaker connected her with her future husband when she was an infant. This match led to a loveless marriage. Lindo was continually pressured by her mother-in-law's desire for Lindo to produce grandchildren , even though Lindo's husband was not holding up his end of the bargain to make that happen. Lindo lies in such a way as to annul her marriage and she emigrates to the United States.

Lastly, Ying-Ying St. Clair tells the story of how she fell into a lake on a family boat ride during the Moon Festival when she was four. She's a spoiled little girl with a hovering nanny, but she wants to play like the boys. After being rescued by a group of professional fisherpeople, she realizes that she is lost. The fisherpeople DROP HER OFF ONSHORE and Ying-Ying wanders into an outdoor performance featuring the Moon Lady, who is supposed to grant unspoken wishes. But when Ying-Ying approaches the Moon Lady after the play to wish to be returned to her family, she discovers the Moon Lady is played by a man. 

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Hat mentions (why hats?):

None.

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Things I looked up:

Second Sino-Japanese war ("The Joy Luck Club") - Suyuan flees China as a young woman when Japanese forces invade the city of Kweilin. This reflects actual historical events in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was fought between 1937 and 1945. During the eight-year war (which overlapped with World War II), Japan aggressively attacked mainland China, hoping to expand the Japanese empire onto the Asian continent. Over twenty million Chinese citizens were killed or displaced during the ground invasions. Japan succeeded in capturing many major Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Nanjing, until it became involved in World War II in 1941, fighting against the United States and other Allied countries. Japan surrendered to Allied forces in 1945, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of Japanese citizens. As part of the surrender agreement, China regained all its seized land in 1946.

tl;dr - Imperial Japan invaded China, killing lots of innocent civilians in the process. (I felt a wave a familiarity when I realized Pachinko was a similar book about a Japanese invasion.)

Basic geography of China (where is Kweilin as related to Shanghai?) ("The Joy Luck Club")

Kuomintang ("The Joy Luck Club") - a Chinese political party that ruled mainland China from 1927 to 1949 prior to its relocation to Taiwan as a result of the Chinese Civil War

rules of mahjong ("The Joy Luck Club") - Ha ha ha. I'll link to the Wikipedia page. I got confused about three sentences in. I'm a simple lady who likes my games to be simple. 

The Moon Festival ("The Moon Lady") - This is a harvest festival. On this day, the Chinese believe that the moon is at its fullest and brightest, coinciding with the time of harvest in the middle of autumn. 

Mama's aunt...who still plucked her forehead bald ("The Moon Lady") - During the Middle Ages, a high forehead was deemed especially beautiful, and women and girls not naturally endowed with this characteristic plucked their foreheads (sometimes burning the follicles with hot pins to keep them from regrowing) to achieve the almost baby-like bald forehead.

So mama's aunt was still doing this in the 1900s? That seems...weird. 

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Lines of notes:

That is the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain. ("Scar")

This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in  your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh. ("Scar")

I watched as she took out a sharp, thin knife and began to slice open the fish bellies, pulling out the red slippery insides and throwing them over her shoulder into the lake. I saw her scrape off the fish scales, which flew into the air like shards of glass. And then there were two chickens that no longer gurgled after their heads were chopped off. And a big snapping turtle that stretched out its neck to bite a stick and - whuck! - off fell its head. And dark masses of thin freshwater eels, swimming furiously in a pot. Then the woman carried everything...("The Moon Lady")

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Questions to ponder:

1) Was anyone else sort of grossed out by this book? Eating human flesh? The bird abuse in "The Moon Lady" and that vivid description of preparing the food just above? I was not expecting to gag so much reading this book. 

2) I think we can already tell from the first chapter that a big theme of this book is going to be about difficult mother/daughter relationships. Do you have any predictions about what's going to happen? Is Jing-Mei going to meet her half-sisters? Will they accept her? I also suspect there will be a lot in here about identity (Chinese? American? Chinese-American?) and difficulties between multiple generations of immigrant families. 

3) I feel I have given short shrift to Lindo's chapter "The Red Candle." What does the candle represent? Do you think it was ethical for Lindo to essentially weasel out of her marriage by making up a symbolically rich dream that indicated bad outcomes for her in-laws or do you think it was a smart thing to do for her to save herself?

