still sick

koff koff koff. that’s all i do these days.

t-money was in town this weekend, and like the gentleman he is, gamely indulged his girl when she decided she needed to hit up ikea this weekend (sorry, kate!). ikea on weekends in china is far far worse than at home, if you can even fathom it. however, we get through the maze in about an hour, checked out, downed hotdogs as is the routine for any ikea visit, and got in the taxi line. it looked to be about an hour long, as it was raining outside and causing a taxi shortage. one of those illegal drivers came by and wanted 60 kuai for our 20 kuai ride. t got him down to 40, which he considers money well spent for saving an hour. i didn’t mind waiting, but once we got home i decided that was a good idea. the guy was nice enough.

my burning desire to hit up ikea was for the purpose of finding a bath stool in preparation for my parents’ upcoming visit (may 17… ya heard?). i shower in what t refers to as the ‘crying game shower,’ essentially an old-fashioned claw foot tub rigged with a shower that manages to completely flood that corner of the bathroom every time a person showers, unless said person holds the stupid showerhead in her hand and sits down in the tub to bathe, japanese style, only without japan and its good design. this is not a fun daily ritual, and trevor, at 6’1”, hates it far more than i. rightly so. at any rate, the tub sits high off the floor, and successfully vaulting out of the tub soaking wet is tough enough on someone my height. my mom is about 5 inches shorter with bum knees… i could just picture her falling out of the tub onto the original art deco tile floor with a broken appendage. so i bought a sturdy little rubber stool/bench item which i hope will alleviate this little challenge during their stay. i’ll report back with results.

i was also in need of some mugs because my ghetto ass insisted on buying only two when i moved in, one of which i have since broken. oh, and a small expandable breakfast table, also for my parents’ impending visit, because i know my mother will heartily object to eating her morning toast on the couch like normal people.

yesterday late afternoon we went to t’s former coworker’s wedding, which was held at a small hotel not far from my place. i even spent 20 minutes blow-drying my mop of hair (have i ever ranted about the fact that women are slaves to their blow dryers?). i’ll get to that at some point, i’m sure. i can’t believe people do that on a daily basis. anyway, the wedding was fun and good practice for what will likely be a lifetime of law firm dinners and polite chit chat since all the folk we hung out with were firm people or firm spouses. the firm girls didn’t know what to make of me – i gather i was an interesting subject because t’s chinese language skills made him one of the gang and they were wildly curious about who the hell his girl is – until one of the partners asked about my surname and i explained the whole korean thing. this explanation was met with a chorus of, ‘so you’re korean!’ as if i was all figured out or something.

on the food note, i must be used to cantonese-style weddings, where the food is the highlight of my attendance so all i do is eat the whole time. the table was packed with food, but most of it was in gloppy sauce and relatively tasteless. prawns, crab, goose, ribs, shark fin soup, pork shoulder… how can you manage to get them all wrong? anyway, we ended up at cotton’s after the wedding, having stolen and finished off amongst the three firm tables all of the wine from the other tables. jason – a non seafood eater – starved through the 2-hour meal and ordered rounds of fries, chicken fingers, and onion rings once we landed at cotton’s. if i hadn’t of insisted on trying every dish at the banquet, i would’ve partaken in a cheeseburger, as that’s been on the craving list lately.