Category Archives: Daily Droppings

Daily Droppings: “Puzzle Pieces”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “Puzzle Pieces”

Missing Pieces

As soon as I saw this prompt it brought me back to childhood reading of Curious George – the story of him eating the puzzle piece.

Thinking of Curious George brought me back to other childhood favorites such as Where the Wild Things Are and The Phantom Tollbooth.

These were not just my favorites as a child but also as a father.

I’m sitting here writing this 13 hours away from my daughter who is living and going to graduate school in Cambridge, Mass. And 16 hours away from my son who is living and going to undergraduate school in Los Angelas.

I used to read or tell them a story every night at bedtime. I’d also sing an off-tune lullaby. Now I’m awaking for the day as they prepare to sleep. This distance in time makes me feel even further away then being half-way around the world. I miss them.

I spoke with my son yesterday. It was his 20th birthday. We made birthday noodles and bought an ice-cream cake and recorded a video singing happy birthday to him. I felt sad. I miss him.

Birthday Noodles for “long life”

I reached out to my daughter yesterday and again today, but she is not feeling well and we did not have the chance to talk. I miss her.

Today I feel like an incomplete puzzle. Missing two center pieces.

Missing my best buddy and my dearest sweetie.

Much love to you.

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “you bastard”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “you bastard”

Who? Me?!


“Died Peacefully” – originally published in Thirteen Words Volume III

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “Treat”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “Treat”

“A Delicious Mistake” – originally published in Monty’s Very Short Shorts

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “Lesson Learned”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “Lesson Learned”

Never apologize for how you feel. This is a lesson that I’ve had to learn. By accepting my feelings as valid it allows me to address them in a healthier way. I stop waisting energy on concealing or denying my feelings. Or belittling myself for having them.

Not dealing with my feeling honestly and trying to rationalize them away often led me down a spiral of negative feelings such guilt, anger, and self-hatred that would result in negative behaviors (which I did need to apologize for).

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “You Won’t Believe It”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “you won’t believe it”

ANNOUNCEMENT!

I’m excited to introduce my new work-in-progress project – a children’s picture book. It’s still in it’s prenatal phase and there is no due date, but I’ve got a cover ready and it’s development is in progress. Can you believe it?

This cover inspired by the title piece “Apples Eating Zebras”, first published right here on Monty’s Blahg.

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “Flowers”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “Flowers”

“Winter Bloom” – photograph with digital painting

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “Too Many People”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “Too Many People”

originally published in Monty’s Very Short Shorts

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “I Can’t Wait”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who created a series of daily prompts for the month of February which are the source of inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “I Can’t Wait”

I spent so much of my life wishing it away. Hoping to fast forward or, better yet, skip ahead to the end. It’s taken a lot of hard work and self-care, but I’m grateful that today “I can wait”.

Content Warning: References to self-harm and suicidal ideation.

Breathless

I see him there in my memory

a boy no older than two times three

sitting on those stairs

not anticipating future back stares

from an older self in therapy

 

He becomes smudged and blurry

as I uncover what I had tried to bury

my eyes becoming wet

seeing him on that step

now crying uncontrollably

 

He was just a small child earnestly

but with uncertainty

trying his best

to close out his breath

and wishing so desperately

 

Having thought quite stupidly

squeezing his neck tightly

would take away his pain

which wasn’t insane

for a child of only two times three

 

He felt unlovable and lonely

I know, for this wasn’t just some story

of a boy and his sadness

or the beginning of his madness

it was my found history

 

Having failed miserably

I had given-up patiently

and I’m not really surprised

there was no demise

as this was to become a lifetime study

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “She Didn’t”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who has created a series of daily prompts for the month of February, which are the inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “She Didn’t”

The answer to the question I was too afraid to ask was…

“She Didn’t”

Be well,

Monty

Daily Droppings: “So Hot”

Special thanks to Sandra from What Sandra Thinks who has created a series of daily prompts for the month of February, which are the inspiration for this series.

The prompt: “So Hot”

Steamy Nights

Originally published 10 July 2021|Monty’s Blahg

As the weather turns hot and steamy, my thoughts turn to the summer of 1996.

