supposed to head to a massage place with kayi for a tuesday night beddy-bye nightcap of sorts, but i had to move another massive load from the 'dong, and she went to grab some food and we ended up too tired. it's all good tho, being home is good enough. not struggling with cab drivers who are pissed that your boxes are getting their polyester, hole-filled seat covers dirty, not parked on someone else's sofa wishing it was yours and that your teeth were already flossed and brushed. you know what i'm saying. got home and my house was clean, having recovered from my three-boy weekend (not as nasty as it sounds) with some elbow grease donated by ayi.
sigh.
entourage season four is on. and i'm turning in. nighty night.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
draggin the wagon
it is only recently that halloween night has been equated to insane nights of partying your ass off. i thought it was about candy! yeah right. anyway, this year, sherilyn manson used her super-organizational skills and put together a pub crawl to be envied with party bus and pre-arranged venue happy hour pricing for us. insanity.
we girls were the kill bill entourage - elle, gogo, sophie, and o-ren ishii. some genius put the event up on facebook as an event, and we filled up a full-length bus instead of the 20-or so peeps that we thought we would be accommodating. i was a little "uh" about that part, but it turned out fine. after a vicious bout of food poisoning all friday night, i spent saturday with sherry and jason driving around looking for costumes, going to metro and loading up and cases of booze and mixers. trev and i were the only relatively sober ones on the bus, thanks to my unstable tummy.
trev brought down a couple peeps from his program. this is what SH does to a person:
shanghai later ate ted's viking hat and atm card, and he rolled back home at 7 am, having not remembered the previous 4 hours. wut..!
and, of course, my favorite pic of all time -
my second favorite photos of all time -
sherry's gettin down on a hot dog. they were pretty good.
now i'm off to sleep for about 10 hours. night!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
a love letter
from my sibling yesterday -
"OMG. O-M-G. your f$cking dumb ass cat got herself stuck on the roof last night. I didn't hear her until I woke up and heard all this meowing on the roof when I was calling her to come to the balcony/front porch to eat (trying this new thing where she eats out there). So I go outside and she is on the frickin' roof and can't get down. stupid ass. It is a little after 6 am, totally dark and I am in my pjs trying not to wake gma or the neighbors. I call dad to find out if I can remove their a/c unit from their bedroom window. Nope, so I have to haul out the ladder and set it up right next to the overhang over the side door. I climb all the way up and she refuses to come to me. She won't let me get her. So finally I grab her and drag her off the roof, she's got her claws all out and is trying to dig into the roof tiles. I grab her and then she sinks all her claws into some part of my clothing or body. She punctured me pretty bad behind my neck, it hella hurts, still stinging!! I think the entire length of the claw sunk into my skin. f*cking cat. I truly truly hate her. I used to like cats but now I don't ever want one."
my furry monster is quickly ensuring that her ass is going to be stuck at the SPCA if i don't come home and bring her with me to china.
in other news, my grandmother is leading a new fashion trend - she's taken to sporting only her upper undergarment (3-letter word, often decorated with lace) and a zip-up fleece jacket. my sister discovered this one night as was getting her ready for a shower. grandma apparently then told her, "so that's why i couldn't take my jacket off today!" apparently there's a heat wave in the bay area right now.
the g-woman (as my cousin calls her) has also come up with a new rule - she only needs to use toothpaste at night. i don't know how my sister is hurdling that one; if you put toothpaste on her toothbrush in advance to encourage its usage, she starts hiding her toothbrush (usually in the closet), then forgetting where she puts it, then accusing my sister of stealing it. apparently my sister is also fond of thieving her hairbrush, her glasses, my dad's glasses, and a diamond ring. i'm going to get an earful about ducking my duties as a grandchild when i go back for xmas.
at work, under a deadline. optimal time to be blogging! i couldn't help it, re-reading that email and giggling. not about the cat claw, of course, about the grandma. if i'm anything, i am indeed a procrastinator. 14 letters, one who delays.
off the paces... going to yoga soon, then home for more work and maybe some oatmeal. yes, i know, its ridiculous but i still haven't purchased any food for my house. not home enough. oatmeal is the shit, tho! why would you need anything else? ayi has brought me 3 quarts of milk - i must resemble a calf in some way - and about 3 dozen eggs. i can make custard, i suppose. i do have an oven.
i can't find my mailbox. the landloard said he installed one for me, and i even have the key, but i really can't find it. maybe trev will help me engage in a hunting expedition this weekend.
"OMG. O-M-G. your f$cking dumb ass cat got herself stuck on the roof last night. I didn't hear her until I woke up and heard all this meowing on the roof when I was calling her to come to the balcony/front porch to eat (trying this new thing where she eats out there). So I go outside and she is on the frickin' roof and can't get down. stupid ass. It is a little after 6 am, totally dark and I am in my pjs trying not to wake gma or the neighbors. I call dad to find out if I can remove their a/c unit from their bedroom window. Nope, so I have to haul out the ladder and set it up right next to the overhang over the side door. I climb all the way up and she refuses to come to me. She won't let me get her. So finally I grab her and drag her off the roof, she's got her claws all out and is trying to dig into the roof tiles. I grab her and then she sinks all her claws into some part of my clothing or body. She punctured me pretty bad behind my neck, it hella hurts, still stinging!! I think the entire length of the claw sunk into my skin. f*cking cat. I truly truly hate her. I used to like cats but now I don't ever want one."
my furry monster is quickly ensuring that her ass is going to be stuck at the SPCA if i don't come home and bring her with me to china.
in other news, my grandmother is leading a new fashion trend - she's taken to sporting only her upper undergarment (3-letter word, often decorated with lace) and a zip-up fleece jacket. my sister discovered this one night as was getting her ready for a shower. grandma apparently then told her, "so that's why i couldn't take my jacket off today!" apparently there's a heat wave in the bay area right now.
the g-woman (as my cousin calls her) has also come up with a new rule - she only needs to use toothpaste at night. i don't know how my sister is hurdling that one; if you put toothpaste on her toothbrush in advance to encourage its usage, she starts hiding her toothbrush (usually in the closet), then forgetting where she puts it, then accusing my sister of stealing it. apparently my sister is also fond of thieving her hairbrush, her glasses, my dad's glasses, and a diamond ring. i'm going to get an earful about ducking my duties as a grandchild when i go back for xmas.
at work, under a deadline. optimal time to be blogging! i couldn't help it, re-reading that email and giggling. not about the cat claw, of course, about the grandma. if i'm anything, i am indeed a procrastinator. 14 letters, one who delays.
off the paces... going to yoga soon, then home for more work and maybe some oatmeal. yes, i know, its ridiculous but i still haven't purchased any food for my house. not home enough. oatmeal is the shit, tho! why would you need anything else? ayi has brought me 3 quarts of milk - i must resemble a calf in some way - and about 3 dozen eggs. i can make custard, i suppose. i do have an oven.
i can't find my mailbox. the landloard said he installed one for me, and i even have the key, but i really can't find it. maybe trev will help me engage in a hunting expedition this weekend.
