i am so tired. i want to crawl into the empty bed and pass out, but i was scolded earlier for putting my cell phone on the edge of the bed. don’t think they’ll take well to me sleeping in it. hospitals are impossible to rest in. there is someone coming in, checking your pulse, drawing blood, administering medicine almost every 30 minutes to an hour. i am usually a light sleeper to begin with, so between the parade of staff walking in and the peripheral noise, i feel like i’m back in college pulling an all-nighter. not that i’m complaining. i’m not the one who had surgery. i just hope i am not a groggy mess later. and i hope i don’t develop other zits the size of alaska like the one that’s currently on my chin.
my mom said, “if you have something good to say, you don’t need to be afraid to say it.” that will be my quote of the month.
hospitals are typically such dreary places, but this one is surprisingly cheery. well, at least the staff are anyway. my mom’s passed out beside me, oxygen tube in her nose, IV’s in her arms, and a pump wrapped around each foot that inflates and deflates to promote blood circulation, i assume. the nurses here have been outrageously nice, especially the evening shift nurse – Annie – who is all smiles. what a difference it makes to have someone do something as simple as SMILE to make everything better and make you feel like maybe everything will be alright.
the last time i was in a hospital, i think i was visiting my aunt who had a brain hemorrhage. prior to that, it was to visit my grandma for the last time. prior to that it was to visit my dad, also for the last time (may they rest in peace). so yeah — hospitals and me don’t go well together.
i’m here to provide translation services and to help my mom, but there’s a part of me that wants to rebrand hospitals in my mind from something that’s totally evil to a place where sick or injured people actually get better. so far so good (knock on wood). her surgery seems to have gone off well. other than the typical symptoms of swelling and fever, she’s in good spirits. i actually had no idea what a hip replacement surgery even meant. from the size of the bandage that’s on her side, it doesn’t look as invasive as i would’ve thought. thank goodness. while the full rehabilitation and healing might take awhile longer, i’m glad she finally went through with it. she’s gonna get better (fingers crossed).
i’m going to have to figure out how to arrange the chairs to get some zzz’s tonight. they don’t allow overnight guests, but since there’s no one sharing the room, they’re letting me stay. there’s a nice view of the city from the window. it’ll be interesting to see what goes on at this time of night in hospitals.
i recently learned that my high school glee club and boys ensemble conductor/teacher/mentor passed away. it’s been so long since i last interacted with him that he’s more legend in my mind than reality. how can a legend ever die? in Mr. Somary’s case, his legend and legacy can’t.
Mr. Somary — Johannes to those who were close to him — was a frankenstein of a man. he was tall, slightly hunchbacked, with a long face and a large smile. his bushy head of grey hair would remain as a perfect puff, even through his grand gesturing during concerts, movements that were akin to a rocker’s head bang. i first got to know him in the 10th grade when i finally had the cojones to join glee club.
i’m not going to lie – i was a hot property back then because i was one of like three boys who could actually carry a tune. i think Johannes must have seen potential in me after seeing me in the school musicals. right away, he took me under his wing. in fact, he gave me the solo in one of our first glee club concerts of that year. now we didn’t sing mash-ups of britney and gaga songs back then. we sang stuff like this: Bach’s deposuit potentes from magnificat.
ok. imagine a 15-year old singing that.
yeah. shit ain’t easy. i still remember to this day our rehearsal in his office. he kept telling me not to think so much (a constant refrain in my life apparently) and to just sing. the runs were KILLING me and i really had no confidence that i could do it at all. eventually i got to the point where i sang something close to what it was supposed to sound like, he shook my hand, and that was that.
of course, come concert time, i totally screwed up the solo. how do i know? well, my blunt sister-in-law said, “yeah you didn’t do too well,” as did my favorite theater teacher the next day who said, “he shouldn’t have made you sing that song.”
