taco night again. overstimulation.
sometimes, despite how much you love someone, there can be too much of that one person. i don't know why i work the way i do, but i function so much better when i have space to breathe. i am a better person for it, avoiding people and noise and social interaction when i'm just too tired to function under the weight of it. it's not an issue of physical fatigue - it's the emotional burden of shouldering simple social dynamics, even with people i am friends with and enjoy being around. when i feel like i've reached the end of my rope - however that happens, in whatever capacity - i really just don't have a good time when i'm around people, no matter how beloved. there's just too much going on, too much noise, too many undercurrents, too many careless comments that sting just a little or are just a tad inappropriate. i feel tired from catching and reacting to all of these little things, feeling uncomfortable for that person or trying to rescue that conversation from heading down that path. it's just exacerbated when people are drunk and i'm not. it's not my responsibility to save anything, but i think when you're the type that's wired to notice everything, you can't help but feel like you should.
in moods like that i just need to be at home, alone or with someone who knows how to be silent, writing or reading perez or doing anything but having to think about my behavior within the confines of society and how to act and what's right and what's wrong. at the end of some weeks, it's just too much. it's too hard. i am listening to john mayer and pretending that i'm on an island with my laptop and a mysterious outlet that's popped out of the sand. because we all know vaios have shit for battery life.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
25 hours of shooting later...
chris taking a break from styling
that photographer was the most bend-y little dude
wearing the requisite feet shower caps to keep from footprinting the white set
this was the most interesting thing of all - the building we were in was being renovated, and all of the migrant construction workers just live on-site. this is their living area - you can see their makeshift beds against the wall - in the parking-garage area of the building, ground floor. the not-so-great thing about it was that there was no running water in the studio, and we had to share the Nastiest Bathroom in the World with the workers, which made us all self-dehydrate in hopes of avoiding usage of it.
Monday, November 26, 2007
my couch is my friend
back from an all-day stint at the photo studio. i have another one tomorrow and an in-store the day after. glug. i never knew that a person could be so anal retentive about photography, but our guy was. i was at the studio for 10 hours and i swear to god we only got through 40% of our product list. probably less, i may just be saying that to make myself feel better.
anyhoo, enough shop talk. i don't want to think about it anymore.
the right side of my body (facing the heater) is nice and warm. my left side keeps getting hit with gusts (my very non-airtight windows facilitate this) of cold-ass air. trev was kind enough to warn me last night on his way to the train station that SH would be getting cold tonight. good thing i paid attention, because all day in the studio it was pretty chilly. studios aren't known for their good heating systems.
well my thanksgiving dinners went off without a hitch! or maybe there were so many hitches no single one stood out. the office loved the turkey and stuffing and sucked down gravy like there was no tomorrow. i was a bit alarmed. saturday i was up at 7 making the stock and chopping veggies, making more cornbread. turkey went in at 11 am and was ready at 2:30, stuffing went in after, then i made a quick pie crust - with trev's right-hand forefinger crimping the crust, it was classic - and we threw together a little quiche that came out nicely. in between all of this was the repairman for the washing machine (needs to be taken in), the repairman for the dryer (fixed in less than 5 minutes), and the stovetop repairman (replaced my gas hose which had been leaking and was dangerous. he also removed the oven from its little cubbyhole space while the turkey was still cooking!). i can't believe a decent thanksgiving turned out as a result of the chaos.
kate's gift to our dinner was caesars - the canadian take on the bloody mary, made with clamato and rimmed in salt and black pepper. delicious discovery! a little too delicious. pretty much everyone at the dinner - and there were a ton of us, at least 15? - ended up hammered. sherry, trev, and i took a couple of tokes out on the balcony, and, in jason's words, sherry and i 'staggered in, downed a huge plate of cake, and then crawled into the guest room and passed out.' i woke up probably 30 minutes later, feeling a lot better. naps are the bomb! went back out into the living room and the party was still going. gotta love nights like that.
