Under my skin

My skin has been irritated, inflamed, almost raw in places for a number of years. I had no idea why, and just learned to live with it. Most of the time I didn't think about it, but it seemed worse in summer and evenings, and sometimes I wanted to yell in pain. (In fact, sometimes I DID yell in pain, but fortunately only Mimi heard me.) I sometimes wondered if skin could just pull apart and leave gaping holes, because sometimes it seemed like it might happen to me.

I even thought I might be allergic to deodorant. I never stopped using it (of course), but I couldn't help but feel there was battery acid in it or something. I was in a lot of pain.

For all I knew, everyone had this happening to their skin. For all I knew it was normal. So I never talked about it, and never asked a doctor about it. I just tried to ignore it.

I found out, quite by accident, the cause.

I am allergic to soap.

More specifically, I am allergic to lanolin.

Now instead of showering with soap, I use Cetaphil cleanser (also have Cetaphil lotion). Celebrities use it as make-up remover and it is sold in the USA over the counter in drugstores. When I started using it, immediately my skin cleared up. I had no idea.

Here's how the discovery was made. God kindly allowed me to get a sudden itchy skin rash all over my body a few weeks ago (unrelated to the inflamed skin condition I just described), so I ran to the doctor and got shots and allergy medicine. The doctor gave me Cetaphil kind of as an afterthought, to soothe my skin until the rash went away.

Cetaphil worked SO WELL, that it was the main topic of conversation at my follow-up visit. She told me never to use soap again.

This doctor works as a general practitioner (I go to her when I am throwing up, need flu shots, need prescriptions refilled, etc.). But her specialty is dermatology.

If I hadn't had the acute rash, I would still be suffering from my skin problem. Getting that skin rash was a blessing in disguise.

Lots of blessings seem to come disguised.

People do the craziest things

It was Lantern Festival night in Bamboo Forest last night.

An up close look at this bridge, though, reveals that a deep

sense of madness has infiltrated the minds of some people.

They've completely thrown common sense out the window.

You see, these people are heading to the local park to celebrate.

Apparently they think crossing this bridge should be

part of the night's entertainment.

The only sane people on this bridge are the police and soldiers

who try to maintain safety and order.

I feel sorry that they are put into this ridiculous situation.

It resembles the grocery store so much that it's plum scary.

Yes, even here

It may be "Soup or Bowl Sunday" in the USA, but here it all goes down on Monday morning (there's a time difference, ya know?) The commentators are Chinese guys who know all about American football. Maybe they live in America or something.

They even showed halftime. If you are one of those who watched the Super Bowl for the commercials though, you may not have wanted to watch it in the Middle Kingdom, because the commercials are different here.

They look kind of like this.

And this.

But please do not suppose that anyone in China was really watching the Super Bowl. While you were all bowing down to the gridiron, approximately 1.3 billion Chinese people were welcoming the arrival of the false "money god." More fireworks/firecrackers go off now than any other day in the entire year, including Chinese New Year day itself. So far the noise has gone on for 16-hours nonstop. Accuweather forecast shows today as a clear day in Bamboo Forest, but if they had checked the cultural calendar they would have predicted that the excessive fireworks of the day would obscure the sun instead. That is smoke in the photo, not fog. On a clear day you could see lots more tall buildings and mountains on the horizon.

Madness!

It was Chinese New Year's Eve. Fireworks were driving me over the edge. (Oh no, you can't possibly understand. And no words I know can possibly explain. They are just so, so, so, so BAD.)

In a bold move to maintain sanity, Mimi and I (well, mostly me) set up the cot in the hallway. Are we clever or what?!! We closed the doors to the bedrooms and bathrooms. As if we were conducting a tornado drill, we were nowhere near the windows, and felt doubly protected. This camping-in-the-hallway would not block out the noise completely, but it would keep the explosions from causing my heart to jump when the fireworks hit my windows.

Ear plugs, of course, were considered. I knew it was not fair to Mimi if I had ear plugs, but there was no need for both of us to suffer.

However, I reasoned that if fire trucks came during the night or if my neighbors pounded on my door to warn me to get out, I wanted to be able to hear it. So, no ear plugs.

Oh yeah, I know what you are thinking. I am paranoid, a little over the top.