Friday, October 19, 2007
eyeliner is a good thing
idly watching 'v for vendetta,' which is a weird fucking movie, but i have to say that natalie portman is a remarkable actress. she's so talented.
getting ready now to meet up with the girls and blow off some steam.
getting ready now to meet up with the girls and blow off some steam.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
the ayi phenomenon
you have to read this blurb from kiran desai's second novel, the inheritance of loss. if you live in china (or india, apparently), you know absolutely what she's talking about:
"biju smelled again, the distinctive smell of a floor being disinfected with phenyl by a sweeper woman both destitute and with a talent for being exceedingly irritating. eyes lowered and swatting bare feet with a filthy rag, she introduced some visitors for the first time to that potent mixture of intense sympathy and intense annoyance." pp 325
i read that and almost stood up and cheered. i've felt, all this time, unable to articulate how i feel about the ayis of china because i hold a huge amount of middle-class guilt for thinking bad things about a person who lives off of what i spent on dinner... but why the fuck can't she stop taking me out with her fucking filthy-ass mop?!?! wtf. damn. there's always about 40 square feet of floor that's completely unoccupied... and yet she keeps knocking my ass over with her infection-on-a-stick. the only difference i can identify with this passage regarding the calcutta airport and china is... at least fools be using disinfectant in india! shit... here ayis will wipe down your goddamned toilet and use the same rag to clean your dishes. i have a theory (yes, i have many, and i may have even mentioned this here before) that ayis are leverage for the lower socioeconomic classes, evening the score by ensuring that you're eating traces of feces and urine and polishing your shoes with your ralph lauren towels. take THAT!
anyways.
i've been meaning to write a piece on ayis for sherry's bad cat blog, but i want to accompany it by a ayi photo with said mop, which i haven't taken yet. so here we are, 6 months later, piece unwritten.
so i went to an nba game last night. wha? yes, you read me right. cavaliers vs. orlando, some pre-season game series in china. sherry got tix and we went with adam (and his driver, god bless him) and sherry's friend, maury, aka prince charming. square jaw, wavy hair, cleft chin, the works. i don't know why i went with the anticipation that they would be selling hot dogs there. what a dope. there was element fresh and a single macdonald's outlet, which was mobbed and didn't even serve fries. fuck that. we drank beers instead. jet li and his family were there, and - get this - kenny g. when you think life can't get any more random, kenny m-f'ing g shows up at an nba exhibition game in the middle of china. i told my bosses today during my performance review that i was at the game last night and saw kenny g, and they told me that they were not only there, also, but sitting next to jet li AND saw kenny g walking on the bund the other day. lol. if anything, life in shanghai keeps your ass entertained.
i can't wait for the weekend to start. i haven't yet spent a weekend in my apartment, plus i am in serious need of some sleep, having been rolling into work especially late this week for unknown reasons, and i need to run about 500 errands for the house. need to hit up ikea and muji and the electronics market and carrefour. all the top-crowd-gathering spots in one friggin weekend. looking forward to losing it and beating someone who hits me for the umpteenth time with a shopping cart!
not really. more like just seriously considering it and remembering that prison in china is no walk in the park, and shaking it off.
sherry and i went to ben jia tonight in gubei and had a korean food feast. i immediately had to hit the shower as soon as i walked in the door - they have this rather neato ventilation system, but you still walk out of there smelling like you're wearing your dinner, and i can't sleep with dirty, food-smelling hair. as sherry says, i'm one of those.
here's a photo from bali - not the beach-bound blue ocean scenes you'd expect. this is ubud, known to be the cultural hub of modern balinese art (and a whole lotta tourists), and the most famous suckling pig restaurant on the island. we spent our first day here, walking around, looking into shops. my sister wanted to buy a painting, but ended up buying some expensive soap. i went expecting to see a lot of galleries and bought... lunch. we also spent the later part of the afternoon at bodyworks, getting beaten to a pulp by the balinese wielders of torture, aka massage therapists. we had to recover the next day (on the dive boat, baby) from our massages.
i want to do a live aboard some day. have you done? i hear they're expensive, but you get to do night dives and cool shit like that. one day i'm going back to krabi and diving the caves there. you WILL be mine...
either this chamomile is really working or i'm tired like a motha... night night.
"biju smelled again, the distinctive smell of a floor being disinfected with phenyl by a sweeper woman both destitute and with a talent for being exceedingly irritating. eyes lowered and swatting bare feet with a filthy rag, she introduced some visitors for the first time to that potent mixture of intense sympathy and intense annoyance." pp 325
i read that and almost stood up and cheered. i've felt, all this time, unable to articulate how i feel about the ayis of china because i hold a huge amount of middle-class guilt for thinking bad things about a person who lives off of what i spent on dinner... but why the fuck can't she stop taking me out with her fucking filthy-ass mop?!?! wtf. damn. there's always about 40 square feet of floor that's completely unoccupied... and yet she keeps knocking my ass over with her infection-on-a-stick. the only difference i can identify with this passage regarding the calcutta airport and china is... at least fools be using disinfectant in india! shit... here ayis will wipe down your goddamned toilet and use the same rag to clean your dishes. i have a theory (yes, i have many, and i may have even mentioned this here before) that ayis are leverage for the lower socioeconomic classes, evening the score by ensuring that you're eating traces of feces and urine and polishing your shoes with your ralph lauren towels. take THAT!
anyways.
i've been meaning to write a piece on ayis for sherry's bad cat blog, but i want to accompany it by a ayi photo with said mop, which i haven't taken yet. so here we are, 6 months later, piece unwritten.
so i went to an nba game last night. wha? yes, you read me right. cavaliers vs. orlando, some pre-season game series in china. sherry got tix and we went with adam (and his driver, god bless him) and sherry's friend, maury, aka prince charming. square jaw, wavy hair, cleft chin, the works. i don't know why i went with the anticipation that they would be selling hot dogs there. what a dope. there was element fresh and a single macdonald's outlet, which was mobbed and didn't even serve fries. fuck that. we drank beers instead. jet li and his family were there, and - get this - kenny g. when you think life can't get any more random, kenny m-f'ing g shows up at an nba exhibition game in the middle of china. i told my bosses today during my performance review that i was at the game last night and saw kenny g, and they told me that they were not only there, also, but sitting next to jet li AND saw kenny g walking on the bund the other day. lol. if anything, life in shanghai keeps your ass entertained.
i can't wait for the weekend to start. i haven't yet spent a weekend in my apartment, plus i am in serious need of some sleep, having been rolling into work especially late this week for unknown reasons, and i need to run about 500 errands for the house. need to hit up ikea and muji and the electronics market and carrefour. all the top-crowd-gathering spots in one friggin weekend. looking forward to losing it and beating someone who hits me for the umpteenth time with a shopping cart!
not really. more like just seriously considering it and remembering that prison in china is no walk in the park, and shaking it off.
sherry and i went to ben jia tonight in gubei and had a korean food feast. i immediately had to hit the shower as soon as i walked in the door - they have this rather neato ventilation system, but you still walk out of there smelling like you're wearing your dinner, and i can't sleep with dirty, food-smelling hair. as sherry says, i'm one of those.
here's a photo from bali - not the beach-bound blue ocean scenes you'd expect. this is ubud, known to be the cultural hub of modern balinese art (and a whole lotta tourists), and the most famous suckling pig restaurant on the island. we spent our first day here, walking around, looking into shops. my sister wanted to buy a painting, but ended up buying some expensive soap. i went expecting to see a lot of galleries and bought... lunch. we also spent the later part of the afternoon at bodyworks, getting beaten to a pulp by the balinese wielders of torture, aka massage therapists. we had to recover the next day (on the dive boat, baby) from our massages. i want to do a live aboard some day. have you done? i hear they're expensive, but you get to do night dives and cool shit like that. one day i'm going back to krabi and diving the caves there. you WILL be mine...
either this chamomile is really working or i'm tired like a motha... night night.
