Saturday, December 23, 2023

Family update December 2023

I ended this blog in my last post but now I've changed my mind and going to continue to do some personal posts here. My other blog cynthiachinlee.com/blog focuses only on my breast cancer, diet, and health.

This year we went on many domestic trips (Los Angeles, Maui, Las Vegas, DC) and I bragged that I had not gotten Covid. Well, brag no more. Peter and I got Covid on our Oct. 2023 trip to UCLA to participate in Bruins Family Weekend. Not unexpected since we loosened up and ate at the De Neve dining hall with hundreds of unmasked college students! And yes we were boosted and got the Novavax vaccine in September 2023

Joshua is a junior at UCLA, studying Computer Science and Linguistics. He's enjoying meeting classmates and participating in many cultural clubs. He has even started his own club at UCLA for "polyglots" (people who speak 4 or more languages). He also helped to make the formatting of this blog look better with his computer science skills.

On my visit to hometown Washington, D.C. I got to help take care of these adorable baby twins (Cyan and Gabriel, sons of my niece Alex with husband Byron). My sister-in-law Eleanor Chin-Lee took the photo.

Lucky for me, I got to see my lovely daughter Vanessa several times in Maui, Mountain View (CA), and DC. She's now settling in at Guanajuato, Mexico (a few hours from her Guadalajara place which she plans to keep and will continuef to rent). Here's a Maui photo of Vanessa and “beloved” Romain Tete, her colleague and friend, who is traveling with her now. If you guessed he’s French, you’re correct.

I traveled to my hometown, Washington, DC, for the sad event of my uncle Kenneth Wong’s memorial. He would have been 80. On the positive side, I’m grateful to my extended family and welcome Harvey Cummings, my uncle’s BFF (best friend forever) to the family. Here’s a photo of Uncle Kenny and me in 2012.
I continue to work on the anti-cancer book with Mark Simon and Robert Hoffman. If you know any editors or agents of non-fiction books, introduce me! I have the happy news of my last cancer check up earlier this week. The radiologists can no longer find the tumor. Here's the post, My 1000-day Journey or Honey, I Shrunk the Tumor

Thursday, December 23, 2021

I've moved my blog

I've moved my blog to my web site. You can find my posts here:

https://www.cynthiachinlee.com/blog

Thanks for reading!

Leaves on mossy rock


Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Thoughts on being an Asian American woman writer

This is excerpted from the Women's Work as Artists and Writers blog, where you can read essays from many other women. You can buy the book "The Lemon Tree" edited by Nitza Agam with the entire essay and the works of other women writers and artists at my favorite independent bookstore in San Carlos, CA (they ship worldwide) https://shop.reachandteach.com/product/lemon-tree

Great grandma Wong, my mother Nancy Wong Chin-Lee, and the author

1934, Baltimore, MD

 

Someone was knocking on the door. 

 

Then seven years old, Nancy was folding clean diapers for her mother, but her father grabbed her arm and shoved her into the closet. Her father warned,“Get in there and be quiet!” 

 

He then calmly proceeded to open the front door and chat with the local truant officer. The officer’s eyes narrowed as he said, “We heard you have a school-age child? She should be attending school. That’s the law.” Nancy’s father invited the officer to look around the house. Only small children were playing in the backyard, all too young to go to school.

 

While Nancy should have been going to school, she was held back so she could help take care of her younger siblings. She was not allowed to attend school until her brother, a year and a half younger, was old enough to go to school. By that time, it would be useful to have her walk with him as her parents cared about educating him, but not her.

 

Nancy was my mother, a talented visual artist and a wonderful storyteller. 


More...

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Hindsight is 2020


Top 10 things we learned in 2020*

*adapted from the AARP Bulletin

10. Our trust in one another is frayed, but it can be slowly restored.

If something sounds wrong, then verify the facts in multiple places. I got 3 scam phone calls from the Social "Secruity" office in one day alone. I was stunned by the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 but tearfully celebrated the inauguration of Biden and Harris later that month. Pre-pandemic I attended anti-Trump rallies and wrote letters to promote voting for votefwd.org.

9. Save for a rainy day.

Having a good cash savings fund took the stress off the near constrant threat of layoffs. In 2020 and 2019, I regretfully had to lay off a staff member. If possible, have an emergency fund of one full year of expenses.

8. Work, school, and social life can be anywhere.

With technology, I worked from home completely, Josh schooled from home, and we Zoomed with family, friends, church, and others. As a kid I loved the Jetsons and it's now true (well, except for flying saucers.)