But when three fire trucks and an ambulance came screaming into my apartment complex a little after 10 p.m., I knew I was right on the mark.

I was in my pajamas, but threw on my clothes to go to the next building to see flames shooting out of an apartment on the 21st floor of a 25-floor building. I never got the full story, but the paramedic said everyone got out, and there is no doubt in my mind that their stash of fireworks caused the fire. BECAUSE EVERY FAMILY HAS THEIR OWN STASH OF FIREWORKS, enough to entertain an entire small town in Texas for the 4th of July. I kid you not.

Shaking, I returned home to the cot, the one in the hallway. But with midnight approaching, I dared not sleep. Last year my upstair neighbors' firecrackers hit my balcony windows. I was afraid it might happen again, setting something on my balcony on fire.

Sure enough, at midnight, hundreds of flaming pieces of red firecracker paper began flying onto my balcony. I began screaming -- not at anyone in particular (yeah, as if anyone could hear me over the madness anyway) -- I just really felt better screaming.

Last week, as a courtesy intended for foreigners in the country, the police called my cell phone and told me to be vigilant and careful during Chinese New Year. Careful? What could happen?

Well, you know, 700 million people are traveling across the country at the exact same time and twice that number are harboring explosives in their apartments.

The only way to be "careful" is to be gone, like to another country. But I think I need to be here to protect my dog and my home!

Oh my. It is ridiculous. There ought to be laws to prevent this madness.

Thank you, young firefighters, for giving up your own holidays to serve us. Thank you, young firefighters, for giving the fireworks-setting people glaring looks (my sentiments exactly). Thank you, young firefighters, for your superior physical fitness that allows you to run up 21-flights of stairs quickly with fire extinguishers in tow. Thank you, God, for getting us safely through the night, even though we didn't get a wink of sleep.

Sunday night, the "money god" supposedly arrives at midnight. It will be even worse.

Happy Chinese New Year

Gotta have new clothes for the new year, so yes, you might as well buy clothes that make you look like an emperor.

Yes, even if you are a dog, you should look like an emperor. And don't blame this dog for going to visit a temple on Chinese New Year. It's not like he had a choice.

And don't forget, it's the Year of the Rabbit. Please do this every time you greet someone today.

Oh my!

Chinese New Year may not arrive for six more hours (midnight), but it might as well be here already.

It is craaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzyyyyy around here!

No, not crazy like the Cairo airport. Nothing like that. (Well, maybe the grocery store was a little like that earlier today...surely as many people were waiting in line.)

People are giddy. My anti-social downstairs neighbors actually called Mimi by name today. It's almost like they are in the Christmas spirit (except they don't know what that means).

Everyone has a spotless house for once during the year. (Everyone but me, but I may get there before midnight.)

BUT FIREWORKS ARE GOING OFF LIKE CRAZY! And it is just 6 P.M.! Aaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!!!!

There are sixteen more days of holidays. I might need counseling when it is all over.

The "Year of the Rabbit" is bad for rabbits

Chinese New Year is Thursday, February 3, and it marks the year of the rabbit.

However, if I was a rabbit, I would go into hiding.

Sunday morning I was headed out for worship when a petrified white bunny with pink eyes tore in front of me on its way to the bushes. I tried to speak some nice words of encouragement to the bunny, being Dr. Doolittle as I am, but sweet tones that soften the hearts of dogs do not work with bunnies. The rabbit was just more terrified, so I left it alone. I surmised that by the end of the day, the bunny would no longer be with us. It would die of fright, run into a wall, or have heart failure from running away from people.

I feared this very thing would happen.

It is the year of the rabbit, so parents think it is cute to go down to the numerous pet stores and buy little bunnies as gifts for their children. Even if they buy cages and have good intentions, within two weeks, they will tire of feeding and caring for the frightened animals.

Furthermore, it is winter, meaning the grass is brown and dead. There is no free rabbit food, and in this economy, most people are not going to spend their hard-earned money to feed a rabbit.

I've seen the bunny trend before (one neighborhood kid gets one, then all the neighborhood kids want one). Here are some of the things that end up happening:

• The rabbits get loose, are chased by people/cats/dogs, and have a bad ending.
• Some people take the rabbits back to the pet shop.
• Some people just abandon the rabbits outside. The rabbits have no where to go, no other rabbits to hang out with. They don't know how to survive on their own. So they don't. Survive, that is.