kate wins the award for the most adventurous night. she's madly embarrassed about her evening - which she doesn't recall, i think thanks partly to those caesars - but let's just say when you're down on your luck, and your shoes and pants have gone missing, head to your nearest guard shack. they pepper shanghai - every housing community has a couple - and the guards are quite kind. they'll put you up in their shack, and even cover you with a blanket for the night. tee hee!
alright, i'm starving after a day spent fixating on the reflections given from the lighting boxes against lacquer finishes. time to eat and then it's bedtime for me.
xoxo.
anyhoo, enough shop talk. i don't want to think about it anymore.
the right side of my body (facing the heater) is nice and warm. my left side keeps getting hit with gusts (my very non-airtight windows facilitate this) of cold-ass air. trev was kind enough to warn me last night on his way to the train station that SH would be getting cold tonight. good thing i paid attention, because all day in the studio it was pretty chilly. studios aren't known for their good heating systems.
well my thanksgiving dinners went off without a hitch! or maybe there were so many hitches no single one stood out. the office loved the turkey and stuffing and sucked down gravy like there was no tomorrow. i was a bit alarmed. saturday i was up at 7 making the stock and chopping veggies, making more cornbread. turkey went in at 11 am and was ready at 2:30, stuffing went in after, then i made a quick pie crust - with trev's right-hand forefinger crimping the crust, it was classic - and we threw together a little quiche that came out nicely. in between all of this was the repairman for the washing machine (needs to be taken in), the repairman for the dryer (fixed in less than 5 minutes), and the stovetop repairman (replaced my gas hose which had been leaking and was dangerous. he also removed the oven from its little cubbyhole space while the turkey was still cooking!). i can't believe a decent thanksgiving turned out as a result of the chaos.
kate's gift to our dinner was caesars - the canadian take on the bloody mary, made with clamato and rimmed in salt and black pepper. delicious discovery! a little too delicious. pretty much everyone at the dinner - and there were a ton of us, at least 15? - ended up hammered. sherry, trev, and i took a couple of tokes out on the balcony, and, in jason's words, sherry and i 'staggered in, downed a huge plate of cake, and then crawled into the guest room and passed out.' i woke up probably 30 minutes later, feeling a lot better. naps are the bomb! went back out into the living room and the party was still going. gotta love nights like that.
kate wins the award for the most adventurous night. she's madly embarrassed about her evening - which she doesn't recall, i think thanks partly to those caesars - but let's just say when you're down on your luck, and your shoes and pants have gone missing, head to your nearest guard shack. they pepper shanghai - every housing community has a couple - and the guards are quite kind. they'll put you up in their shack, and even cover you with a blanket for the night. tee hee!
alright, i'm starving after a day spent fixating on the reflections given from the lighting boxes against lacquer finishes. time to eat and then it's bedtime for me.
xoxo.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
g & ts
argh. i don't even think i drank that many last night, maybe 2 or 3 when all was said and done. but i guess when you drop those drinks down to a tummy that only holds a bowl of jook... it's twice as effective!
kate came by last night with a backpack full of booze + mixers and we settled in a for a long dish session while i made a quick cornbread batch for tomorrow and packed up the staled bread - unchewed by any little rat teeth, thank you. stupid asshole shitface dumbass rat.
this very fine hungover morning i'm trading going into the office for washing out the large styrofoam cooler (ayi delightedly showed me yesterday that she'd found the perfect place to store my boots!) and bleaching the shit out of it. i'm going to make this brine in a minute, after my coffee soaks in. i had 2 pieces of semi-ok toast from city super. china = bland ass bread, in case you're wondering. at least it wasn't made of complete air. i went through and molested all the bread in the bakery, hefting them all to see which loaf had some weight to it. sherry and i were sadly disappointed by the multigrain raisin 'bread' we bought the other week. it seemed as if the raisins were suspended in mid air.
cyn arrives around 4 pm today, but sadly i have to head into the office for some dog and pony show at 3 pm that apparently my boss signed me up for (note: i am the show). even from europe she's managing to facilitate guanxi. anyway.
