The Forty-Eighth

A: "If I'm so helpless, then you should help me."
Me: "I AM helping you. It's tough love, baby!"
A: "I don't want your opposite help!"

The Forty-Seventh

Alex is calling her his "furry ticket" out of moving to Europe. Since we can't adopt her and then let her languish in quarantine.

"Are YOU my furry ticket? Yes, you ARE my furry ticket..."

The Forty-Sixth

I am rather scatterbrained. I really try not to be, so most days I assume I've grown out of it, but then there is a perfect storm.

The other night I left my parents' house around 11:30pm, intending to drive home. My dad was watching me from the porch to make sure I got to my (A's) car safe.

Halfway down the driveway, I realized that A had dropped me off, so I was walking towards some stranger's black car.

So then I had to ask my poor father, who was on his way to bed and needs his sleep, if he wouldn't mind suddenly hopping-to and driving me home at 11:30pm. He was very nice about it, and I only live, like, five minutes away.

He dropped me off, and I walked up to our apartment door on the third floor, and I fished around in my ski jacket pockets for my keys. And realized I didn't have them. A had been asleep for at least an hour and a half, and I had to ring that horrid doorbell until I dragged his poor, rumpled carcass out of bed. And then he was so alarmed about where my keys could be that he wouldn't go back to bed.

And 30 seconds into the key location conversation, the doorbell rang again. Thinking I'd forgotten to flash the lights at my dad to let him know I was in safe, I opened the door in a fluster without asking who it was, and it was my mother.

She had noticed my keys on the table by the door just after my father and I left, and, at 11:30pm at night when she was tired and on her way to bed, she had torn out the door, hoping to catch us before I woke up Alex.

So that is the story of how I managed to keep/wake up everybody who loves me the most. For absolutely no reason.

The next day my mother entirely blamed it on the fact that my father never has his cell phone with him.

The Forty-Fifth

Am

gave

Mom

purple

hiking

undies

for

the

holidays.

Today was an astonishingly productive day.

I

applied for jobs,

studied Spanish,

cleaned up the majority of the holiday accumulations,

went through all my receipts and paid my bills,

and went to the gym.

It's been a long, long, long, long time since I had a day like that, and I didn't even set out to! I merely started looking at jobs, thinking I could probably talk my lazy butt into completing a quickie application, and then I found several and did it right. And then the lady from Casa Hispana called and said they were going to evaluate me when I visited, and I really want them to put me in the advanced class, and I had the Spanish book right there. And then Em called to make a gym date for later in the afternoon. And then I thought, in the meantime, I really ought to pay my bills today, because they're due in two days, and who knows what effect New Year's will have on online payments going through. And to pay the bills, I had to find all my receipts, which I scatter to the four winds over the course of month.

And as my mother always said, "If you can't find something, clean everything up."

(That, by the way, is excellent advice.)

The Forty-Fourth: Gleeful!

link

I came home an hour ago after watching the first several hours of Glee with my mother, Em, Y, and Y's mother.

Glee's such good, clean, musical fun; I was sure my family would love it. I had brought it over last week, and I campaigned for it heavily tonight when we were deciding what to watch. Em, because she is such a great audience, was laughing all the time, and everybody except Y (who just had brain surgery, so he is excused) was paying attention. As each episode concluded, there was continuous, unanimous voting to immediately start the next one.

They also voted that my dad should drive me home (instead of Em) so they could keep watching it.

I'm so pleased I was right!

Also, my best friend L sings all the time, sang in our college choir, and is a general (campy) TV junkie. She's basically had her head buried in the sand since starting medical school, though.

me: Have you seen Glee? You would love it forever.

L: psh of course I have. And I love it forever

The Forty-Third

Today, I am sick and grumpy.

The illness is a minor cold than my mother and I caught from my dad, but I am a giant baby when I'm sick.

The grumpiness is due to the fact that I just had a slew of actually possible jobs appear on the horizon, and the last of them fell through today. I've been very ch

aracteristically optimistic about all this since July, but this big wave just knocked me off my feet.

Big wave + cold = pneumatic outlook.

I'm going to weakly cross my miserable fingers that perhaps my unemployment benefits appeal hearing went better.

