今年从7月1日起就为了一件事情心理压力就非常大，最严重的时候整夜整夜的睡不着。 以前知道自己容易焦虑，但没想到居然能到这个程度。总觉得如果不控制一下纾解一下，大概要绷断那根弦。 读了篇文章说我这种焦虑来自于对控制的强烈渴望。一旦事情不100%在控制内，我就会压力陡增。 这次办的事情很重大，我却只有很小的控制，难怪要把我逼出神经病来。 11月底总算带了小t回家看爸妈，他上次去中国都是14年中的事儿了。 去了上海、乌镇、苏州，短短一周，每天都是从早忙到晚。我基本上要全程照顾这三人，把我累得够呛。 爸妈很好，就是更老了。我决定明年夏天带他们到美国旅游，事不宜迟。 小t很好，开始学拼音了，目前学到j q x。 上海很好，有很多世界顶级演出展览，这些是我在小小的西雅图看不到的。这次全家住在陕西南路IAPM隔壁，出门就是繁华市中心，街上行人都穿得高档时髦。汽车开始礼让行人了，插队什么的也变少了。 在乌镇的照片。 乌镇也不错，比我预期的好太多。论规范中国无出其右，但是又有点过度规矩少了乐趣的感觉。 我妈在照片里很不高兴的样子，其实她只是不知道怎么对着镜头笑。后

<Kitchen Window> I asked my Mom why the windows of the kitchen were two holes. Here is the answer.. They used what they got. Glass and frames were not available by then.

The Kitchen 1.0 was built in early 1986. I wasn’t born yet. My Mom still had two short curly pony tails. Obviously the Kitchen 1.0 wasn’t a good enough construction: the door couldn’t close up. The roof didn’t cover every corner. Sink was still outdoor. There was only two holes on the wall as the window so the exhaust couldn’t get out efficiently. Why was it so bad? Because it was built by my Mom’s colleagues who were not professional builders at all, with very limited materi

There was a part of the kitchen not covered by roof. So in the rainy days, my parents would put an umbrella there to stop the rain.

(by My Mom) When my Mom was cooking dinner, sometimes she would put me next to her on a little seat above the coal storage. Other time she had other ways to handle me, I’ll introduce later. The coal stove and Chinese stir fry could create a lot of smoke and exhaust. The door (the one that never was able to close up) had to be wide open. The whole kitchen itself was already occupying the public lane space. The open door made it even harder for people to walk through. Nowadays

Kitchen 1.0 was built a few months before I was born and replaced by Kitchen 2.0 in 1990s. My Mom had her colleagues over to build this kitchen. I don’t have too much memories about it so I asked my Mom for help. My Mom's drawing It was a funny look kitchen: it had a door which could never close all the way up because the sink was in the way. My parents used to tie the handle of the door to the pipe on the sink with iron chains and lock them up: to pretend that the door is lo

Housework was heavier and dirtier at that time. Everyone was wearing similar clothes doing housework: old jacket, sleeve wrap, apron, old sneakers.

Controlling the heat of a coal stove wasn't so easy. People do it by adjusting the air flow. Chimney+Fan=higher heat Certain dishes required very high heat. For restaurant cooking , they even needed to use a small electric fan. Most families would only use a grass made hand fan to reach a balance of heating fast and saving coals. （photo from internet） Getting the ash out was messy. Coals on the lower side burns out earlier. In order to keep the air flow, people needed to remo

This was the earliest stove we used. We also used coal cake stove, alcohol stove and electricity stove before gas appeared in our life. It was replaced when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I can't recall all the details about it, so I called my Mom up and got a lot of information. My Mom asked to be the 2nd author of this series.... Coal balls look like this. Burning a coal ball stove could create a lot of smoke and ashes.

We didn't have a kitchen nor gas in the first a few years. Sink was outdoor. Cooking was out door. Coal stove was what my Mom used to cook. We had a half open space as kitchen and that occupied the lane. Around 3-4pm, every family in the Lilong neighborhood would start the stove at the same time. The whole block became very smoky. The whole cooking process was definitely not easy. People needed to be very skilled and experienced in it so the heat would be just enough for all