Monday, October 15, 2007
herro!
So sorry. And I guess in apologizing I’m really not speaking to anyone but myself, but after my sister getting here and diving in Bali for 5 days and spending time in Singapore and then spending more time with my sister in the SH (when it ISN’T fucking typhoon-like weather) and then moving into my apartment and then shooting off to Beijing for the weekend, it’s been a bit hectic. I’ve missed you, though. Now I’m blogging from the safety of my own living room with the chug of my washing machine in the background and enjoying every minute of it. Not that my year in Pudong wasn't one for the books - oh, it was - but it's also nice to be just around the corner from a bus that takes me to work and being able to walk to the hut to see dan spin on thursdays and be an 8-minute cab ride from sherry's place, blabbity blab...
the internet connection at the new pad is somewhat suspect... i'd post photos from bali, but A: i haven't uploaded them yet, and B: i'm afraid that in the time it would take to upload, the connection would be lost and i'd waste yet another evening trying to get on blogger. sigh.
bali was the shit, for anyone who hasn't gone yet. went diving around nusa penida, and on my first dive saw 4-5 manta rays, each spanning at least 7 feet across. those mothas are HUGE. they also flap their odd, wing-like fins to swim, not unlike a large, fleshy, underwater bat. we also saw a school of dolphins and a garden eel. i didn't get to dive tulamben due to a LAME dive shop misunderstanding, so no giant clams this time around, but i'm going back soon.
haven't quite kicked the cold that's lasted 11-ish days... altho much better than i have been. hacking and feeling like i'm choking was faded nicely into only the occasional uncontrollable hacking fit. i'm all about the cough suppressant lozenge. i favor robitussin honey lemon.
what's new with everyone. did the china-bound enjoy their holiday? did the US peeps do anything cool? my sister brought me a suitcase-load of various costco and trader joe treasures - bags of almonds and melatonin and acidopholus and the blaqk audio cd, which i listen to obsessively. we did the SH rounds and had dinner at 1221 and had coats made at the fabric market and strolled around taikang lu and had a really impressive meal at franck's. good stuff. i can't wait to go back for xmas.
alright, the browser is sending ominous signals threatening to close down. send a girl some love.
Monday, September 24, 2007
multi-currency account
only in this city do you get lured out after finishing yoga at 10 pm to laris with the promise of a free dinner, only for it to turn into multiple 'tokyo schoolgirls' at the vault on an empty stomach save for a handful of cashews and some stale cheese crisps with two executives of a shoe conglomerate and your two friends - one of whom is wearing the other's dress held up with a safety pin and her too-small sandals - after which you unknowingly wade through puddles of pink-tinged urine at arguably one of the nicest marble-lined restrooms in the city while wringing your hands in an OCD epileptic seizure over the lack of hand soap, then find yourself on the nanpu bridge at 2 am, almost crashing into a construction truck reversing into oncoming traffic after which you look over and see your taxi pass a motorized scooter (not a motorcycle) carrying a very blithely riding young couple holding their groceries in pink plastic bags on a major traffic artery.
only here do you accomplish that in one night.
only here do you accomplish that in one night.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
do not miss the chance to blow
it shows up a bit dark, so i guess just have a listen
cindy decided on friday that saturday was karaoke night. DOPE. it may take a song or three to warm up, but everyone, and i mean everyone, warms up eventually when we go. last night was classic in that we ventured into new territory - rapping - thanks to both a competition between ben and kate for best emcee, and sherry taking over the song programmng.
who knew that shouting 'california love' could be such a bonding experience? sherry even found 'back to the hotel' by N2Deep, which of course the two bay area girls had to sing. i had that single on tape when i was in like, 5th grade. too fuggin funny. put the pedal to the metal back to the liquor store.
there were, of course, the slow jams being crooned to by the dozen, but we all agreed that it was the hip hop, not the power ballad, that drew everyone in and ensured we all had fun.
t, having declared himself a non-singer earlier in the night, was won over by 'creep' by radiohead (i saw him fall...) and he was soon shouting the lyrics just like the rest of us. some of us, of course, are far more emboldened than others by whiskey green tea and screwdrivers, so air supply and bette midler and TLC was a result of that. we were there until 5 in the morning. good times.
abbey road this morning for brunch. i was trying to avoid a typical carolyn by not ordering a super gimungous meal, and ended up disappointed. just do #79 - it's worth it. i put together my own breakfast with a la carte french toast (so sugary that it actually crunched between my teeth, *shudder*), one fried egg, and a basket of fries. abbey road has some fabulous french fries, even if their french toast sucks, so i couldn't resist, but next time i think i'll just go conventional.
t called the landlord today and we're still on for the 26th! still haven't been swindled yet, apparently. miracle, i think. i'm nervous and excited. my sister's going to help me move when we get back from bali (6 days and counting... whoot whoot!) but i'm still a bit apprehensive. like a baby bird venturing out on her own! my sister's arriving on thursday night - iso fun. already started thinking about which restaurants to go to and what to show her. i have to arrange my holiday time off, too. argh.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
discontent
not sure why tho. left work at 7:30 after NO typhoon showed up all day - i was imagining the windows being blown open and the building shaking - and went to yogs. my favorite teacher of all time was teaching, had a great class, came home and there was a PUPPY waiting for me, ate salami and noodles (not together), and now i'm in bed feeling like today was shit.
maybe it was a salami overdose?
the store's starting to come together. most of the display setup will happen tomorrow night. i sure hope the peeps on friday like paper, because they're about to get a shit load! remind me to bring my camera.
i need to get a haircut, so i'm going to try and sneak out either during the day or after work so i don't drag around this sorry mess i've been sporting. sad! bedraggly!
sleep now.
maybe it was a salami overdose?
the store's starting to come together. most of the display setup will happen tomorrow night. i sure hope the peeps on friday like paper, because they're about to get a shit load! remind me to bring my camera.
i need to get a haircut, so i'm going to try and sneak out either during the day or after work so i don't drag around this sorry mess i've been sporting. sad! bedraggly!
sleep now.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
more gems
from my cousin: "CK and I went to Costco this weekend and got your stuff. We had this one arm cashier who was just throwing shit around as he was scanning our stuff. It was pretty wild as if he needed to prove something to us."
lmao. what? that's just random.
typhoon widget or wikipedia or whatever the hell is hitting tomorrow. some naysayers have loftily informed us that it will only be a category 1 by the time it hits shanghai, but work sent an email around saying that we can choose to take tomorrow off and come in on saturday because of it. now that's legit, right?!
bailed on yogs tonight in favor of kimchi ramen in front of the tv. tired and actually rather concerned that if i didn't catch a cab at 8, i'd never be able to get one at 10:30 after yoga. tired... it was a 3 double-espresso day instead of the normal 2. i'd like to blame jetlag (italy's 6 hours behind) for it being so hard to get up in the morning, but really, it's always hard for me to get up in the morning.
