Today I went for a checkup to the doctor and she gave me a blood test. After giving out what seemed to be a lot of blood (maybe five of those tiny lab bottles) I felt a bit dizzy and disoriented. I remembered whenever my parents took me to the doctor, after which I would end up with an injection prescription ninety percent of the time, my dad would run up to the closest supermarket which was usually right across the street and bought me a "Sandis" and a "Titop". Remembering how my parents took care of me all the time led me to the realization that it's time for me to take care of myself, but here being the United States of America, the closest place to get something to eat was probably half an hour drive and for me who doesn't have a car, it soon turned into a "forget it" moment.
I've started to realize how much I didn't appreciate those little small tiny things that made my life so precious. Walking into a bookstore, a newspaper kiosk, a supermarket and browsing until I found that thing that I was looking for gave me immense pleasure. The shopkeepers became our friends. Even if we didn't want to buy something and were just passing by, we would turn our head towards their store, gave them a nod or a smile and made our presence known. I remember one time that my mom and I were going to her friend's place and we stopped by a china store to get her a gift for going to her place for the first time. The store didn't have a wrapping paper to wrap the present. I suggested we went to my favorite bookstore whose owner knew me very well and ask them if they would wrap the present for us if we bought the wrapping paper. As I expected, they gladly did it for us without even being bothered by it. I miss knowing people in my neighborhood, I miss walking home from the closest subway station. I tried to pick a neighborhood in Seattle that is close to the shops in downtown, but I don't want Nordstrom or Banana Republic, I really really want our Daryani supermarket and my tiny little bookstore. I'm tired of ordering all my books through Amazon, I really am.
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