i don’t think Mr. Somary set me up to fail. in a way, i think he was grooming me to be the next it boy and saw in me more than i ever thought was possible at the time. even though the solo was a bomb, he still recruited me for the boy’s ensemble, a hand-picked, select group of boys from glee club who performed separate concerts and who were like a mini-frat. of course, i was miserable being around so much testosterone and always wanted out, but Mr. Somary never let me give up. even when i’d make excuses to try to miss concerts, he’d arrange rides for me or work around my schedule so that i could attend.
while i LOVED singing and performing, i eventually realized that neither boy’s ensemble nor glee club was for me (the social aspect of it outweighed the artistic and that irked me). i quit boy’s ensemble a year later and whereas there was a point when i wanted to be the soloist in glee club, i became content being another voice in the crowd by senior year. Mr. Somary noticed this and his attitude towards me definitely changed. he treated me as just any other glee club kid and not with the preferential treatment i once had.
i don’t want to remember my relationship with Mr. Somary in a sour way. if anything, i’ve grown to respect him even more. he was fiercely loyal to those who trusted in him– or trusted in his judgement. if he believed in you, it meant that you had something really special and he wanted to nurture that talent and make sure that you utilized it. i might not have been able to sing deposuit potentes then, but i think he was giving me something to strive for — “practice!” i can imagine him telling me, “nothing comes without practice.” lesson learned too late, but i have him to thank for that.
you’ll be missed, Mr. Somary — Johannes. may you rest in peace.
since coming back from asia, i’ve been experimenting with all sorts of soups and noodles trying to recreate the flavors that tickled my tongue throughout the trip. this has resulted in some odd mash-ups, one of which is this spicy soba dish. you know how some people are weird and don’t drink the noodle broth? well, this isn’t for you if you’re one of those people. this is for someone who likes licking up every drop! it’s a really satisfying, cold-weather dish. enjoy.
serves 4 / cooking time: 15 minutes
ingredients
5 cups of water for broth and additional water for soba
3 1/2 – 4 tablespoons of miso paste
1 bunch of soba noodles per serving
1 leafy head of bok choy or other greens (more if you like veggies)
1 tomato chopped
2 – 3 cloves of garlic
1 – 2 green onions chopped
2 – 3 chili peppers chopped
1/8th pound ground pork
4 – 8 beef balls halved
1 sheet of seaweed cut into strips
fresh ground pepper, to season
1. bring water to a boil in a medium pot. throw in the miso, garlic, and chili pepper. boil for 2-5 minutes.
2. shape the pork into little balls and add to broth with the beef balls. add the tomatoes, green onions, and half of the seaweed. simmer under medium low heat.
3. in a separate pot, boil more water. insert soba and cook until soft, but not mushy. drain and place noodles into serving bowl(s).
4. once the meat balls are cooked thoroughly and the greens are softened, turn off the heat. scoop enough broth into the bowls to cover the top of the noodles. add ground pepper, as desired. top with the vegetables and meat. add strips of seaweed and leftover green onions as garnish.
my suggestions:
i tried this recipe out for the third time today and played around with it by adding sliced ginger and about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest. the broth had an even richer flavor that balanced well with the saltiness of the miso.
also, i’ve tried cooking the soba in the broth versus cooking it separately. this method works really well, too (i actually prefer it), although there are pros and cons. the pro is that the noodles really pick up the spiciness that makes this dish so special. however, the inherent saltiness of the soba combined with the saltiness of the miso can be a bit overwhelming. an easy resolution would be to reduce the amount of miso paste you add. i’ve been doing one less tablespoon of miso than there are cups of water (e.g. 4 tablespoons of miso for 5 cups water, 5 tablespoons for 6 cups, etc.).
if you cook the soup and noodles separately, you can store the leftover broth for later. use it to cook MORE noodles or to drink as a standalone soup. seriously delicious.
this is a ridiculously easy to cook, quick, and healthy meal. enjoy!
Will Dao 