Truman Returns!

Last month, Peter’s sister and her family visited from out of town. This month, it was my brother Truman’s turn to visit. He had just completed his medical training and had a month before starting his first attending position. It seems like just yesterday that he was mulling over the various options for his first adult job. He decided to stay on at his training institution as faculty, even though he was given the opportunity to return to California. Shortly after moving into his new apartment unit, he returned to California for a week of vacation before his job started.

Truman arrived into town on a Tuesday and would leave the following Friday. My parents had been helping him move into his apartment the week prior, so they were actually coming back to Orange County all at once. Serendipitously, Peter and I have been down in Orange County on Tuesdays as we like seeing our therapist in person. This meant that we could pick them up that evening from John Wayne as well.

After a refreshing hour of couples counseling that Tuesday, Peter and I grabbed an early dinner at 5:00PM before heading to the airport to grab them. As they were landing at 7:00PM, it would be a little late for all of us to eat together and still make it back up to SGV at a reasonable hour. My parents insisted several times that we join them for a second dinner, but our bellies could not stomach anymore food at that point. We spent some time together before Peter and I said our goodbyes to head back to our apartment.

Because Truman would effectively be in town for only one weekend, we wanted to make the most of it. Originally, we had planned for a larger gathering with all our cousins on Saturday evening before the FIFA World Cup finals in LA. One of them graciously offered to host the gathering. However, due to the uncertainty of traffic driving into LA, some of my other cousins were apprehensive about driving up into LA that weekend. Thus, the Saturday weekends fell through. No matter, Truman and I made plans to hang out on Sunday to hang out with our own family.

My parents requested a brunch together as a family that Sunday morning. Truman’s only desire that weekend was to cook a feast together as a family. As it would turn out, he couldn’t even participate in the cooking as he slit a finger wide open while cutting avocados the week prior. This automatically defaulted to my mom cooking as nobody would trust me and Peter in the kitchen. I had been suffering from the worst craving for a crab leg, and Truman had the great idea of making a homemade seafood boil. And thus, the menu was set for Sunday evening. Jackie was fortunately free for the entirety of Sunday as well to join us in the festivities.

Sunday morning rolled by soon enough and Peter and I had a busy start to our day. Stacked with work outs and meetings, we were in a rush to get everything done before my family arrived at our apartment. They arrived promptly at 9:30AM for our 10:00AM dim sum plans. Rather than go to Lunasia which had been our staple, we opted for an authentic experience with cart ladies. That was a big mistake as we felt neglected in the far corner of the restaurant with very limited offerings. The food that we did get was sadly mediocre, served by the rudest waitress (truly authentic). We all looked forward to molten salted egg yolk buns at the end, which turned out to be the greatest disappointment. Truman turned these buns into several Frankenstein concoctions in an attempt to salvage them.

As soon as we paid for lunch, we headed back to our apartment to get the day rolling. We divvied up the tasks for the afternoon: Peter would stay home as he had a few meetings to attend, my parents would drop by 99 Ranch to pick up a few last ingredients, all while Jackie and I drove around SGV to pick up various treats. We picked up our favorite ginger syrup silken tofu dessert along with boba. It was a splurge of a Sunday. We also retrieved a few board games from Jackie’s place to play while my parents did their own thing.

Board games with Peter was a learning curve for me. I was nervous that it would be a similar experience for Truman. Fortunately, Truman caught on to the rules very quickly and we were able to play through a variety of games fairly quickly. As a group, we played a round of Dead of Winter, followed by a few rounds of Bang. Peter needed to step away yet again for another meeting at 4:00PM for an hour or so, just as we transitioned to We’re Not Really Strangers. Coincidentally, my parents had just finished cooking and preparing dinner, so they were able to join us. It was a great experience to have everybody share interesting parts of their lives.

Once Peter emerged from our office den, we hurriedly set up for dinner. My mom had generously prepared more than just a seafood boil. She made along with it some shrimp egg rolls and a green mango salad, yum! Ironically, she had been full all day from the heaviness of dim sum on top of having a smaller appetite. The rest of us were ready to chow down and engorged ourselves. We loved that my mom made the seafood boil very light, and that it wasn’t just a slosh of butter-soaked crustaceans. She insisted on doing all the dishes and wiping the kitchen down spotless again. We love our mommies.

After our silken tofu desserts and some light chit-chat, it was getting late so my family headed back down to OC. Peter and I walked Jackie back to her house before winding down ourselves. We reflected on what a busy yet fulfilling day that had been. Though, Peter did feel badly about having several meetings booked throughout the day. He had a lot of fun playing board games. At the same time, he very much appreciated Jackie’s lively energy that kept our guests amused. Truman, ordinarily very shy, seemed to warm up a bit more. I am especially happy, however, that my parents had such a fun time hanging out with us. To share a day full of good eats, storytelling, and laughter—it was their type of hang out.