7. Take care of yourself.

Whether you're a paramedic or parent of young kids, the stress has been enormous. Take care of yourself with meditation, exercise, diet, good sleep and sharing time (even remote) with friends.

6. The pandemic made us use technology and there's no going back.

We already did a lot online but for the first time, I ordered groceries on the computer. And finally more organizations trusted us to work from home.

5. Age is just a number.

If you're over 65 and healthy, you're more likely to survive COVID. If you're under 65 and have "underlying conditions," you may be in trouble if you catch it.

4. We can thrive without vacations and flying around the world.

Yeah, we're bummed that our vacation to Hawaii for an East-West conference (I'm an alum) and to visit Peter's extended family was cancelled. But we lowered our carbon footprint.

3. Race matters. And so does sex.

I always knew that race mattered, but I'm grateful that the conversation has expanded. One day I'll write a blog on why my last name is Chin-Lee and why my mother went to primary school at such a late age.

2. Family, blood and chosen, matters more than we knew.

Thank you to Peter, Vanessa, and Joshua. You all helped me keep my sanity.

1. There but for the grace of God go I.

Pray like hell! 😂 As I write this, I'm anxious about an upcoming biopsy for a lump seen on my annual mammogram. Sure, I'm grateful for my health, but I take it for granted as well as my education, financial security, and heterosexual, cisgender privilege.

Be more than an ally. Be an accomplice for those oppressed by poverty, war, sickness, race, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

* * *

Over here in Half Moon Bay, CA, we’re doing as well as can be expected. I know we’re among the lucky ones with our ability to work and study from home.

Before the pandemic, I enjoyed a trip to exotic Pasadena, CA, where I met up with my jetsetting daughter Vanessa Pan (in LA for work). As an experiment, I took Megabus (cheap and fast) with no regrets. A trip to Los Angeles without a car? Yep. We used the subway and when needed took Lyft or Uber. Our favorite activity was visiting the Huntington Gardens and Museums.


Post pandemic, my former 4-day at home job became a 5-day at home job. My team was global so Zoom was already our best friend and now we commiserated over the restrictions and swapped stories on who got COVID and how. Many of my colleagues suffered with it as well as neighbors. Peter’s still sanitizing our groceries though I tend to think that’s overkill. When in public, we mask up and sometimes goggle up to protect the eyes. I’ve shared this blog on Facebook on how to avoid the risks of getting COVID.


You may have noticed I write about work in the past tense. On Feb. 5, 2021, I retired from Oracle as a senior manager of information development (tech pubs) with 4 different Zoom goodbyes. My generous coworkers sent a big chocolate cake to my home as well as party decorations and a large gift certificate to my favorite bookstore, reachandteach.com.


It was hard saying bye to all my warm, funny and gifted coworkers, but not too hard to give up 7 am PST meetings! I also got to leave with a bang as I lead a hackathon team (the Blind Moles) during my last few months. Our project won the People’s Choice award within Oracle. I must say it was a brilliant idea (blind or non-biased recruiting), which I hope Oracle will implement internally and which it’s offering as a feature of its Oracle Recruiting Cloud product. See the video we created with advice from resident video expert, Joshua.


My children’s book, Women and the Right to Vote, part of Scholastic’s True Book series came out in Sept 2020, right in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. If you have any ideas on groups I could speak to, let me know.



Joshua graduated from high school last year and is studying online at Foothill College as a first year student in computer science. Peter doesn’t miss driving him to the campus, but Josh misses the in-person interaction. In his spare time, Josh flies drones, does animation, and posts his original videos to YouTube.  If you want his channel, text him at 650.815.8793. He’s even making a steady income from it. He’s also coding his own video game and has regular Virtual Reality (VR) chats with friends in Japan.These gen Zs!






Vanessa has been busy fixing up her new flat in Guadalajara, MX and working for maxablespace.com. She’s even installed a climbing wall in her home! She’s thinking of becoming a business or life coach, but in the meantime she manages Maxable’s partners as well as some staff members. And she still enjoys composing and singing.


Pre-pandemic, Peter was driving Josh to school and taking PE classes. At home now, he’s developed a keen eye on the stock market, and his abilities have helped us grow our investments and help me retire early. It’s hard to believe I can retire after 39 years (but hey, who’s counting?).Doing those catch up investments in the 401K, IRA, and Roth IRA helped as well as the market’s banner year in 2020.