our xmas plans are well under way. next week should be insane! looking forward to it. i'm going to take pics of our store holiday concept. it's going to be crazy. i can't wait.
kate came by last night with a backpack full of booze + mixers and we settled in a for a long dish session while i made a quick cornbread batch for tomorrow and packed up the staled bread - unchewed by any little rat teeth, thank you. stupid asshole shitface dumbass rat.
this very fine hungover morning i'm trading going into the office for washing out the large styrofoam cooler (ayi delightedly showed me yesterday that she'd found the perfect place to store my boots!) and bleaching the shit out of it. i'm going to make this brine in a minute, after my coffee soaks in. i had 2 pieces of semi-ok toast from city super. china = bland ass bread, in case you're wondering. at least it wasn't made of complete air. i went through and molested all the bread in the bakery, hefting them all to see which loaf had some weight to it. sherry and i were sadly disappointed by the multigrain raisin 'bread' we bought the other week. it seemed as if the raisins were suspended in mid air.
cyn arrives around 4 pm today, but sadly i have to head into the office for some dog and pony show at 3 pm that apparently my boss signed me up for (note: i am the show). even from europe she's managing to facilitate guanxi. anyway.
our xmas plans are well under way. next week should be insane! looking forward to it. i'm going to take pics of our store holiday concept. it's going to be crazy. i can't wait.
Monday, November 19, 2007
vermin
sitting on the sofa, typing. half talking to trev and half playing freecell. over the top of my laptop screen, i see movement in the kitchen. a medium-sized rat strolls his ass - not scurries, not runs, STROLLS - through my kitchen.
he sniffs thoughtfully. stops. raises himself on his hind legs to take a deeper sniff. spies me moving - sitting up in shock and incredulity at the cojones on this motherfucker - in the corner of his eye and u-turns, then jogs away, deep in thought.
it's tough, being a rat. you have to live from the trappings of others, are viewed worldwide (except for that crazyass temple in india) as vermin, are in constant fear for your life. people see you and try to stomp on you. trap you with peanut butter and cheese (or banana bread, in steph's case) and hope that your spine snaps when you're ensnared.
i heard that fucking bitch tap-dancing on the smashed cardboard box i left in the living room last night. it was so loud i actually woke up, which, as trevor pointed out, is impressive. i think he also knocked my fucking mosquito lamp down, which means this bitch thinks this is his home, all crawling all over my shit. i thought it was the trucks rumbling by, which make my floor shake, but that's never knocked it down before.
i bet my crazyass neighbors hand-fed him under the generous crack in my door. it's probably their nastyasses that drew him here in the first place. bitches.
vermin! i live in a house filled with vermin.
he sniffs thoughtfully. stops. raises himself on his hind legs to take a deeper sniff. spies me moving - sitting up in shock and incredulity at the cojones on this motherfucker - in the corner of his eye and u-turns, then jogs away, deep in thought.
it's tough, being a rat. you have to live from the trappings of others, are viewed worldwide (except for that crazyass temple in india) as vermin, are in constant fear for your life. people see you and try to stomp on you. trap you with peanut butter and cheese (or banana bread, in steph's case) and hope that your spine snaps when you're ensnared.
i heard that fucking bitch tap-dancing on the smashed cardboard box i left in the living room last night. it was so loud i actually woke up, which, as trevor pointed out, is impressive. i think he also knocked my fucking mosquito lamp down, which means this bitch thinks this is his home, all crawling all over my shit. i thought it was the trucks rumbling by, which make my floor shake, but that's never knocked it down before.
i bet my crazyass neighbors hand-fed him under the generous crack in my door. it's probably their nastyasses that drew him here in the first place. bitches.
vermin! i live in a house filled with vermin.
