A Birthday, A Bird, and Being Young (Always)

Hello, again. Yesterday some Chinese people tried to give me a surprise party. However, they are much more than just some Chinese people. They are an important part of my life. They are my friends, and mean a lot to me. There was nothing wrong with the party. It was wonderful. I say they tried to throw a surprise party for me because I knew they were planning it. Even though they were speaking Cantonese when they planned the party, they did it while I was there. I can't speak Cantonese, but my intuition told me what they were doing. Plus I had suspected that Winnie Lo might try something like this. So (do not start a sentence with "so") I came to our Conversation Group wearing my Halloween mask and sang "Happy birthday to me". Of course, they all wanted to know how I knew. It was a lot of fun. Thank you for the wonderful party.
I just tried downloading a picture of Edgar. I have no idea if it worked or not. I guess I will find out when I post this. Edgar is a very well behaved cockatiel most of the time. Even when he misbehaves he is not the monster that my last cockatiel (his name was Harry) was. I loved Harry dearly, & I miss him a lot, but he was a monster.
It was thinking of my English learners that allowed me to drag myself out of bed this morning to go to my Chinese Mandarin class. I was so tired last night that I was imagining I was a big wind coming up from the south blowing the snow storm further north over Connecticut. I hoped we would get at least a couple of inches of snow so my Chinese class would be canceled. No such luck. But (do not start a sentence with "but" either) as I lay in bed thinking of all the reasons why I should stay home, I thought of all the English learners I see every week who spend so much time at Adult Ed., Three Rivers, and the Library, and the effort they take to get to all these places. It was the inspiration I needed to get me up, so thank you for that, too.
And ("and" is another word you should not start a sentence with) it was was important for me to go to class today because not only did I learn, but I had fun and I interacted (do you remember the word "intermingle"? They are not the same, but there is a similarity or likeness) with my teacher and classmates, as well as with the world. The world is constantly unfolding all around us. At any time we can either choose to be part of it, or not. I think it is much more interesting to be part of it, and to not only see it unfold, but to unfold with it. The world is always changing around us, and if we allow ourselves to be part of it, we change as well. That includes how we see the world (our perception of the world) and the people around us as we get to know it (the world) and them (the people around us) in new ways. When our perception of the world changes it can sometimes be a confusing and even scary experience. Last Tuesday Morning when we had a coating of snow on everything, Winnie Lo said "I lost the road." She didn't really lose the road, it was right there in front of her, but she didn't recognize it because it looked completely different. Sometimes the way we see the world can change so much that we don't recognize it, and it can be frightening, but I also think it can be truly awesome (my Chinese teacher likes that word), meaning it can be an experience we can learn and grow from. It all depends on your point of view. The real trick of being young is being able to see the the world with new eyes every day. To quote a young Korean woman I met, "Do you know what I mean?"