Update: Trang is Here, and So Am I

Yeah – I know.  Trang and I arrived home on Saturday, August 16th, and I haven’t written a word.  Shame on me!

My life has been filled with bureaucracies lately.  Trang will be in grad school at the University of Texas-Pan American .  For me, it was interesting to navigate through the maze of procedures necessary to enter school.  Though I used to work there, I hadn’t experienced the bureaucracy from the standpoint of a student or parent.  It was (is?) daunting.

Example.  I went to the Payments and Collections Office to pay the tuition.  After waiting in line for an hour, the nice lady behind the glass asked me the account’s balance.  I hadn’t the slightest idea.  It turns out that in order for me to pay, I had to have Trang with me – unless she was a minor.  I should have lied and said she was,  but at least the nice lady told me I could pay online.  I went home, had Trang log on to her account, and I paid.

Some bureaucratic nightmares never go away.  You may remember my rant about my mother’s application for Medicaid.  I thought all was finished when she was accepted last month.

Silly me.

It seems it was retroactive only until March, meaning she still has a bill of over $6,000 at the nursing home. 

It never ends.

I’ve returned from Việt Nam just in time for high school sports to begin – the major source of my photography work.  I’ve been busy shooting sports and writing cutlines.  That is fun work, though.

Finally, some difficult news.  I have two older sisters, the younger of the two recently diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer.  In the back of our minds, we all expect the call in the middle of the night telling us a parent has died – but not a sibling.  I’m trying to digest the fact that my 92 year old mother with advanced Alzheimer’s hangs on to life, while my vigorous sister will be gone in six months or less. 

That’s hard.

Comments

[Tom]

Welcome to the USA Trang.

I tried to pay my 32 year old daughter's tuition way back when she was a college student. I was not entitiled to know what she owed even if I was paying. Now the privacy laws are a little crazy. As a professor there are so many things I cannot disclose about my students. Most universities long ago stopped using Social Security numbers because identity theft is such a major issue. It's so different than we Boomers experienced as we stood inline to register on paper lists at eight foot tables in the 60s.

Our world has changed. The Internet is such a great means of communication with this blog just one example, but it has so many unfortunate consequences as well.

[Nancy]

Wow, I am so sorry about your sister. That is just a feeling that takes your breath away. I lost my younger sister to aggressive cancer and it just seemed so wrong.

I wish Trang the best of luck in her studies. What an interesting experience this will be for her and how lucky she is to have you on her side.

My Vietnamese friends are all such gogetters, they make me want to work harder!!

[Duong Lam Anh]

Doug, it's hard. Torn between the two ideas. Wish a miracle!
Congrats to Trang too, BTW.

[Tuan_son]

Im very sorry the hear that...
I still remember my poor cousin, cancer stole his like when he was just 27 and the whole family had a very hard and dreary time...
Like Lam Anh, I wish a miracle!