However, I am watching Julie and Julia at the moment, and it reminded me of something that cheered me up immensely. Julia is chopping onions and weeping, and the last time I was weeping over onions, the cat was sitting on the kitchen window sill, supervising. When the fumes were at their height, the kitty started blinking like a crazy person. Cats usually squint their eyes when they're comfortable and happy (or when you squint yours at them -- try it!), but that's always a slow, languid blink of contentment.

This was, like, MANICALLYCONTENTSOSORELAXEDANDHAPPYR

IGHT NOWRIGHTNOWNOWNOWNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

She sat there for a long time, too, while I laughed/cried, before she finally ran out of the kitchen.

I do love her so. And isn't it interesting that onion fumes bother kitties too?

Kitty supervises A's sandwich.

The Forty-Second

I am inspired by this post today, because I had a similar experience with A this afternoon. It is a bit embarrassing to put this into words, but this blog more or less strictly exists to jog my own memory anyway.

A and I have very, very little in common. We have different habits, different personalities, different interests, different backgrounds, different goals for the future, etc. Were we not soulmates4evah!!!!, we would definitely not be friends. (Obviously, the most important things work, else we would not.)

My sense of humor is all quips and wordplay. A can be very witty and appreciates non sequitors, but nothing has ever floored him like the first time he heard me fart.

(Let us imagine that, shall we? You are a nice girl with a nice, new boyfriend of several months. You're both in the living room doing separate things, when something escapes you rather loudly, and you're a bit pink. You assume your embarrassed "excuse me" and perhaps a grin from him will be it. Instead, your heretofore very adult and somewhat staid boyfriend EXPLODES with laughter, hysterically flailing around in his computer chair for several minutes until he can no longer breathe.)

And some things make him laugh that I just don't even get, let alone find funny.

But, he is the only person in the world who is silly exactly the way that I am.

This is our big connection.

We often, often have conversations that consist entirely of sounds. It's a constantly evolving language, too. He used to echo me if I was whining to much, by saying, "muhnuhmanuhmanuhma" back at me in a sympathetic sing-song with an exaggerated pout on his face. I've adopted the "muhnuhma"s, but I say them in a very affectionate way while invading as much of his personal space as possible so that he can no longer do whatever activity he's doing.

Hm.

I can't remember anymore the exact play of today's events, but he's developed a response to my "muhnuhma"s that's "rar rar rar" with his face screwed up in a crotchety old man kind of way. And we were being ridiculous this morning, and there was a cute exchange where I did two random things that he realized were connected in a funny way and laughed and then responded with a "rar rar rar" to continue the connection, which is when I saw the joke, and we both laughed.

And then we hugged each other laughing because we are very happy together.

The Forty-First

I love my boyfriend so much.

And not just because he looks super-hot when he wears that zip-up black sweatshirt to the gym.

Sometimes it's because he cracks up SO MUCH when he watches his favorite TV shows.

The Fortieth

Yesterday, I very slightly got off my duff and applied to two jobs. And today, one of them asked me for an interview. The job's at a casino, which is laughably out of my realm. My mother, in fact, did laugh.

The sheer fact that A ever plays poker for money ($10-$50 buy-ins, maybe once every three months) has my father very concerned about gambling addiction.

A's cousin, L, mentioned a few weeks ago that he had been totally shocked to meet a guy who had never been to Vegas. "Like, who hasn't been to Vegas?" As I said to L then, I haven't, and if I had never met A, I think it highly, HIGHLY likely that I never would have. And none o' my friends neither.

L was surprised, but he's already absorbed that I was a good student and that I don't really drink, so it wasn't entirely out of nowhere.

It's funny how norms are so different in different circles.

Also, this morning I had bought groceries on my way back from bootcamp, so I sort of banged open the apartment door, forced all the bags and myself inside, then dumped it all on the armchair and closed the door. A couple minutes later, I was telling A something or other about bootcamp when I heard a vehement scratching/whomping at the door.

I realized immediately that the cat had squirted out the door (something she's managed to do a few times before).

A said I'm going to be a bad mother if I keep locking my kids outside.

The Thirty-Ninth

What a spectacular photographic achievement. Someone took this while that man was falling after he jumped out of the World Trade Center. So perfectly aligned, so still, with those colors and those proportions while that guy was falling in the midst of mass chaos. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you DO that? How do you react that fast?

I've been spending my days for the last week (week and a half?) basically doing nothing except for bootcamp and enjoying my glowy-happy life with A and our kitty. Considering that I'm about to run out of money and am still unemployed, it's absolutely inexcusable.