may be a work-at-home day despite needing to be in the office for meetings (with colleagues and a boss who might not be there) and store setup for friday. you're coming, right?!?!?!
god i'm tired. smell ya later.
lmao. what? that's just random.
typhoon widget or wikipedia or whatever the hell is hitting tomorrow. some naysayers have loftily informed us that it will only be a category 1 by the time it hits shanghai, but work sent an email around saying that we can choose to take tomorrow off and come in on saturday because of it. now that's legit, right?!
bailed on yogs tonight in favor of kimchi ramen in front of the tv. tired and actually rather concerned that if i didn't catch a cab at 8, i'd never be able to get one at 10:30 after yoga. tired... it was a 3 double-espresso day instead of the normal 2. i'd like to blame jetlag (italy's 6 hours behind) for it being so hard to get up in the morning, but really, it's always hard for me to get up in the morning.
may be a work-at-home day despite needing to be in the office for meetings (with colleagues and a boss who might not be there) and store setup for friday. you're coming, right?!?!?!
god i'm tired. smell ya later.
Monday, September 17, 2007
would you LOOK at that...
...the fund transfer went through already. for the uninitiated, still so much takes place in china in the form of cash, meaning that i'll be needing to hand over a friggin brick of bills to the landlord when i get the keys. again, i'll qualify that statement by saying, provided i don't get swindled. i'm excited but still halfway expecting that he's going to give the apartment to someone else despite signed contract in hand because they agreed to pay 150% of what i agreed on. in fact, let's just assume that's going to happen so i'll be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't.
now i only need to make about 8 trips to the atm over 8 days to get the money out. annoying.
back to work for the first time in nearly 2 weeks. i brought in the chocolate and yes, they were gone so quickly that i didn't have the chance to try one. a-ok, actually. ayi also came 'round with cut-up pieces of moon cake for us to have, which was nice. i wonder who thinks up all of these niceties for the office. the medicines in the cupboard, the cracker cabinet, the cut-up fruit in the afternoons. the pitcher she empties milk into (and constant refills because we're like fucking calves in a meadow we drink so much milk) for coffee.
i wrote my cousin an email about italy because she told me before i left, "I think it's so cool that you get to travel for the job. So you don't get to eat pasta or shop at Prada, you are in Milan. I love Italians!!! ... maybe you will have a hot weekend love affair with a HOT Italian stallion." lmao. what? if i had a dollar for every person that brought up an italian stallion when i told them i was going to italy, i'd have... maybe 4 bucks. still funny. i had to let her know that after my first 2 days in italy, i was really not loving the native peoples. after moving to a nicer hotel and finishing the gift show it was a lot better, but really. i mean, i wasn't expecting people to fall over themselves to serve me, but i certainly wasn't expecting china, italian-style. i actually get fewer looks here in china, which is saying something because my people fuggin love to stare. and they can smell a foreigner a mile away. and vice versa. (drum roll.)
not too much interesting to say today because i'm purposely avoiding talking about work. work is work, and i've lived through office politics for a long fucking time so i know how to navigate, more or less. but that doesn't neutralize the.... the only word i can think to use at this point is, fatigue. i'm fucking tired of it. it wore me out at w-s and i don't want it to make me start hating my job here. after a while it all smushes together and i can't differentiate between people who bother me and those who don't, and the only thing i think about in the morning on my way in to work is that i'd rather be doing anything else than going in. i don't want to be there again.
anyways.
my sister sent my this from her phone - scarlett sleeping on the leg of my parent's rottweiler-mix, lola. scarlett, whom my sister frequently refers to as 'fucking whore' or 'goddamn bitch,' apparently attacked lola's leg after the photo was taken in true scarlett style. i never made claims that she was nice.... and my sister isn't really one with cats. no one in my family took to scarlett after i abandoned her at my mom's house. she's combative and mean and kicks everyone's ass, which, i admit, is hard to love. i like a little personality, myself, over crappy obedient-but-dumb animals, but sometimes you have to kick her ass in order to avoid killing her. she's a fucking pain. i know it. my dad's first question when i told him about the apartment was, 'do they allow cats?'
now i only need to make about 8 trips to the atm over 8 days to get the money out. annoying.
back to work for the first time in nearly 2 weeks. i brought in the chocolate and yes, they were gone so quickly that i didn't have the chance to try one. a-ok, actually. ayi also came 'round with cut-up pieces of moon cake for us to have, which was nice. i wonder who thinks up all of these niceties for the office. the medicines in the cupboard, the cracker cabinet, the cut-up fruit in the afternoons. the pitcher she empties milk into (and constant refills because we're like fucking calves in a meadow we drink so much milk) for coffee.
i wrote my cousin an email about italy because she told me before i left, "I think it's so cool that you get to travel for the job. So you don't get to eat pasta or shop at Prada, you are in Milan. I love Italians!!! ... maybe you will have a hot weekend love affair with a HOT Italian stallion." lmao. what? if i had a dollar for every person that brought up an italian stallion when i told them i was going to italy, i'd have... maybe 4 bucks. still funny. i had to let her know that after my first 2 days in italy, i was really not loving the native peoples. after moving to a nicer hotel and finishing the gift show it was a lot better, but really. i mean, i wasn't expecting people to fall over themselves to serve me, but i certainly wasn't expecting china, italian-style. i actually get fewer looks here in china, which is saying something because my people fuggin love to stare. and they can smell a foreigner a mile away. and vice versa. (drum roll.)
not too much interesting to say today because i'm purposely avoiding talking about work. work is work, and i've lived through office politics for a long fucking time so i know how to navigate, more or less. but that doesn't neutralize the.... the only word i can think to use at this point is, fatigue. i'm fucking tired of it. it wore me out at w-s and i don't want it to make me start hating my job here. after a while it all smushes together and i can't differentiate between people who bother me and those who don't, and the only thing i think about in the morning on my way in to work is that i'd rather be doing anything else than going in. i don't want to be there again.
anyways.
my sister sent my this from her phone - scarlett sleeping on the leg of my parent's rottweiler-mix, lola. scarlett, whom my sister frequently refers to as 'fucking whore' or 'goddamn bitch,' apparently attacked lola's leg after the photo was taken in true scarlett style. i never made claims that she was nice.... and my sister isn't really one with cats. no one in my family took to scarlett after i abandoned her at my mom's house. she's combative and mean and kicks everyone's ass, which, i admit, is hard to love. i like a little personality, myself, over crappy obedient-but-dumb animals, but sometimes you have to kick her ass in order to avoid killing her. she's a fucking pain. i know it. my dad's first question when i told him about the apartment was, 'do they allow cats?'Sunday, September 16, 2007
things change so fast
got back friday morning... whew! just about 24 hours of traveling to get home, but made it in one piece. t came down from beijing on the overnight train and it was a fabulous weekend for all. went out for a few quick drinks at cotton's with everyone friday night, then hit the wall around 11:30 and came home and crashed.
