whenever my parents need to get to the airport (or the seaport) they call on me because i'm reliable. in the past they might've called on my sister but she's temperamental and might change her mind at the last minute. so a ride to the airport always involves me sitting in the back, then driving the car home after my parents drop themselves off.

this time around my parents had a rare night flight to taiwan (cathay pacific CX811, CX450) that left at 1:30am in the morning. to give themselves plenty of time, we left belmont around 10:30pm. traffic was okay until we hit leverett circle; the city was doing some night construction and reduced 3 lanes of traffic to just one. once we got passed that it was a short stretch to logan airport, terminal E. coming back for me was even easier, as i didn't see any traffic so late at night. i was a little scared because it's been a while since i drove on the highway, but i kept myself to a reasonable speed. even then, i must've gotten back to belmont in record time, i guessing only 15 minutes.

i opted to spend the night in belmont before returning to cambridge tomorrow morning. since my parents are gone, i'm part of a team of 4 other people (not counting my sister) who've been drafted to take care of my grand uncle during the next 3 weeks. i'm in charge of weekday lunch deliveries. i did it while my parents were on that bermuda cruise back in october, but my grand uncle is very particular about the way he eats, and i'm afraid i'll forget a step.

i spent the rest of the evening uploading a backlog of blog photos onto google photos. i finished 2006 last time, working on 2007 tonight. i didn't realize how many photos i've taken over the years.

earlier today i arrived in belmont in the afternoon after having a tea egg and some cereal for lunch back in cambridge. i was tasked by my parents with calling the senior care center to inquire about a missing payment. being the honest person that i am, i told them who i was over the phone, but my name wasn't on the list of authorized contacts. so my mother ended up coming home, just so she could sit next to me as i called, in case they needed her consent and confirmation. i was told that the check would be sent to my grand uncle's place. i hung up and told my mother, but she said they've been waiting for 2 weeks and haven't seen a check. mostly likely they accidentally tossed it out thinking it was junk mail, so i ended up calling the senior care place a third time to get them to reissue the check.

my mother returned to the cafe in the late afternoon. my parents came home close to 7pm after giving my grand uncle his dinner. they brought back some homemade scallion pancakes and we had xuelihong noodles for dinner.

we then waited for the next few hours. my parents took turns using the bathroom and taking a shower. earlier my mother had put on her compression socks, which made her look like a mummy from the waist down. it looked uncomfortable, but she swore it works for long distance travel. we half-heartedly watched trump's state of the union address. democrats gasped when trump announced his VOICE program, which seeks to document crimes made by immigrants on americans. at 10:30pm we moved all 4 of their suitcases into the car and left for the airport.