Which is why I haven't told anybody but you.

I've been claiming that I'm applying for jobs (which I've been doing for months without any response from any employer at all, even for positions for which I'm way overqualified) and studying for the CBEST before I study for the GRE (I made a study schedule that was overly ambitious and immediately derailed).

Instead, I'm reading endless analyses of Mad Men (it is SO good, and there is SO much to think about) and finding painfully amazing photographs on reddit.

The Thirty-Eighth

Today I like this:

And this:

The Thirty-Seventh

So, unemployment's not overly interesting.

The highlights:

1) Traveling for a month with my mother and her friend.

2) Joining my mother's bootcamp class, which is the only thing making me feel accomplished at the moment.

3) Generally spending a lot of time with my mother, which is nice.

4) Getting my ridiculous foster cat back.

5) Finally completing my bumpy adjustment to my pre-China home again, so I am like butter melting all over A in love again. (I took him to the 6:30am bootcamp today, and he was perfect.)

6) Breaking the no-sugar edict; I fought with A and lied. Sort of trying to get back on board.

7) Studying a bit.

8) Starting ESL volunteer teaching tonight.

9) Behind on pen pal stuff, responding to emails, keeping in touch, studying, cat-related chores, and job searching. (Basically all my responsibilities.)

Me and my mom in England:

The Thirty-Sixth

Though I usually do abandon my projects, I didn't desert my blog willingly. China, as you may know, censors its internet, and whatever algorithm they use to do it appears to be deeply flawed. C and I were always mid-lesson plan when the government would suddenly get ticked off at our excessive viewings of grammar activity pages and block all Google searches or all image searches or all blogs by Mormon women (for example).

Usually we just had to leave it alone for a few minutes and then the pages would load again (simple, but really not helpful when we'd left the lesson planning till the last minute), but occasionally some things became consistently blocked for several months.

Such was the fate of Blogspot for all my remaining months in China.

So, hello again! Tales of unemployment in California shall be forthcoming!

The Thirty-Fifth

I had my students write two-line poems. They are all such geniuses:

blue sky as your eyes
hot sun like my heart
--Cream 370-48

mother father and weather
mouth math and truth
--370-57

One night, two night, miss you every night
Monday, Sunday, love you every day
-- 370-51

I sent the last one to A. :)

The Thirty-Fourth: Measurements

Courtesy of C's Hong Kong Ikea paper tape measure.

Bust (lungs medium-full): 38.75"
Chest (lungs medium-full): 32.50"
Waist: 30.00"
Hips: 37.00"
Thigh (standing up): 24.25"
Calf (standing up): 13.75"
Upper Arm (hanging at side): 13.50"

This week I began eating better and exercising again/more, hoping to keep it up till I go home. I'll measure again right before I leave and see if I got anywhere.

The Thirty-Third: TWO MONTHS

I have only two months left in China! This has put so much pressure on me.

1) I have so much to cover with my classes, so now I have all this prep work I need to do IMMEDIATELY. And though I had a free day today...nada.

Gonna wake up really early tomorrow to get some stuff done. Gotta work all weekend now.

2) I NEED TO GET OFF MY DUFF AND STUDY CHINESE SERIOUSLY BEFORE I GO HOME. 'TWILL BE TOTALLY PATHETIC IF I NEVER DID IT EVER.

3) I promised A that I would quit biting my nails here, and while I've been better about it, I've not quit.

But what I am the most concerned about (sadly) is now really want to come home hot. This swelling (expanding, exploding) desire has derailed all my recent mental health progress where I was happy at my weight and just wanted to be in shape.

Maybe I didn't actually make that progress.

So:

4) My skin. I have been so mean to it, and I hope serious Retin-A applications can fade the scarring lickety-split.

I've become super-disciplined about keeping up my skin care routine and not touching my skin EVER. (With the no nail-biting either, I am CONSTANTLY yanking my hands away from myself.)

5) My weight! According to the Spaniard's hotel scale and my clothing/eyes, I have not lost ANY weight since I came here, and I am no longer okay with that.

I just finally started pilates today. Will start running again tomorrow. (I'm nervous about finally confronting all the conditioning I've lost.)

Being very serious about diet. Been waking up to eat a large cafeteria breakfast, then a small lunch, then whatever fruit I want for the rest of the day. No chips, no junk. Lots of hunger. Motivation wavers hourly, because dieting totally sucks, and I'm really tired.