Friday, November 16, 2007
business plans
i think that i have essentially been signed up to construct a business plan for my company for the next 5 years, which sounds to me like a big deal, but doesn't seem to be a big deal to anyone else. it's like, very offhand. "oh, you know that business proposal you wrote a while back? about our goals for the next decade? go ahead and flesh that out, build out all the personnel and budgeting we're going to need for that, all of the actionable items and who should do them, you know. that sort of stuff."
oh. ok. well why didn't you just say so?
so i made a discovery last night - sherry had some free massage coupons so we headed late-night to the dragonfly on donghu. normally i'm not a big fan of the element fresh-esque mass market massage joints, but a free massage is a free massage. i was going to opt for the regular chinese massage (which, i'm slowly developing a theory regarding, is an oxymoron because chinese people don't have an additional mental dimension for customer service and the pleasing of another person, in my opinion, doesn't exist here. but i digress), but sherry was going for shiatsu and so i decided to give it a whirl.
2 conclusions:
#1: i will, from now on, request a male masseuse. my theory is that they tend to have larger hands and therefore broader fingerpads and the 'pokey' phenomenon that small chinese female fingers seem to have is therefore dispelled. and,
#2: shiatsu, when done correctly, actually functions a lot more effectively for people who want to get knots out of their muscles then the general, crowd-pleasing 'swedish' style or the afore-mentioned, not very enjoyable, 'chinese massage.'
i'm very happy for taking the shiatsu plunge, and more than a little surprised that i got a good massage at dragonfly.
sherry didn't have as great of a time and halfway through the massage stopped her girl and sent her in for a new one. then we were both happy.
i'm running off in a little bit to this new kitchen and baking supply store near me called, 'pantry magic.' according to chris st. cavish, pantry magic (sounds like a product you would hawk on an infomercial) buys from factories that make all-clad, calphalon, and the like to provide people like me a place to burn hard-earned cash. i really need measuring cups of the 'cup' and '1/2 cup' variety - enough with this stupid 100 ML bullshit - and a pastry blender and some pie pans for thanksgiving. i reluctantly bought a rolling pin last night at ikea. i will need one to roll out pie crust but i'm very stingy with my kitchen space. namely, because i have none, and rolling pins are not easy to store.
anyhoos. after a 4 am bathroom flooding involving my washing machine and it's tendency to 'walk' when spinning dry my very heavy bath rug, and a nice long skype session with trev after getting up this morning (we can 'hang out' on saturday mornings even when we're in different cities! thank you video cam), i will meander down to pantry magic, then probably nap and go get a manicure with sherry, and then we have a dessert extravaganza waiting for us courtesy of steph at jade. not bad for a saturday.
for the record, i do try and blog more often (like this past wednesday) but am often unable to log on to blogger, tor or no tor. i think the internet activity is just so high on weekdays at 11 pm that its next to impossible sometimes. so sorry for not being very regular these days.
i'm going to be back in the bay dec 14. fasten those chin straps, you're going to need a helmet!
oh. ok. well why didn't you just say so?
so i made a discovery last night - sherry had some free massage coupons so we headed late-night to the dragonfly on donghu. normally i'm not a big fan of the element fresh-esque mass market massage joints, but a free massage is a free massage. i was going to opt for the regular chinese massage (which, i'm slowly developing a theory regarding, is an oxymoron because chinese people don't have an additional mental dimension for customer service and the pleasing of another person, in my opinion, doesn't exist here. but i digress), but sherry was going for shiatsu and so i decided to give it a whirl.
2 conclusions:
#1: i will, from now on, request a male masseuse. my theory is that they tend to have larger hands and therefore broader fingerpads and the 'pokey' phenomenon that small chinese female fingers seem to have is therefore dispelled. and,
#2: shiatsu, when done correctly, actually functions a lot more effectively for people who want to get knots out of their muscles then the general, crowd-pleasing 'swedish' style or the afore-mentioned, not very enjoyable, 'chinese massage.'
i'm very happy for taking the shiatsu plunge, and more than a little surprised that i got a good massage at dragonfly.
sherry didn't have as great of a time and halfway through the massage stopped her girl and sent her in for a new one. then we were both happy.