saturday i was 40 minutes late to meet my realtor, which turned out to be fine because we ended up waiting another 20 minutes for the landlord of this apartment to show up. i had half a mind to leave, but good thing i didn't because i loved the place and signed a contract that day, after emergency phone calls to trev who ended up coming down and negotiating the whole thing anyway. it's really nice - i'm geeked. moving very very soon... just 2 days before my sister gets here! ooch. cutting it close. i can't believe it happened so fast - but after getting shafted on the last one, i knew i wanted it as soon as i saw it and there we go. provided i don't get swindled or whatever, i guess i'll be in a new place before the holiday...! a bit of anxiety there...
pretty, huh?
then we had a gang over for taco night - jase, kate, kate's friends ashley and hillary, of course t, and sherry eventually made it after huaihai was shut down for a parade and had to take the metro. i didn't eat myself sick this time, thank god. we had tons of beer and wine and then sherry showed up with vodka and blue cheese-stuffed olives and made martinis. i can't hang - martinis are vomitous and blue cheese ain't improvin anything in my book. but the blue cheese fans were swooning... kate and party brought over wine and beard papas. yummy.
i like kodi's pose the best
today was spent at a rib cookoff at the naked cow... rmb 100 got you 5 beers and all you can eat ribs. i thought there would be a catch, but no. an honest-to-god good deal in china that isn't fake and benefits charity? weird that it worked out. outside fun all afternoon and i have no mosquito bites to show for it. strange, no? i haven't gotten bitten since i've been back, which is really strange to me.
back to the grind tomorrow. must remember to bring the shit i bought for the office (yes, chocolate) plus the pounds of catalogs. a bit apprehensive for the windfall that i'm expecting.
nighty night.
saturday i was 40 minutes late to meet my realtor, which turned out to be fine because we ended up waiting another 20 minutes for the landlord of this apartment to show up. i had half a mind to leave, but good thing i didn't because i loved the place and signed a contract that day, after emergency phone calls to trev who ended up coming down and negotiating the whole thing anyway. it's really nice - i'm geeked. moving very very soon... just 2 days before my sister gets here! ooch. cutting it close. i can't believe it happened so fast - but after getting shafted on the last one, i knew i wanted it as soon as i saw it and there we go. provided i don't get swindled or whatever, i guess i'll be in a new place before the holiday...! a bit of anxiety there...
pretty, huh?
then we had a gang over for taco night - jase, kate, kate's friends ashley and hillary, of course t, and sherry eventually made it after huaihai was shut down for a parade and had to take the metro. i didn't eat myself sick this time, thank god. we had tons of beer and wine and then sherry showed up with vodka and blue cheese-stuffed olives and made martinis. i can't hang - martinis are vomitous and blue cheese ain't improvin anything in my book. but the blue cheese fans were swooning... kate and party brought over wine and beard papas. yummy.
i like kodi's pose the best
today was spent at a rib cookoff at the naked cow... rmb 100 got you 5 beers and all you can eat ribs. i thought there would be a catch, but no. an honest-to-god good deal in china that isn't fake and benefits charity? weird that it worked out. outside fun all afternoon and i have no mosquito bites to show for it. strange, no? i haven't gotten bitten since i've been back, which is really strange to me.
back to the grind tomorrow. must remember to bring the shit i bought for the office (yes, chocolate) plus the pounds of catalogs. a bit apprehensive for the windfall that i'm expecting.
nighty night.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
you're my lover, not my rivaaaaaaaal
i've had karma chameleon stuck in my head all day, thanks to david from last night. today was successful. and by that i mean i blew enough cash to feel guilty (sure sign i've done the right amount of shopping) and have purchased gifts for the important people. i hope the airport sells chocolates or some shit that i can bring back for the office. chocolates in my office, i think like any and every office in the world, are wholly consumed in under 30 minutes of being left in the kitchen. the one thing my office-mates don't suck down in that amount of time is chocolate-covered espresso beans, which took nearly 2 hours to disappear. i agree - i love coffee more than most things, but i don't need to ingest the bean. nope nope nope.
i bought two pairs of very saucy shoes today. i'm sure people will think i'm nuts, but i love them and patent is so in for fall anyway.
the suit arrived, and it's all tailored and looks great. i'm happy. i may not be the best saver in the world, but at least i enjoy life, right? right.
just got back from another swim and another cooking session in the steam bath. i discovered the cold water shower head, which really makes a difference in the cooker. the towels were all used up though, so i had to walk out to the spa reception, dripping wet and probably red as a lobster, wearing my swim suit, to get one. the spa receptionist is the same one from monday night, and i think she must think i'm really a special person. and by that i don't mean really gifted. monday night i walked out what i thought was the exit and she had to chase after me, because it was really the door to the pool, which i had just come from so i'm sure she was baffled as to why i thought it led to an exit. er...
i think i'm going trail mix again for dinner. it's 10:30 here so there's no chance i'm wandering my ass out to find food. i need to pack and sleep anyway. have to be at the airport at 7:30 tomorrow morning. oh yay.
kisses.
i bought two pairs of very saucy shoes today. i'm sure people will think i'm nuts, but i love them and patent is so in for fall anyway.
the suit arrived, and it's all tailored and looks great. i'm happy. i may not be the best saver in the world, but at least i enjoy life, right? right.
just got back from another swim and another cooking session in the steam bath. i discovered the cold water shower head, which really makes a difference in the cooker. the towels were all used up though, so i had to walk out to the spa reception, dripping wet and probably red as a lobster, wearing my swim suit, to get one. the spa receptionist is the same one from monday night, and i think she must think i'm really a special person. and by that i don't mean really gifted. monday night i walked out what i thought was the exit and she had to chase after me, because it was really the door to the pool, which i had just come from so i'm sure she was baffled as to why i thought it led to an exit. er...
i think i'm going trail mix again for dinner. it's 10:30 here so there's no chance i'm wandering my ass out to find food. i need to pack and sleep anyway. have to be at the airport at 7:30 tomorrow morning. oh yay.
kisses.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
lights out
...charlie brown. yesterday was a me day and today was definitely a company day. i spent the morning at a vendor's showroom in the fashion quarter, learning about their brand, image, design concept, etc. and then at lunch we drove to the brianza region to visit the headquarters and the factories. wearing 3-inch heels was necessary but not pleasant. it was bad enough that i wasn't in a suit, but i think everyone got over that.
just got back from a lovely dinner and lots of wine with the vendor, and a long ride back to milan. well, not that long. the driver was obsessed with 70s disco and 80s music, so he blasted culture club and ABBA and sang for me 'just an illusion' by imagination, all the while lecturing me on how music now doesn't exist and that everything is just a re-make of disco. i managed a wan smile and nod before completely losing consciousness, owing to complete exhaustion from the day and a bottle of locally-produced wine.
tomorrow i get another me day before heading back to the pollution that is shanghai. unbelievably, my eyes have been incredibly irritated this whole time in europe, which is inarguably much less polluted than china, but i have a theory that my eyes are so used to the airborne crap in china that clean air is actually resulting in the said irritation. wouldn't that be fucked up?!
i have a huge headache - likely from the wine - and have developed a theory (another one, i'm full of them) that italians are severely dehydrated. the whole day and only at 5 pm did someone think to offer some water. that mentality coupled with the espresso intake and the sun exposure... i can only imagine italian insides that are parched and desperate for hydration. i have taken to carrying around this enormous bottle of water with me, but left it behind today believing that italians - like the dutch - would be offering me beverages every 5 minutes. not so. fend for yourself in this country!