We finally got our solar panels up and running as well as a backup battery. I’m almost wishing for a blackout so we can test the battery. We had a short blackout during the infamous California wildfires in August. The CZU lightning blaze came within 18 miles of our house, enough to get us packing our bags (though we never had to evacuate). We're sorry that so many suffered. 



We're saddened by the sudden death of my brother-in-law Alan More (husband of Diane Ching), who passed away last year from cancer. And we're thankful for his being in our lives.


We look forward to getting our COVID vaccines and hearing from you.


Cyndi and family















Sunday, January 12, 2020

Celebrating our 1st year in Half Moon Bay

Celebrating our 1st year in Half Moon Bay

Cynthia and Vanessa

Before we moved to Half Moon Bay last December, we had not actually spent one night in HMB. So it was a calculated risk when we decided to buy a house here. But … we like it even better than I was expecting. Clean air and friendly new neighbors. Easy living by the beach with a short drive to the bank, stores, yoga, and the library. Joshua, whom we worried about the most, has made some good friends for video gaming and hanging out.

 

Some downsides: power outages (3 days total), less diversity, and that drive over highway 92. I will probably get a new electric car because my old Leaf isn’t great on the winding roads, especially if it’s foggy and dark.

 


Some highlights 

  • Getting out of my stabilizing boot after breaking my left foot. The good news: I'm now evened out after I broke my right foot 3 years ago!
  • Being an Impact Coach for a Techwomen team from Zimbabwe, who won a coveted grant from the US State Department to fund their social action project to help disabled girls learn STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) in their country.
  • Going to the Out & Equal Summit in DC for the first time and getting to meet Oracle Pride Employee Network (OPEN) coworkers from around the world.
  • Finding out that I'm not 100% Han Chinese with a decent percentage of Dai Chinese (a minority mainly in Yunnan) and Vietnamese. 
  • Working on a yet to be finished children's book on Women and the Vote for a book packager.
Joshua
Joshua in Osaka with classmates

Joshua is a senior in high school, doing his high school requirements at Foothill College and enjoying it. He's also organizing Smash Bros tournaments, his favorite video game, at our wonderful (and new) Half Moon Bay library. Peter and I got practice at being empty nesters when he spent 3 months in Osaka, Japan as a high school exchange student. We'll have to visit Japan some time to test his new language skills. He plans on continuing at Foothill and then transferring to a California university though he may try a stint at the coding school Silicon Valley 42.

Vanessa

Vanessa is now Chief Operating Officer at Maxable (https://maxablespace.com/), a California startup that focuses on providing homeowners the education and resources needed in building an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit). She spends most of her time working remote from Guadalajara, Mexico, but still travels a lot for both work and leisure. Outside of work, her greatest news is that she recently invested in a one unit of a duplex in the historical district of downtown Guadalajara. She hopes to build a community towards co-housing eventually and is excited to get her hands  into homeownership and plans to renovate in early spring. She’s still playing music and learning languages and hopes that once things settle down in the summer that she can return to producing an album once a year.


Peter
Josh, Cynthia, Peter and friend Hayden in Santa Barbara

Peter is doing well, but had a few minor health complications from cracked ribs to his continued battle with sleep apnea. He enjoys collecting and cooking local seaweed and being the family historian by taking lots of video and photos. 
Seaweed soup!
 




Monday, January 21, 2019

Adios, Palo Alto, and Here We Come, Half Moon Bay!


Adios, Palo Alto and Here We Come, Half Moon Bay!

Our old house, new house on the coast, work, and Foothill

Two years ago our annual letter was called “Blur Blog,” but 2018 seemed even more fast-paced than then. The year started out as usual, but in July after many months (and years) of thinking about moving and looking for new homes, we put a deposit on a yet-to-be-built house in a 19-house development called Pacific Ridge in Half Moon Bay, CA on the California coast, a 20-minute drive to San Mateo.

Our new 2-story home in Half Moon Bay
We then sauntered through our usual vacation at the Family Vacation Center in Santa Barbara which had one dramatic twist: a wildfire aptly named the Holiday fire in Goleta that burned 113 acres and had us wondering if we had to evacuate (we didn’t). Santa Barbara was followed by a ramble through Rome, Venice, and Verona, Italy where we got to catch up with my sister’s family.
At the top of the leaning tower of Pisa


Then August was the month of reckoning. Could we get our house of 20 years at 666 Wildwood ready for sale? We interviewed real estate agents, scoured online reviews of contractors, and researched storage options. Our Palo Alto house was legally renamed 668 (better sounding than 666), emptied out, painted, had electric work done, and the roof re-coated. By mid-October, our “midcentury modern charm in Palo Alto” which was “lovingly maintained and thoughtfully upgraded” hit the market during a stock market tumble and real estate slump.
The real estate agent sells our Palo Alto home
Bad news: we really didn’t get the price we had hoped for. Good news: we got an offer in less than a week. So we can’t complain that we have a hefty capital gains tax to pay. While fixing up the house, we led something of a nomadic life, gratefully housesitting for neighbors and then enjoying the guesthouse at Mountain View Community Cohousing. Our house sale closed on Nov. 19, but our new house in Half Moon Bay wasn't ready until December, so we stayed in an apt in Santa Clara for a month.