i'm running off in a little bit to this new kitchen and baking supply store near me called, 'pantry magic.' according to chris st. cavish, pantry magic (sounds like a product you would hawk on an infomercial) buys from factories that make all-clad, calphalon, and the like to provide people like me a place to burn hard-earned cash. i really need measuring cups of the 'cup' and '1/2 cup' variety - enough with this stupid 100 ML bullshit - and a pastry blender and some pie pans for thanksgiving. i reluctantly bought a rolling pin last night at ikea. i will need one to roll out pie crust but i'm very stingy with my kitchen space. namely, because i have none, and rolling pins are not easy to store.
anyhoos. after a 4 am bathroom flooding involving my washing machine and it's tendency to 'walk' when spinning dry my very heavy bath rug, and a nice long skype session with trev after getting up this morning (we can 'hang out' on saturday mornings even when we're in different cities! thank you video cam), i will meander down to pantry magic, then probably nap and go get a manicure with sherry, and then we have a dessert extravaganza waiting for us courtesy of steph at jade. not bad for a saturday.
for the record, i do try and blog more often (like this past wednesday) but am often unable to log on to blogger, tor or no tor. i think the internet activity is just so high on weekdays at 11 pm that its next to impossible sometimes. so sorry for not being very regular these days.
i'm going to be back in the bay dec 14. fasten those chin straps, you're going to need a helmet!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
chippy chap
when my cousin emails me, instead of using 'chit chat,' she says 'chippy chap.' i think it's the cutest thing. it reminds me of little birds twittering or something.
left work and met sherry at the xintiandi tian jia, but i just wasn't feelin it. we ended up ordering and eating nearly rmb 600 worth of food and booze, but jason sms'd me midway through the meal about burgers and beer and honestly i could've knocked out a cheeseburger no problem. oh wells. toro is better for my arteries. and sake is better for... something. we then went to city super to do some pre-shopping for the dual-thanksgiving extravaganza i'm about to embark on and i dropped another chunk of change there. damn. damn. damn. all my hard work taking the bus and eating crappy lunches gone to the wayside! although i have to admit that i love taking the bus and would choose to do so over a taxi any day anyways.
so now i need to get my ass in bed so i can get up and actually roll into work before 10 am. i need to review 1000 things with JJ and get our new gift assortment in ASAP! i need to pull together the photo shoot. i need to pull together the last-minute ad i want to place in a certain publication. i need to pack all my yoga stuff for my class. i need to do so many goddamned things... and least of all (but still important to me), my work wardrobe is killing me. not wearing jeans is a huge problem for yours truly when the weather gets cold. i don't want to go and start shopping but i can only rotate one pair of wool pants and one pair of cords so many times. sneaking jeans in when i know my boss won't be around. it's a dirty shame, i tell you.
oh, trev and i saw the new ang lee movie last weekend. halfway through i was thinking, 'i don't like this movie,' but then afterwards i couldn't stop thinking about it, so i changed my mind. plus tony leung is kinda hot in this odd, intense way. the gratuitous ess-ee-ex scenes were dutifully deleted (already my coworkers are hinting that they want me to bring back the full version from the states) but i hear they're pretty full-on. as my dad would say, hotcha, hotcha!
oh, and i totally forgot my mom's birthday. it was saturday. i'm terrible! in my defense, however, we were never really sure when her birthday was because she was born in china where calendars weren't used (something like, the fourth day of the second week of the eleventh lunar cycle) so she kept changing her birthday around. for most of my childhood it was nov 8, then she abruptly decided it was the 10th. who knows.
left work and met sherry at the xintiandi tian jia, but i just wasn't feelin it. we ended up ordering and eating nearly rmb 600 worth of food and booze, but jason sms'd me midway through the meal about burgers and beer and honestly i could've knocked out a cheeseburger no problem. oh wells. toro is better for my arteries. and sake is better for... something. we then went to city super to do some pre-shopping for the dual-thanksgiving extravaganza i'm about to embark on and i dropped another chunk of change there. damn. damn. damn. all my hard work taking the bus and eating crappy lunches gone to the wayside! although i have to admit that i love taking the bus and would choose to do so over a taxi any day anyways.
