A Feast in Taipei

It was time to go back to Taipei to visit my father this past weekend. I left Taichung Saturday afternoon. In order to make my husband feel he was also important, I suggested we go to the movie "The Ides of March" before I left for Taipei. After the movie, I drove back to Taipei on my own. The movie was OK. Acting was good, but the profanity was beyond my tolerance level. Sometimes I wonder if Americans really talk that way in daily lives? How come the ones I know seldom use foul language. Well, I don't really know too many. The ones I know are my colleagues. There're about a dozen, and only two of them have this bad habit. Besides the profanity, I think the weakest part was the plot. After all, George Clooney is a better actor than a playwright. After the movie, I went back home to load my car. I was away for only two days, but I had tons of things to carry. Well, I never travel light anyway.
It was dinner time when I arrived. After I wolfed down my mother's specialty--"Da Lu Noodles", I touched my tummy contently. About 20 minutes later, I crawled into my room in the basement and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. What a wonderful feeling to be able to sleep in Father's home!
I got up around 5:00 next morning and waited until the sky turned brighter. Then I drove to get breakfast for the family--Sis' (4 members), my parents and me. I stopped at three different places for the food-- traditional soy milk store for Mom, Sis, and my brother-in-law, McDonald's for the two nieces, and sandwich breakfast shop for my father. Then I delivered all the breakfast I bought for Sis' family to her apartment, hoping they could have some luxurious "room service". After breakfast, I suggested we have Pizza Hut for lunch. Since only one person disliked pizza (my mother), we were all in favor of this suggestion. Mom called my brother and asked his family to come over for lunch. At 11:00 I arrived at the nearest Pizza Hut and ordered the food. Everybody liked to eat Hawaiian pizza, so I had no choice but ordered one and a half pizza with that topping. As for the other half of the pizza, I ordered my favorite one--Pepperoni, the only topping I care for. In addition to pizza, I ordered a brownie cake, chicken wings, and cheese omelet rolls. What I ordered was far enough for 7 people--two nieces, Bro, Brother-in-law, Parents, and me. Once again about four hours after we ate breakfast, we sat together to eat lunch. While watching Father enjoy his pizza, I felt I was the luckiest person in the world. I'm 55 years old, but my parents are still around and functioning well. My siblings live near my aged parents. Though I'm 150 kilometers away from them, I can still visit them every other weekend. I thank God for all these blessings every day.
Knowing Father likes to eat "Steamed Rice with Duck", one of the famous dishes served in a restaurant near Taiwan University, I decided to go downtown to get it. On my way to the restaurant, I stopped to get "red bean soup with sesame glutinous rice dumplings" for Mother. With all the food I bought, I took the bus back home. Though it was only 5:30 PM, Father had been waiting for his favorite food since 5:00. There he was sitting at the dining table enjoying his dinner. My eyes were red again. I still remember when Father came back from China three months ago, he was very sick. He's had dialysis for about 2 months, but his appetite seems to come back. I'll try my best to buy the food he likes to eat as long as he tells me what he wants to eat. I almost lost him, and I'm going to cherish the opportunities I'll have to make him happy.