I have an American friend who once had a rabbit in this country. She left her rabbit with some local friends while she was gone for a week, because they had a pet rabbit too. The rabbit got sad (something like that) and died the first day. The family didn't know what to do with the deceased rabbit and didn't know how to contact the American. They didn't want the rabbit to die in vain.

So, you know, they, uh...can you handle this...they had it for dinner.

It's not easy being a rabbit.

My Living Room

Here's a picture of the left side of my living room. The hutch stores dishes (because there is no room for them in the small kitchen). Then there is a folding Chinese stool next to a ceramic Chinese blue and white stool. Then a plant, TV, lamp, and an upright air-conditioner that serves as a heater in winter. Then there is glass along the entire south wall of the living room, with a sliding door that opens onto the balcony. The balcony has glass railings, and this allows in even more light.

Then we swing over to the right side of the living room. I like this place because it is really bright, which I need. This city can get gloomy during the long rainy season. I like the off-white tile floors because Mimi's hairs blend in. The last apartment had nice wood floors, but they were harder to clean. I prefer tile.

Just thought I'd give you a little tour. Someday when I clean the rest of the house I'll let you see it too. :-)

I am grateful....

Thankful Thought #1

I am thankful for a doctor’s office in town served by Singaporean doctors and Filipino nurses who speak English. I can go there and they know exactly what I need. I don’t have to fight crowds or explain what Singulair is. They are able to get all my prescribed medicines for me, service I can’t get from a regular, local hospital. I even can have a private room when I get my 3-hour long I.V. drip.

And never mind that I have to stand outside in the freezing temperatures for half an hour, barely able to stand, while vomiting, to flag down a taxi. (I did have someone trying to help me get a taxi, not that it was that successful.) And never mind that in the end I take a “black car” (illegal taxi) because no real taxi will stop for me, and never mind that I freak out said taxi driver when I throw up in the back of his car (imagine his relief when he realized I had a plastic shopping bag to catch it all), and never mind that it takes half an hour to get there. I’m just glad that (a) the Singporean doctors take my insurance card, keeping me from having to stop at an ATM on the way, and (b) I am well when the I.V.’s and injections are over.

Lest we forget, I had no such luxuries when I lived in Bedrock. I am truly thankful and think the Singaporean doctors and Filipino nurses are somehow angels sent from heaven.

Thankful Thought #2

One word sums up my second strand of thankfulness: Betty. Okay, two words say it better: Betty Crocker.

Imagine how I felt Thursday morning when I heard that China’s president Hu Jintao was at the White House state dinner eating apple pie. Is that even fair? It surely didn’t seem so. I don't recall being a big fan of apple pies before, and I think I've only made one before in my life, but apple pie envy got the best of me.

So I pulled out my Betty Crocker cookbook and realized that yes, I too, could eat apple pie today.

I got some apples, and threw in the other ingredients (do you KNOW how easy it is to make apple pie from scratch – who knew?), and voila, an hour and a half later I had the most delicious apple pie I have ever tasted.

I had a box mix for the pie crust. It, too, was courtesy of Betty Crocker. I bought it here around Christmas time. I could have made the crust from scratch, but the thought of dealing with shortening didn’t sound all that much fun.

If I had frozen pie crusts like you do in the USA and Australia, I think I would make pies all the time.

So, a big shout out to Betty, whoever you really are! I should have taken home ec in high school instead of trigonometry, but since I didn't I appreciate your help (and my mom's help as well...although I regret I didn't pay close attention when I should have).

Trade Imbalance

My Chinese friend made this comment about the trade imbalance between the USA and China, an imbalance in which Americans want Chinese to buy more from products made in America.

My friend says, “The difference is, China sells little things, and America wants to sell big things.” You know, China sells pencils, tote bags, and things that are easily marketable to lots of people. Americans want to sell Boeing 747’s.

Hmm, something to think about.

And the Exchange Rate

On a slightly different subject,if the USA government succeeds in getting the Chinese government to change the exchange rate, as is in the news these days, it will hurt my pocketbook. When Obama and the media tell you the current exchange system hurts America, just know it doesn't hurt all Americans. As with most things, any change will just hurt the little guys and benefit big businesses who pay big money to lobby Congress. The fat cats will get fatter.