so now i need to get my ass in bed so i can get up and actually roll into work before 10 am. i need to review 1000 things with JJ and get our new gift assortment in ASAP! i need to pull together the photo shoot. i need to pull together the last-minute ad i want to place in a certain publication. i need to pack all my yoga stuff for my class. i need to do so many goddamned things... and least of all (but still important to me), my work wardrobe is killing me. not wearing jeans is a huge problem for yours truly when the weather gets cold. i don't want to go and start shopping but i can only rotate one pair of wool pants and one pair of cords so many times. sneaking jeans in when i know my boss won't be around. it's a dirty shame, i tell you.
oh, trev and i saw the new ang lee movie last weekend. halfway through i was thinking, 'i don't like this movie,' but then afterwards i couldn't stop thinking about it, so i changed my mind. plus tony leung is kinda hot in this odd, intense way. the gratuitous ess-ee-ex scenes were dutifully deleted (already my coworkers are hinting that they want me to bring back the full version from the states) but i hear they're pretty full-on. as my dad would say, hotcha, hotcha!
oh, and i totally forgot my mom's birthday. it was saturday. i'm terrible! in my defense, however, we were never really sure when her birthday was because she was born in china where calendars weren't used (something like, the fourth day of the second week of the eleventh lunar cycle) so she kept changing her birthday around. for most of my childhood it was nov 8, then she abruptly decided it was the 10th. who knows.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
i'm uninspired
back from beijing tonight. flew into pvg which i think i'll do again when coming in on sunday nights, because there was absolutely no taxi line and the flight was cheaper. noice. even considering the difference in cab fare between flying into hongqiao vs. flying into pudong.
so we all suspected that my old house apartment would be pretty freezing in the winter - old houses in SH tend to have poor plumbing, be cold, and have bad windows - but so far i'd doing ok. i come home and turn on the radiator in my room, and let it warm up the room while i putz around. it works pretty well so far; my room's always warm despite the 20-foot ceilings, plus there's the nice radiator smell, which always makes me feel warmer even if i'm not. i bet most people hate the smell of a heater warming up, but i've always liked it. i also like the smell of gasoline, for whatever that's worth. as a kid i used to stick my head out of the window when we pulled into a gas station and deeply inhale, and it drove my mom nuts. she'd be like, stop smelling that stuff! it's going to give you brain damage! she may have a point.
well, off to bed, i guess. i'm actually on bed right now. i can't wait to get a new bed. this one is nice to look at but is so broken i'm afraid to move too much. it shakes if i take a deep breath. lame.
back to the grind! yuck.
so we all suspected that my old house apartment would be pretty freezing in the winter - old houses in SH tend to have poor plumbing, be cold, and have bad windows - but so far i'd doing ok. i come home and turn on the radiator in my room, and let it warm up the room while i putz around. it works pretty well so far; my room's always warm despite the 20-foot ceilings, plus there's the nice radiator smell, which always makes me feel warmer even if i'm not. i bet most people hate the smell of a heater warming up, but i've always liked it. i also like the smell of gasoline, for whatever that's worth. as a kid i used to stick my head out of the window when we pulled into a gas station and deeply inhale, and it drove my mom nuts. she'd be like, stop smelling that stuff! it's going to give you brain damage! she may have a point.
well, off to bed, i guess. i'm actually on bed right now. i can't wait to get a new bed. this one is nice to look at but is so broken i'm afraid to move too much. it shakes if i take a deep breath. lame.
back to the grind! yuck.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
post-yoga glow
if someone tries to steal my towel again when i'm showering at the yoga studio, leaving me to dry off with paper towels and the fucking blowdryer, i'm going to grab her by the fucking hair and knock her goddamned teeth in.
namaste.