On an auspicious rainy day in December, we moved to our dream home by the beach. We love the fresh ocean air and spectacular sunsets. We even like the foggy, drizzly weather though Josh whines about the croaking frogs at night.
5-minute drive or 15-minute walk to the beach


I’m still an information development manager at Oracle, mostly working from home with a weekly jaunt to Redwood City HQ. Peter’s cooking up gourmet dinners in his new chef’s kitchen, and Joshua is completing his junior year of high school by taking classes at Foothill College and has a straight A average.

Still mostly living in Guadalajara, MX, Vanessa launched a new business called Glolocal exchange program that brings non-Spanish speakers to Mexico to learn Spanish and Mexican culture through living with a host family. She continues to do business development for Gobox, which makes multi-use takeout containers and for a Mexican apps development company. I got to be her guinea pig (pre-pilot) Spanish language student in June.
On the tourist bus
Cyndi as wrestler

Other news of note, I have a Wikipedia page and a new website thanks to her. Go take a peek. Sorry, no news on the writing front; I took some time off from writing in order to manage the move.

Much love,
Cyndi, Peter, and Joshua

Learning Espanol

Monday, February 19, 2018

Happy Year of the Dog 2018

Joshua, myself, and Peter at Oracle HQ






Happy year of the dog, Feb. 2018

Peter and I are both year of the dog so this should be a lucky year for us. Since we lost Peter's mom, Wanda Ching, in 2017 and my dad, Bill Chin-Lee, in late 2016, we're hoping 2018 will be better. See how good your math is. In 2018 we turn a multiple of 12 that is greater than 48 and less than 72.

Quick update on each of us:
  • I continue as a manager of information development at Oracle and split my time between HQ in Redwood Shores, Pleasanton, and home.
  • Peter takes care of the house but spent four months last year in Arlington to help take care of his mom.
  • Joshua is in 10th grade and enjoys his online and in person classes at Foothill College in Los Altos. 
  • Vanessa lives in Guadalajara, MX, creating music, teaching English and learning Spanish, and consulting for goboxsfbay.com.
Vanessa debuted in her first music video, created by Quentin Lee. Please watch and share. You can ask her for links to her videos of Mexico, too. Her email: vanessapan856@gmail.com.

Joshua created two videos of his month-long trip to Tokyo, earning his first $100 as third-place winner in Langubridge's video contest. 

Me and Peter at Green Gulch Zen Center (Sausalito), remembering our parents.
Carolyn Miles Broughton, me, Judi Miles at San Diego Comic Con
Josh at Google HQ, Mountain View
Robin Maybury, me, Jean Maybury and their daughter Charmian at the Tandem Reunion
Me, Patu Ndango, Mpara Faith of Team Cameroon, TechWomen.org where I was an Impact Coach.
Vanessa and Josh in a park in Guadalajara
Peter's silhouette, Palo Alto Baylands
Find the hidden figures, Tlaquepaque, MX
Sharing my treat, Guadalajara
Josh, Vanessa, and me in Guadalajara
Me (impact coach for Techwomen), Team Cameroon, Mimi Hills, and Melissa Biggs at awards night
Climate March, San Jose, CA (Jan) with Gail Thompson, Pat Kinney and others
See how balanced my aura is? Thanks to Joy Ohguen Lee, my yoga teacher at Silicon Valley Body and Brain
Danielle Akini of Cameroon and Vanessa
Peter and me, Human Rights Campaign Gala in SF
Old photo: Henry, Peter, Wanda, Philip, Diane, Ronnie Ching
Ashley and Michael Ching wedding, Chambersburg, PA
Booth duty at Oracle Open World
Peter, me, Josh at Young Family dinner, San Mateo
Peter and Josh at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas
Tara Simms, our Education Specialist at Ocean Grove, and Joshua
Red Rock Canyon
Jan 2018, Barri Singer, me, friend, Carole Eittreim at Women's March, SF (Jan 2018)