Life's Just Exciting!

3 Without A Party

I was so stressed and so depressed at the same time last February. The night before I was to shop for items to put in Luis' birthday loot bags, it snowed. I realized that you can only appreciate the snow for a few hours, a day at the most. After that you get really worried because of all the errands that had to be put aside until after the roads cleared. It didn't help any that the temperature is way below 0 -- I wasn't sure anymore if "that day" was when temperature hit -14 degrees! -- suffice it to say that after the fun, you'd wish the now dirty snow will just go away. Not to be completely waylaid, I braved the streets the following day to visit the toy alley at Dongdaemun Market. I was shivering from head to toe! Good thing my friend Vivian was with me at the time and knew a Korean Restaurant that serves super-spicy soup (yum!). After about two hours of shopping, we slumped down the first available space we saw at the restaurant and literally ooohhed and aahhed at the warm, soothing effect of the super-spicy soup to our whole body.


We are supposed to have Luis' 3rd birthday party inside the U.S. Bases here in Yongsan. There's a bowling center there that hosts parties. All we had to do is make reservations and show up. But this is the first time Luis will be having a party with me as a stay-at-home Mom, so I figured I should prepare some more games and fun activities for all our guests. Compared with his 2 previous birthdays when I had to snatch time away from the office in order to make arrangements for his birthday, now I had all the time in the world. And then we didn't get to party.

A week before the end of January Luis started having cough and colds. To prevent it from progressing to a more serious condition I immediately brought him to Samsung Medical Center, flaunted to be the best and most modern hospital here in Seoul. To make the long story short, I ended up bringing him 7 times to 3 different doctors in 3 different hospitals. What's totally depressing is that after all these "preventive" moves we took, Luis still ended up confined at the hospital for 5 days due to broncho pneumonia. I was on the verge of an angry explosion and would have vented out my anger completely had cooler minds not prevailed. And why not, Luis got a "clean bill of health" just 2 days before he was diagnosed with broncho pneumonia! I wanted to sue the doctor who insisted we should stop giving medications to Luis because he is 100% well. I didn't believe him because I can see the symptoms. It's a good thing my instinct prevailed. I found another doctor referred by a friend and finally, the culprit for the cough and cold that won't go away was determined.


Luis ended up blowing the candles on his birthday cake at home. But a look at his expression erased my guilt for not having a real party this year. Why, he was just as thrilled!

posted by lala @ 11:26 AM