tomorrow, the duomo and some gift-buying. per usual, i have worshipped at the church of prada and the temple of armani, but even i feel pangs of guilt over having not seen something old and steeped in history. plus, i can't come back from italy without gifts, although the euro is mean to us RMB-ers. very very mean.
off to bed in my high threadcount sheets on my king-sized bed. yes, i am unapologetically materialistic. wouldn't be doing what i am doing if i wasn't.
just got back from a lovely dinner and lots of wine with the vendor, and a long ride back to milan. well, not that long. the driver was obsessed with 70s disco and 80s music, so he blasted culture club and ABBA and sang for me 'just an illusion' by imagination, all the while lecturing me on how music now doesn't exist and that everything is just a re-make of disco. i managed a wan smile and nod before completely losing consciousness, owing to complete exhaustion from the day and a bottle of locally-produced wine.
tomorrow i get another me day before heading back to the pollution that is shanghai. unbelievably, my eyes have been incredibly irritated this whole time in europe, which is inarguably much less polluted than china, but i have a theory that my eyes are so used to the airborne crap in china that clean air is actually resulting in the said irritation. wouldn't that be fucked up?!
i have a huge headache - likely from the wine - and have developed a theory (another one, i'm full of them) that italians are severely dehydrated. the whole day and only at 5 pm did someone think to offer some water. that mentality coupled with the espresso intake and the sun exposure... i can only imagine italian insides that are parched and desperate for hydration. i have taken to carrying around this enormous bottle of water with me, but left it behind today believing that italians - like the dutch - would be offering me beverages every 5 minutes. not so. fend for yourself in this country!
tomorrow, the duomo and some gift-buying. per usual, i have worshipped at the church of prada and the temple of armani, but even i feel pangs of guilt over having not seen something old and steeped in history. plus, i can't come back from italy without gifts, although the euro is mean to us RMB-ers. very very mean.
off to bed in my high threadcount sheets on my king-sized bed. yes, i am unapologetically materialistic. wouldn't be doing what i am doing if i wasn't.
Monday, September 10, 2007
going to bed
three happy things today:
moved to hotel chedi.
http://www.hotel-milano-the-chedi.com/
purchased one very expensive suit. dark gray.
purchased one very expensive perfume, hindu grass.
http://www.nasomatto.com/
i swam some laps after getting mad at air france and showered in the spa, then steamed myself in the turkish bath (fancy talk for steam room). wrapped in a big bathrobe and still mad at air france, but tired enough to not care and smelling like my new perfume which smells so unlike me i can't believe i bought it, but i can't stop sniffing myself so i guess that's a good thing - normally i'm of the very clean-scent persuasion. what the hell is hindu grass anyway? whatever. when you smell me and you're all bowled over and shit... you'll understand.
off to bed i go. so many things left undone - fedex package on its way to my old hotel, ticket still for friday not thursday, pants not ironed. ugh. i just want to go to sleep and hide. for dinner i had a lovely version of trail mix that i handily put together from the little market in the metro near my old hotel. i'm too tired to seek out dinner. my suit will deliver to the hotel wednesday morning, hopefully all tailored to fit. i really hope it fits and the pants are long enough.
*sigh*
moved to hotel chedi.
http://www.hotel-milano-the-chedi.com/
purchased one very expensive suit. dark gray.
purchased one very expensive perfume, hindu grass.
http://www.nasomatto.com/
i swam some laps after getting mad at air france and showered in the spa, then steamed myself in the turkish bath (fancy talk for steam room). wrapped in a big bathrobe and still mad at air france, but tired enough to not care and smelling like my new perfume which smells so unlike me i can't believe i bought it, but i can't stop sniffing myself so i guess that's a good thing - normally i'm of the very clean-scent persuasion. what the hell is hindu grass anyway? whatever. when you smell me and you're all bowled over and shit... you'll understand.
off to bed i go. so many things left undone - fedex package on its way to my old hotel, ticket still for friday not thursday, pants not ironed. ugh. i just want to go to sleep and hide. for dinner i had a lovely version of trail mix that i handily put together from the little market in the metro near my old hotel. i'm too tired to seek out dinner. my suit will deliver to the hotel wednesday morning, hopefully all tailored to fit. i really hope it fits and the pants are long enough.
*sigh*
Sunday, September 09, 2007
pleasantries
being all by myself, all my free time (usually spent consuming food or beverage) is spent people watching. in the grand tradition of mankind, i'm starting to draw broad generalizations about our italian brothers and sisters. none of them mean anything in the slightest, of course.
- italian women do not embrace their natural hair color. i believe that i have not yet seen an adult female with her own hair color. it's either jet-ass black, streaked with some otherwordly shade, burgundy, or platinum blonde.
- italian men have lots of style, but i've drawn up a derivative of the style formula: extremely slick sunglasses, to be worn at all times of the day or night in any social configuration; very nice leather or suede shoes; an adventurous sense of pattern on dress shirts; either closely shorn hair or longer, windblown-looking hair; fearlessness in wearing white jeans and plenty of accessories; a very nice bag in either briefcase or messenger style.
- everyone has a tan. not just sprayed with tanner at the salon kind of tan. a deeply bronze tan that makes me think i'm in india. there will be hell to pay when they get older.
- italian women, much like brazilian women, are not any better-looking or more nicely-shaped than american women. they are simply much more prone to dressing younger, wearing heels 24-7, showing skin (even if it's baked and sagging from years of sun exposure - see #3 above), and wearing lots of perfume.
- italians may be weirder than americans. and this comes from a girl who lived in san francisco, a city where i was stopped at a light once, looked over, and saw a woman on one of those small, superfast japanese motorcycles, wearing a helmet that she'd decorated with furry cat ears and a tail. yesterday i was sitting and people-watching towards the end of the day, and a group of people walked down the breezeway of the exhibition. one woman was dressed like she worked at the gap and was sporting an enormous neck brace. another woman was wearing an evening gown (i kid you not) and sparkly high heels, and carrying a chihuahua. keep in mind we were all at a trade show.
- everyone smokes. everyone. i swear to god i saw a pregnant woman taking a drag on a cigarette yesterday. in the US - especially in the pretentious bay area - you'd get yelled at by total strangers.
- italians are down with the swine. during lunch at the 'buyers club' that i'm allowed access to, nearly every dish involved a smoked or preserved pork product. it was like heaven - essentially prosciutto or speck or guanciale in any and every form. and americans are the fat ones? mind boggling. italians also find booze to be an important part of lunch. i concur.
thank god i got out of apparel at an early age and suckered into home furnishings. out of boredom yesterday, i wandered into the pavilions that housed the 'costume jewelry and fashion accessories' vendors. first thing i discovered was that this is where all the asians in the joint were hiding. find me a tacky accessories show and i'll find you my people. second thing i realized was that tastelessness sees no cultural or ethnic boundaries. after a few aisles, i realized that people were staring at me because i kept walking by booths and snorting out loud. after that, i kept my snorts to myself, but really, thank god i don't need to track trends in the apparel world. home furnishing contains some tacky shit, but somehow its less personally offensive when it's for the home, not meant to be worn on the body. if i had to sift through the metric tons of total shit just to find that one cool thing for a living... i mean, really. crocheted 'tibetan' backless clubbing tops?
italians also don't give a shit about you. not that i expected to be embraced by total strangers walking down the street, but really. i mean, even people you ask for help essentially tell you to fuck off. and then they laugh in your face. what? if i wasn't so tired all of the time from scouring their stupid show for cool shit, i'd care. i slept for 11 hours last night and woke up feeling like... i could sleep for 11 more. i want to see the duomo and go to corso como tomorrow, but i have half a mind to order room service and pass out. not really, no. if there's shopping to be done, i'll do it. but damn. i never thought my first trip to italy would be so lacking in ethusiasm. on my part.