Married two months, but still living separately, I travelled from Fukushima, Japan to Shanghai, China to visit my new wife. Our marriage had been a quick civil affair in Shanghai and I’ve written about it previously. It’s a true lost in translation story that I’ll re-share another time.

The day after receiving our marriage certificate, I’d left for a three month work assignment in Japan and so we’d had very little time together as a married couple and hadn’t yet established a home together in Shanghai. It was in late June 1996 when I arrived back in Shanghai for a visit. We spent our days looking for a place to rent under the high hot sun and our nights sweating in my wife’s non-air conditioned apartment trying to sleep under the moonlight. 

For those of you not familiar with Shanghai, it is known for having relatively cold winters and hot, muggy, rainy summers. Having grown up in Vermont, a decidedly cooler environment, I found the Shanghai summer climate stifling hot and humid. I’d equate it to how I felt when visiting Georgia or Florida in the states. 

As I write this I’m sitting in my Shanghai Garden under an umbrella. Listening to all sorts of birds and bugs chirping. Today is relatively temperate at 90F/32C but the heat index makes it feel like 106F/40C. It will drop a bit at night, but not enough to make it comfortable. Meanwhile, in my childhood home state of Vermont today’s high is anticipated to be 73F/23C. So, basically what I‘m saying is that my body was not equipped for the steamy Shanghai summer weather back when I arrived that late June in 1996.

My Shanghai Garden – June 2021

So what do you do when the weather is so hot and you don’t have air conditioning? You can open the windows to catch any available breeze, but then you let in all the leftover dust from the day’s construction that was still hanging in the air (Shanghai was and continues to be a thriving construction zone). You can use an electric fan…and we absolutely did. It buzzed loudly next to the bed. But blowing air around that is hotter than your body temperature doesn’t do much good. The answer, as I learned a bit painfully, was applying a bit thermodynamic thinking. In this case, that meant sleeping on surfaces that would conduct the body heat away from your skin. I believe the practice of sleeping on grass-woven mats, wooden slats, or even concrete floors is fairly common across Asia when air conditioning isn’t available (or is just too expensive to run). For us, we were using a woven bamboo mat called a “xiezi”. 

Xiezi technology has varied over the years. From the roughly woven bamboo mats of that time…to “mahjong-style” bamboo mats…to modern mats that are of a composition that’s a mystery to me but quite flexible and soft. Even with air conditioning we use a xiezi for sleeping during the hottest months to this day. The worst design by far was the mahjong-style mats. They provided the best cooling, but if you moved, the bamboo tiles would pinch your skin so badly that I would wake up with welts all across my body. The rough woven bamboo mats of 1996 were not much better. At least for a western man like myself that sports a bit of body hair. Unless I slept absolutely still, my leg hair would get caught between the strands of the mat and be yanked out with any movement. After one week on that bed my knees were bald and my eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep (I don’t know about you, but I don’t sleep well knowing that I’m about to be plucked). The modern xiezi are merciful and my knees are fuzzy again.

After the steamy, mostly sleepless nights, I was exhausted as we travelled across the city to look at various apartments. To me, location didn’t matter. To me, the number or rooms was irrelevant. All I cared about was making sure that the place had air conditioning. I’d come to Shanghai hoping for some steamy nights with my hot wife, but not like these. I was miserable. My wife on the other hand had very specific requirements and we ended up having to do quite a bit of searching to find what she wanted – a well located 3-bedroom upper level apartment with a bright, modern look (and, yes, air conditioning) . I had no idea why we needed three bedrooms, but I agreed out of exhaustion and an innate understanding that I best listen. This was her hometown after all. She would know best.

I’d later find out that the apartment was a great choice. Location was critical due to the heavy traffic and this was right on the shuttle bus route for my work. The upper level apartment collected less construction dust and the modern surfaces were easy to keep clean. It had air conditioning. As for the three bedrooms, well, surprise to me when on moving day her parents showed up. As an American, this never even occurred to me. As a Chinese, it never even occurred to my wife otherwise. Twenty-five plush years later we are still all living together. That’s the happily-ever-after part of the story. But it wasn’t always so smooth. That’s a topic for another time.

Be well,

Monty