I wish I'd put more thought into it/could calculate the calories, but there's no time and not a lot of options in China. I can't imagine it's much less than 1200 calories, if that, so I'm sure it's fine. Two months won't kill me. Even if I am really, really tired.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.


P.S. I like this for my wedding dress:

































P.P.S. And I might like this purse:

































P.P.P.S. And, in an insane twist, I can actually afford them!

The Thirty-Second

My parents are VERY involved. My sisters and I are very happy, successful people, so it's clearly not a bad thing, but sometimes it's a bit...much. My mother's better than my father, but not as much as she'd like to think. :)

Ever since I deemed myself to be an adult, it's been a struggle to include my parents in my life without their immediately suffocating my independence with their "help". To this end, I have tried to build and maintain one heck of a boundary wall (20 feet high with barbed wire, embedded glass shards, moat with crocodiles). Both A and L think I'm a bit drastic about it, but really, my parents will give until they're severely inconvenienced. It's bad for both sides.

For example, my parents already paid for my very expensive college education. Most children don't even get that. SURELY, I am now fully set up to support myself. Like, really, that's enough.

And yet, my father pretty much offers to pay for anything that I mention I want to do or for anything that it occurs to him that I should do, particularly things that aren't remotely necessary. Last year, I was making $45,000 a year before taxes and saved over $15,000 in 7 months, and my father was still asking me if I had enough money for the movies. And when he heard I was looking for jobs abroad, he offered (blithely, without consulting my mother or their finances, mind you) to support me if I wanted to Latin America and studied Spanish. Granted, I think he was largely horrified that I wanted to go teach in Bangladesh, but STILL. That's a $25,000 gift! How useless would I have to be to accept such a thing?

My mother's learned that Am and I won't accept stuff like that (my father's utterly incorrigible), but she's just as ridiculous with Em.

And money's just the tip of the iceberg. After giving us comp tickets to the opera and typing out extraordinarily detailed driving directions to the opera, my father drove 45 minutes to intercept me and L during the opera's intermission because he'd accidentally written "2.2 miles to the exit" instead of "2.6 miles to the exit" in the return directions.

And Lord, my mother has jumped ALL OVER the future condo with A. Since I'm in China and A's swamped with grad school, my mother, unbidden, has begun to help us do some research. She says, and is right, that it is good for us to have some context before we go condo hunting this summer. But for a month now, she's been sending me listings daily, attending open houses, and emailing reports like this:

The first place I looked at today was a one bedroom/one bath condo in ----, two levels. The flyer says 1053 sq. feet although it didn't feel that large. I think the extra space is upstairs in the big bedroom. The LR/DR felt smallish. The large bedroom and the bath are upstairs. Windows on only one side of the unit, however, and kitchen walls were painted some hideous green. Also the condo's front door opened into an interior hall. the condo has a fireplace and no one living above or below. (Below is the front door and interior lobby.) I wasn't crazy about the place. However, I learned something important. ---- has a program for qualifying first time home buyers. You can borrow up to $70,000 (the realtor thought it was) at 0% interest for some period of years and then the interest goes up to a few percent. This is to give first time home buyers the down payment they need. There is an income ceiling, however. She thought it was $100,000 but wasn't sure. (I.e., if your income is greater than the ceiling, you can't use the program.) The condo was at -----, which is just off ----. ---- buses go up and down --- and there is a train station at ---- and -----. The asking price for the condo is $398,217. Homeowners' dues are $450 per month which includes water, garbage, security, recycling, grounds and landscaping and maintenance of common areas. The condo comes with one parking space. You can get another, if available, for $25 (per month, I assume--the flyer doesn't specify). There are 238 units in the complex (-----) and the Homeowners' Association has $1.4 million in reserves. The realtor, who lives there, says there's never been a major assessment in the years she's been there. The only special assessment she's had to pay was $500 toward new gutters because the HOA didn't want to dip into its reserves. The complex has two swimming pools, lighted tennis courts, a basketball court, jacuzzis, saunas, etc. etc. The flyer gives a website of -----, but that might just be the realtor, -----. She's with ----. In fact, all three of the properties I saw today were ----listings.