Friday, September 07, 2007
sleepy and sleepless
in milan. amsterdam was a whirlwind of walking to appointments avoiding bikes and trams in the cool air (yay), having meetings with creative people and pretending to know what i'm talking about, and piercing sunlight. the sun is much brighter when the air is clean.
i had a lunch meeting with a brazilian woman who manages a very famous designer's work (names remaining nameles thanks to the miracles of google). we had lunch to discuss future partnership, but it seemed she was already set to agree with what we wanted (just by me showing up? i don't know. she'd been so cautious over email) and eager to talk about other things in life. i don't know if she took a liking to me or if she liked to talk (i think the latter, but we did get along well), but we had a really fascinating conversation about the dutch and their calvinistic viewpoint on life, on what she wants to do in her career, on the state of china, on where we imagined raising families... it was interesting and odd and we sat out on the terrace of this cafe overlooking a canal. after lunch she showed me a hidden convent sanctuary in the middle of central amsterdam, and then she walked me back to my hotel.
KLM food is so much better than China Eastern, or United, for that matter. On my way over we had some meal that was catered by South Beauty, and I think it was the best airplane meal I've ever had. I'd even slept through the meal service, but the guy saw that I was awake and served me up a tray. And yes, I'm preaching about the goodness of airline food, I think mostly because that's what I've lived off of in the past 36 hours.
Up at 5:30 this morning thinking about stuff. I still am not sure if I'll be here a week or just through the weekend. The next three days are about to be killer, walking a show 8 - 9 hours a day and hustling people for info in the evenings. If you saw the list of covert objectives I was given, you'd call me double-0... 0. That would make me triple 0. Work can be so political at times. And space cadet is here to execute? It makes you wonder about the state of things.
Anyway, I'm starving and I have to up in 30 minutes. Why am I wasting time blogging? Because that's what I do.
i had a lunch meeting with a brazilian woman who manages a very famous designer's work (names remaining nameles thanks to the miracles of google). we had lunch to discuss future partnership, but it seemed she was already set to agree with what we wanted (just by me showing up? i don't know. she'd been so cautious over email) and eager to talk about other things in life. i don't know if she took a liking to me or if she liked to talk (i think the latter, but we did get along well), but we had a really fascinating conversation about the dutch and their calvinistic viewpoint on life, on what she wants to do in her career, on the state of china, on where we imagined raising families... it was interesting and odd and we sat out on the terrace of this cafe overlooking a canal. after lunch she showed me a hidden convent sanctuary in the middle of central amsterdam, and then she walked me back to my hotel.
KLM food is so much better than China Eastern, or United, for that matter. On my way over we had some meal that was catered by South Beauty, and I think it was the best airplane meal I've ever had. I'd even slept through the meal service, but the guy saw that I was awake and served me up a tray. And yes, I'm preaching about the goodness of airline food, I think mostly because that's what I've lived off of in the past 36 hours.
Up at 5:30 this morning thinking about stuff. I still am not sure if I'll be here a week or just through the weekend. The next three days are about to be killer, walking a show 8 - 9 hours a day and hustling people for info in the evenings. If you saw the list of covert objectives I was given, you'd call me double-0... 0. That would make me triple 0. Work can be so political at times. And space cadet is here to execute? It makes you wonder about the state of things.
Anyway, I'm starving and I have to up in 30 minutes. Why am I wasting time blogging? Because that's what I do.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
'so you gonna marry her?' 'yeah, probably.'
crazy.
working home right now. i have a deadline and i can't do shit at the office. too noisy and people keep bugging me.
leaving for amsterdam tomorrow. 2 days, then 5 days in milan. oh how the winds have shifted. hopefully my stupid wireless card on my stupid thinkpad won't act up. me with no company credit card, no international calling ability, and a half-broken laptop. i think finance actually expects me to carry around a wad of euro to make it through the week. lol. crackheads.
need to finish this. big squeeze and kisses.
working home right now. i have a deadline and i can't do shit at the office. too noisy and people keep bugging me.
leaving for amsterdam tomorrow. 2 days, then 5 days in milan. oh how the winds have shifted. hopefully my stupid wireless card on my stupid thinkpad won't act up. me with no company credit card, no international calling ability, and a half-broken laptop. i think finance actually expects me to carry around a wad of euro to make it through the week. lol. crackheads.
need to finish this. big squeeze and kisses.
Monday, September 03, 2007
WHAT a long day
whew! and we're back... well, i'm back. cindy's still in zhuhai, hanging with pops.
flew in this morning with alvin. wow. remind me never to do that again. fly home in the morning, i mean. it was fine, i rolled in around 1 pm and worked a full day so it was productive enough, went to all my meetings, made it through my inbox, etc. etc. fine. but god i'm tired.
may be heading to milan on friday for a home acc show. my first time in italy, so i'm not complaining, but i won't be strolling in a piazza, eating with mario batali, and buying armfuls of prada and missoni. more likely i'll be walking the show for a day and a half and spending the rest of the time in meetings. yay! but hey, like i said, i'm not complaining. if work keeps you interested, than it's a good thing. take it from the burnout baby.
hk was good, just way too short. landed friday night, met jen and cindy out for drinks, then back to allen's place for a shower and some work. cindy and i stayed up till 3-ish, and i passed out on the couch and dragged my ass up the next morning to meet biann and alvin in mongkok. we wanted to look at phones; alvin's pretty much decided on the prada phone, and i fell in love with the blackberry pearl, but after an enlightening convo with a salesguy about smartphone coverage on the mainland, that quickly fell to the wayside. still not sure what's going to happen, but i have 4 more weeks and then i can land an international phone account and i guess maybe reconvene at that point. with myself, i mean. there will be no hiding from work calls when that comes down the pipe, tho. i will be unhideable. not that i hide... from... my boss...
i did get to have lunch at tsui wah (oh heaven of heavens) and alvin and cindy and i all met my family out for a good canto dinner later. i trolled for shoes the whole day, but didn't see anything that struck my practical side and my whimsical side. cannot walk to work in heels, as much as i try. managed to hit up most of causeway bay for what i needed and squeezed in a little IFC after dinner, just to check out lane crawford's personal care and gifting area. didn't find any new brands for us, tho, but they do have a brilliant visual merch team in that IFC store. love.
what else... went to jen's new pad for a second dinner/bbq. june showed up, visiting from seoul, with bf and friend in tow.all good fun. i just met june but i really enjoy how strong her personality is. she's just... herself. it's kind of offensive at times, and really blunt, but i appreciate honesty far more than diplomacy so it's just pure entertainment. jen has this fuggin amazing deck that just about doubles her square footage and was genius enough to buy these rocking chairs with nice soft cushions to sink into. several glasses of wine and champagne later and i rocked myself unconscious, carefully coated in mosquito repellent and exhausted. shopping can be killer.