4) "See my sisters, tell them about my mother," I say, nodding. "What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don't know anything. She was my mother." 

This is a paragraph from the first chapter. What is Jing-Mei trying to tell her aunties here? What do you think it's foreshadowing about what's to come? To what extent do you think it's true that daughters can never really know their mothers?

5) Does anyone else read these books and realize that your knowledge of world history is abysmal? 

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Homework for you: How are you reading this book? Paperback, ebook, audiobook? Where are you reading it? If you have a photo of your book (maybe in the cozy chair where you read!) you'd like to share with the rest of the group, send it in and I'll make a collage for next week.  Deadline for sending it in to make next week's post is 10/19 by noon central. dominique100 @ hotmail dot com

I'm listening to an audiobook and referencing a paper copy I got from the library. 

"The symbol on the book is for Tan. Penguin Drop Caps is a series of twenty-six hardcover editions of fine works of literature, each featuring on its cover a specially commissioned illustrated letter of the the alphabet by Jessica Hische." 

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Upcoming CBBC schedule:

October 20: Part II - The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates
October 27: Part III - American Translation
November 3: Part IV - Queen Mother of the Western Skies

November 10: Wrap up!

Five for Friday, Edition #30

1) Don't forget that we're starting our reading of The Joy Luck Club for Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) on Monday! For the full schedule, check out this post. 

2) Has anyone else found themselves befuddled by the recent changes to Libby? Basically, you can no longer defer your loan if it becomes available when you won't be able to read it. You have to suspend the hold until you're ready to read the book. You don't lose your place in line or anything, but you have to remember to reactivate the loan when you're ready. I am endlessly frustrated by the fact that I forget to do this. I mean, we had a system that automatically did it - why is it now a manual process?!

3) My sister has done something terrible again. I won't go into details, but rest assured that I have only one more thing to do with her at the end of October/beginning of November and then I'll never have to deal with her again. 

4) At the beginning of the semester, I was excited because it seemed like blue jeans were making a comeback and that horrible athleisure trend was behind us. But then I realized that 2025 fashion on my campus is TRAGIC. Girls wearing crop tops with baggy pants, all the boys wearing baseball caps and khaki pants/shorts. Why can people not dress in a manner that is flattering?! I mean, one half of me is relieved that the athleisure phase is over - this seems like a sign that the COVID hangover is lessening - but the other half of me just wishes we could, as a species, realize that there are certain silhouettes that are flattering on some shapes and use this knowledge to our advantage. 

#getoffmylawn #kidsthesedays 

5) There's a thing happening here in Wisconsin. It's terrible. It's government dictating curriculum at the state universities. It should be illegal. Alas, it is not. Alas, it's going to be bad things for me and I'm over here dusting off my resume just in case. What this means is that liberal arts is being gutted in Wisconsin.

I'm not here to preach, but this whole post is preachy, so why am I going to stop myself on this bullet point? Liberal arts provide the foundation of critical thinking, communication, and problem solving that are crucial to everyone on this planet. We're not training our students for a particular job path or career. We're training them to be able to do ANY job. They learn how to go quickly from task to task, doing different things on a regular basis. We teach them how to work with people from diverse backgrounds - not just ethnically or racially diverse, but SES, disability, and sexual orientation. We teach people the soft skills employers say they want.

And they're just over here gutting general education like it's not the future of our students at stake. (And the jobs of many people in our college, if not the entire university.)

I probably shouldn't really talk about my work like this, but here we are. I feel like what I'm talking about is public knowledge and I'm not calling anyone out by name, but if you live in this state and don't know who is behind this, you're not paying attention.

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6) I can't leave it all with doom and gloom. Last weekend we went to a tourist place in Wisconsin with my sister-in-law (of podcast fame) and her family. We went to a waterpark and did an escape room - we finished with 20 minutes left! TWENTY MINUTES. We felt like geniuses. 

And then my niece and I got matching permanent jewelry. BECAUSE I AM THE COOL AUNT.

(I also managed to get a serious burn on both my elbows thanks to the most terrifying water slide I've ever been on. When a small child says, "don't worry, Aunt NGS, it's fine," DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. Also, they think I am brave and cool. Maybe?) 

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Who else is frustrated by the new Libby process? Do you think fashion is tragic right now? Have you even been to a waterpark?