i stopped by the cafe briefly around 11am to install the pi zero rtsp webcam monitor to my grand uncle's place. lili and matthew were in the store. i hooked everything up and was surprised it worked flawlessly. i then rode to belmont to wait for my sister's arrival so we could visit ikea with my mother, with the condition that i had to be back by 4:30pm to watch the pats-49ers game.

we didn't get to ikea stoughton until close to 1pm. my mother and sister knew what they wanted and said it'd be strategic trip, just in and out. but first we had some lunch.

that strategic trip turned out to take more than 3 hours, as we browsed the showroom floor before meandering to the merchandise floor down below. the only thing i got was a carton of 400 lumen led light bulbs (2x) for $2.

leaving the parking garage, my sister rolled up on a curb while making a turn, causing me to violently bash my head on the interior side wall of her new but smaller SUV. i yelled, which caused me sister to shout back, saying that my screaming distracted her. i told her it was her terrible driving that caused me to hit my head and i punched the side of the car a few times in angry protest. not only would i be missing the start of the football game, but i also had to suffer the indignity of hitting my head. my sister said she could put the game on the radio, i told her don't bother, and sat in the back stewing for the hour long ride back to town.

when we finally got back to belmont, i'd only missed the first half of the first quarter. it wasn't a big deal anyway, new england was heavily favored to beat san francisco. the final score was 30-17.

i used to talk with sunmeng everyday (via qq, text and video chat). it wasn't easy because of the 12-hours time difference between boston and chongqing, as my morning would be her night, and vice versa. but i haven't spoken with her in 3 weeks, not since halloween, not since i noticed i was having a hard time reaching her, that she was rarely home, so i jokingly asked was it because she had a new boyfriend. to her credit she sheepishly answered yes. from that point on i stopped contacting her.

a part of me should be happy she has a new boyfriend. she and i were never going to work out, too incompatible, always fighting, and the 2 months i was in chongqing this past spring, i could feel the both of us losing interests. but we still played along, she wanted the status of an american boyfriend who happened to be never around, i wanted not to hurt her feelings so went along with it as well.

so finally sunmeng contacted me today. her pretense was she had a dream about me, but i knew she'd get in touch with me eventually. i asked her about her new boyfriend, and she was rather forthcoming with details. i figured maybe she found a boyfriend closer to her own age, but was dismayed that once again she found an older guy, 43-years old this time, one year older than me. she really does have daddy issues. he's a business owner (a vendor?) not originally from chongqing but from zhejiang. he was married but divorced, said his wife was cheating, and has a baby boy. apparently he has a friend in boston. i told sunmeng this was the first and only time i'd talk about her new boyfriend, and we would never speak of it ever again, should we talk again in the future.

as difficult as it was to be with her, i'm a little sad now that she's gone. sure we fought a lot, and over infinitesimally trivial things, but we also had some good times. i took her to my special places in western sichuan, and i've never taken anyone one there before. we also went to hainan island, probably would've never gone there on my own. it was nice to know someone out there liked me for me, however brief that was.