zhuhai is interesting. driving along a highway parallel to the water i could squint my eyes and almost pretend i was in waikiki driving from the airport. the water is dirty as hell, but there are interesting rock formations along the beach and really lush hillsides. quite nice. we spent far too little time there, saw the house - all 4 stories of it - and spent the later afternoon playing in the pool like otters. awesome! it's one of the nicest backyard pools in that its long enough to do actual laps, and leaves enough room in the yard for plenty of landscape. i had a ball. the fun really began when we all went to take showers, as no window coverings were up yet and all the showers are essentially against walls of windows. i showered in the dark (it's actually pretty fun, try it sometime), but i'm sure the neighbors enjoyed the show regardless. we thought it was pretty hilarious. cindy's dad got home around 8-ish and took us to an amazing dabino dinner. gotta love the hotpot! we ate ourselves sick, and cindy's dad broke out his johnnie walker blue label and we had beers and it was jolly.
a nice weekend. i'm pooped.
work was fun today - my projects are starting to come together and we got our samples back for the gifts we'll be giving out at the anniversary party and they came out really nicely. i'm happy with them. i really have to say, there's a satisfaction that comes with identifying with the positioning of your brand. it's nice to know that your work and your eye and taste count for something other than a cute wardrobe (can i even say i have one of those any more?), even if it's just small things. touches, really. all i need now is to get into a decent apartment and i'll be feeling - as the oracle says - right as rain.
sigh. nighty night. i'm glad to be home, even if shanghai is the ghetto country dirty weak-imitation version of hong kong.
xoxo.
flew in this morning with alvin. wow. remind me never to do that again. fly home in the morning, i mean. it was fine, i rolled in around 1 pm and worked a full day so it was productive enough, went to all my meetings, made it through my inbox, etc. etc. fine. but god i'm tired.
may be heading to milan on friday for a home acc show. my first time in italy, so i'm not complaining, but i won't be strolling in a piazza, eating with mario batali, and buying armfuls of prada and missoni. more likely i'll be walking the show for a day and a half and spending the rest of the time in meetings. yay! but hey, like i said, i'm not complaining. if work keeps you interested, than it's a good thing. take it from the burnout baby.
hk was good, just way too short. landed friday night, met jen and cindy out for drinks, then back to allen's place for a shower and some work. cindy and i stayed up till 3-ish, and i passed out on the couch and dragged my ass up the next morning to meet biann and alvin in mongkok. we wanted to look at phones; alvin's pretty much decided on the prada phone, and i fell in love with the blackberry pearl, but after an enlightening convo with a salesguy about smartphone coverage on the mainland, that quickly fell to the wayside. still not sure what's going to happen, but i have 4 more weeks and then i can land an international phone account and i guess maybe reconvene at that point. with myself, i mean. there will be no hiding from work calls when that comes down the pipe, tho. i will be unhideable. not that i hide... from... my boss...
i did get to have lunch at tsui wah (oh heaven of heavens) and alvin and cindy and i all met my family out for a good canto dinner later. i trolled for shoes the whole day, but didn't see anything that struck my practical side and my whimsical side. cannot walk to work in heels, as much as i try. managed to hit up most of causeway bay for what i needed and squeezed in a little IFC after dinner, just to check out lane crawford's personal care and gifting area. didn't find any new brands for us, tho, but they do have a brilliant visual merch team in that IFC store. love.
what else... went to jen's new pad for a second dinner/bbq. june showed up, visiting from seoul, with bf and friend in tow.all good fun. i just met june but i really enjoy how strong her personality is. she's just... herself. it's kind of offensive at times, and really blunt, but i appreciate honesty far more than diplomacy so it's just pure entertainment. jen has this fuggin amazing deck that just about doubles her square footage and was genius enough to buy these rocking chairs with nice soft cushions to sink into. several glasses of wine and champagne later and i rocked myself unconscious, carefully coated in mosquito repellent and exhausted. shopping can be killer.
zhuhai is interesting. driving along a highway parallel to the water i could squint my eyes and almost pretend i was in waikiki driving from the airport. the water is dirty as hell, but there are interesting rock formations along the beach and really lush hillsides. quite nice. we spent far too little time there, saw the house - all 4 stories of it - and spent the later afternoon playing in the pool like otters. awesome! it's one of the nicest backyard pools in that its long enough to do actual laps, and leaves enough room in the yard for plenty of landscape. i had a ball. the fun really began when we all went to take showers, as no window coverings were up yet and all the showers are essentially against walls of windows. i showered in the dark (it's actually pretty fun, try it sometime), but i'm sure the neighbors enjoyed the show regardless. we thought it was pretty hilarious. cindy's dad got home around 8-ish and took us to an amazing dabino dinner. gotta love the hotpot! we ate ourselves sick, and cindy's dad broke out his johnnie walker blue label and we had beers and it was jolly.
a nice weekend. i'm pooped.
work was fun today - my projects are starting to come together and we got our samples back for the gifts we'll be giving out at the anniversary party and they came out really nicely. i'm happy with them. i really have to say, there's a satisfaction that comes with identifying with the positioning of your brand. it's nice to know that your work and your eye and taste count for something other than a cute wardrobe (can i even say i have one of those any more?), even if it's just small things. touches, really. all i need now is to get into a decent apartment and i'll be feeling - as the oracle says - right as rain.
sigh. nighty night. i'm glad to be home, even if shanghai is the ghetto country dirty weak-imitation version of hong kong.
xoxo.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
hitting stride
got cancelled on to see the apartment i've been dying to see for the past 48 hours. how cruel. so instead met up with kayi, followed her around to a number of classical-music cd stores (i'm taking my dad to these places when they come visit, fuxing and fenyang, remember that), then we finally stuffed down some food and thought about what to do. i really just wanted to come home, throw some things in a bag and fall asleep, but we went to pecha kucha instead where we saw practically everyone we know in the city. who knew that artsy fartsy events were such a draw? kayi was sugarmommying me the whole night, so she kept the wine supply going whilst the 13 speakers they had lined up did their thing.
the pecha kucha thing was held at the sculpture space. surprisingly good outdoor space, given the crapity crap location. it almost actually felt like a real museum. we decided we need to hold a hide-and-seek or musical chairs event there.
today was much cooler than it has been. i don't know if i'm finally adjusting to the heat or what, but i remember thinking it was absolutely stifling until well into november last year. is that possible? i wore a sleeveless shirt to work and spent the entire day wrapped in my pashmina.
off to hk tomorrow. how excited are we?!
the pecha kucha thing was held at the sculpture space. surprisingly good outdoor space, given the crapity crap location. it almost actually felt like a real museum. we decided we need to hold a hide-and-seek or musical chairs event there.
today was much cooler than it has been. i don't know if i'm finally adjusting to the heat or what, but i remember thinking it was absolutely stifling until well into november last year. is that possible? i wore a sleeveless shirt to work and spent the entire day wrapped in my pashmina.
off to hk tomorrow. how excited are we?!
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