namaste.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
damn i'm tired
so yawning and exhausted, post-burrito, waiting to hear back from kate. i'm so tired i'm hoping she's having too much fun to notice that i'm not there, but i suspect this is denial, not just a river in egypt, having received a desperate sms about 40 minutes ago to get my ass to volar for a rescue mission. sherry just left (back from tokyo!) and i'm suffering the effects of our carnitas super burritos plus beer plus the nutty bar chocolates cyn left behind, following the first hot class i've taken in months. omg.
cyn left this morning, piling an impressive amount of our old household into her dad's minivan (just like college! only over a decade later and with locals buzzing by us on electric bicycles) and hit the road for zhuhai, complete with michael the driver, amy the random, and kodi. a new chapter begins, one that begins with me signing up for mandarin classes. i have to defeat being mired in silence and monolinguality, even if it results in fewer games of charades with ayi (the ironing board is broken! leave it here and i'll tell the landlord so they don't charge you! the phone doesn't work and the roof leaks! they're coming to fix it next week!). i know cynthia gets a kick out of watching us attempt to communicate, but its not so fun being on the receiving end of it. either of them.
last night we went to xindalu with jason and dan and mormon, cyn's dad always in pursuit of a nice meal. true to rumors, the 'beijing duck operation' that they brought down from the capital is really outstanding. the meal overall was excellent, and we staggered home (ok, rolled home comfortably in the minivan) after fried goose liver with green onion pancakes, beggar's chicken wrapped in leaves and baked in clay, garlic ribs with a thick layer of fat, and of course, the duck and many smaller dishes. potstickers. green beans with pork. beef tendon. and a nice red from new zealand.
is it poor form to flake on a friend twice in a week? i know it is, i know. and what can i blame? nothing, no one. fatigue from the week, overly large dinners that are gastric piledrivers, myself. not being one of those naturally high-energy people that can work and then go out just as hard. i've never been able to do both.
here's a pic that i stole from my sister off facebook. she is supposed to be emailing me the bali pics, since i took most of the pics from the trip on her camera, but slowly these things happen. we're on the dive boat the first day of diving, at nusa penida. if i look grim its because i'm struggling to stay awake, anti-emetics having that drowsy effect on me. we were popping dramamine every few hours to keep the seasickness at bay.
this one's also from the dive boat, obviously. the dive master in the buddy holly glasses is named igor.
cyn left this morning, piling an impressive amount of our old household into her dad's minivan (just like college! only over a decade later and with locals buzzing by us on electric bicycles) and hit the road for zhuhai, complete with michael the driver, amy the random, and kodi. a new chapter begins, one that begins with me signing up for mandarin classes. i have to defeat being mired in silence and monolinguality, even if it results in fewer games of charades with ayi (the ironing board is broken! leave it here and i'll tell the landlord so they don't charge you! the phone doesn't work and the roof leaks! they're coming to fix it next week!). i know cynthia gets a kick out of watching us attempt to communicate, but its not so fun being on the receiving end of it. either of them.
last night we went to xindalu with jason and dan and mormon, cyn's dad always in pursuit of a nice meal. true to rumors, the 'beijing duck operation' that they brought down from the capital is really outstanding. the meal overall was excellent, and we staggered home (ok, rolled home comfortably in the minivan) after fried goose liver with green onion pancakes, beggar's chicken wrapped in leaves and baked in clay, garlic ribs with a thick layer of fat, and of course, the duck and many smaller dishes. potstickers. green beans with pork. beef tendon. and a nice red from new zealand.
is it poor form to flake on a friend twice in a week? i know it is, i know. and what can i blame? nothing, no one. fatigue from the week, overly large dinners that are gastric piledrivers, myself. not being one of those naturally high-energy people that can work and then go out just as hard. i've never been able to do both.
here's a pic that i stole from my sister off facebook. she is supposed to be emailing me the bali pics, since i took most of the pics from the trip on her camera, but slowly these things happen. we're on the dive boat the first day of diving, at nusa penida. if i look grim its because i'm struggling to stay awake, anti-emetics having that drowsy effect on me. we were popping dramamine every few hours to keep the seasickness at bay.
this one's also from the dive boat, obviously. the dive master in the buddy holly glasses is named igor.
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