monsoon

omg, finally finished that pile of paper i was handed last week. i'd estimated two days, but then i'd forgotten how short my attention span is recently. i'm like a fruit fly. drosophila. glad that's over. repetitive corrections are not fun.... zzzzz....

so. tonight. sherry and bad cats team have 'capture the flag' tonight in fuxing park. (meeting by the marx and engels statue... i find it funny that there's actually a statue for those two, but i guess that's just due to my regionalism and macarthyist histories of said region). i don't think i'll be capturing anything, but i will attend for posterity. and support. it's pouring fuggin rain outside, tho. so the relative instability of the weather may preclude any actual decision-making on my part regarding whether or not to try and trip someone up for flag-snatching purposes.

if i'm not making any sense, it's because i've been editing website copy for three days. i'm lost in a cloud that is my head. and, because the air con is still broken at my house (new units being installed as i type), i'm not sleeping much. topping out at 5 hours a night. i woke up at 8:30 this morning and my thermostat read 89 degrees. in my room. not acceptable. i'd taken to scrunching up on the bottom left corner of my bed so i could at least feel a slight draft from my fan, as i was too asleep to try and understand how to properly point the stupid thing so it would actually provide some windage. windiness. wind. i've been staying out all day and as close to all night as i can manage because i've been avoiding the steambath that is our apartment. just being on the bus was more enjoyable.

yesterday went to some party that was supposed to be a 'private' (haha) company party for a big advertising company. private it was not, but party it was. they flew in the entire tokyo office for a week of partying, and also brought along hifana, this somewhat indescribable team of tokyo-based musicians-slash-djs. great show. we missed the bananas set afterwards because sherry, steph, and i hid upstairs in the air conditioning, but i saw dan again today so i guess my fly-by presence at his lunch with adele made up for it or something. not really, but you know.

the longer i spend in china, the more i appreciate japanese boy style. there were of course a ton of tokyo boys (not too many girls, i'm not just noticing boys because i'm depraved) last night and it's just nice to be around people who have good style and good rhythm and shit like that. you know, like dreadlocks and crazy outfits and good jeans and correct accessorizing. puts me at ease. there was also a mini version of bai ling dancing around, which was disconcerting.

deciding that i am almost certainly going back to niseko for some snowboarding come CNY. i'm a bit concerned that i'm going to suck because i never get to go here, but i guess i'll have to just suck then. falling on your face on a 20-meter base isn't going to hurt much. so then i need to go home to the bay to get my stuff, which i was planning to do for xmas. my sister's email to me today quashed that short-lived euphoria:

"I was going to suggest that you come home for Thanksgiving instead because as you know we are not celebrating Christmas, plus, most people have more time off for it than Christmas. I mentioned that to Dad and he said yup, unless someone has a baby really fast. Stupid. So I plan on not being there for Christmas at all. My protest against their ridiculous statement. The money I save on Christmas presents will go toward my ticket elsewhere. I don't care where else. Prob. D.C."

my parents are refusing to celebrate xmas until they someone (i.e. me or my sister) gets knocked up. we both find this absurd, and if i weren't so overly confident in my maternal-convincing skills, rather distressing. i will play the overseas daughter guilt card. i will. i must have christmas. it's what makes the world go 'round. thanksgiving is out of the question because it's too soon and i think we have some big brand launch in the fall, plus i kinda just want to go head-to-head with the stubborn rhino that is my mother. i will show her the error of her ways. i just refilled my skype account so she better look out!

since our house is the hub of holiday activities, my mom is denying her entire clan the pleasure that is our xmas (and xmas eve) dinner. it's absolutely my favorite time of year and i will be so so sad if my mommy goes through with her retarded blackmail strategy. it won't function to speed up the grandchildren any, but it sure will function to alienate her family. but, being my mom, this won't dawn on her, and if it does, won't faze her. i think a childhood of fending for her siblings has hardened my mom to everything, especially what makes her family happy.

**note: ck, these are specific instructions to read that last paragraph aloud to mom**

battle.