Next I looked at a very cute condo, a corner unit with lots of light and windows, in ----, just one block due west of ----'s dental office. Two bedrooms/two baths with a nice, but not overly large kitchen. There is a pleasant, shady balcony at the back, accessible from the living room and from the spare bedroom. There is a fireplace in the living room and lots of good closet space. The neighborhood is very nice--lots of old trees etc. The condo is one of six units in a two-story building. It's on the first floor, although the first floor is up from the ground level somewhat--I think parking is underneath the building. There is a long covered walkway (open to the elements on one side but having the second floor overhang for a roof) along the side of the building from the enclosed front lobby to get to the front door of the condo. (So the hallway is outdoor, but you can't get to it unless you have entered the building, which you can't do unless you are a resident or someone lets you in.) An outdoor hallway does not collect mustiness the way an indoor hallway does. ----- is one block further west and lots of ----- buses run up and down -----, including to the train/subway station in ----- at ----- and -----. The condo address is ----. (If you walked from the apartment over to ----- --one block away--you'd be near the turnoff from ----- onto ---- on the way to ----- High School, but not quite to that turnoff yet.) The asking price is $499,000. The ad said "Owner Financing Available" but the young woman hosting the open house had no info about that. Two secured parking spaces come with the condo and the Homeowners' Association fees are $374 per month. I didn't ask about reserves because she wouldn't have known the answer. There is a pool that belongs to the building. The condo's square footage is 1040, although it felt bigger than the one bedroom/one bath condo in ----- that supposedly has 13 more square feet. There is a laundry unit downstairs, the hostess said, although room to put a stacking washer and dryer in the condo (in the hall closet) if you wanted to buy them and pay to have the necessary piping and wiring installed. I don't see a web address for this unit. There might be something about it (pictures, etc.) on the realtor's website, whose address I don't have but I'm sure you can find on Google.

Lastly l looked at a very nice two bedroom/two bathroom condo in the hills of -----, just off ---- and near ----. (I.e., if you go up ---- from our house and turn left onto ---- and go all the down ---- and turn right onto ---- and go up the hill on ---- to ----, you would have driven past the side street this condo is on just before you started the steep descent down ---- to ----.) There is no public transportation that I am aware in the area of this condo. The address is ---- (the same street, but at the other end of the loop, that Em's friend LW lived on and maybe her family still does). The area is lovely and wooded and the condo is very nice. The kitchen has been greatly upgraded and has granite counters and beautiful cabinets, etc. It's not huge either, but clearly the nicest of the three kitchens. Very upscale in feeling. (The ---- kitchen was completely blah. The ---- kitchen was cute and nice and totally fine but not a ton of counter space although it had a nice pass through opening--which you could close off with shutters--into the living room.) There is a laundry room with a washer and dryer just off the kitchen. The condo is at ground level with units above it. There are lots of windows and a fair amount of light in the living room and dining room (although some shade caused by the unit above, I believe, with a ground level enclosed deck (with a gate out to the wooded open space beyond the deck). There is a fireplace in the living room. Both bedrooms and bathrooms were nice, although didn't feel as sunny as the ---- condo--maybe because it was later in the day and also because of all the trees all around. The bathrooms were upgraded. The realtor said that the condo had had popcorn ceilings, but that the owners had taken that off. The ceilings looked nice and flat. This condo has 1040 square feet says the brochure. The asking price is $505,000, down from the original asking price of $529,000, she said. The HOA dues are $393 per month. I didn't ask about reserves--didn't think of it. I got there 12 minutes after the end of the open house time and the realtor was just closing up so she opened up the place again for me to see and I guess I was subconsciously thinking I didn't want to take up too much more of her time. Here again, however, I learned something interesting. She said this place qualified for FHA financing she thought and if so, the interest rate on an FHA loan is 3 and something percent. With condos, the FHA (Federal Housing Authority, I think that is) looks at the health of the Homeowners Association (HOA), which means, I assume, that if a condo qualifies for FHA financing, the HOA must be well run and with good reserves. This place also has swimming pools, tennis court, and a Club House. The website for this condo is ----. So, maybe if you and A want to get a place and get it in ----, for example, you might be able to get one of the $70,000 interest free loans and then get a mortgage from FHA and actually be able to afford the monthly payments. Who knows?

Anyway, it's all interesting info. I have cc'd your sisters on this because some of this information might be useful to them at some point in the future.

Love, Mom

I bet you thought I was exaggerating until you saw the email.

The Thirty-First

All those haikus inspired me to write this for A:

Planning our wedding
Whether you proposed or not
Empowered female!

The Thirtieth: "Hi. have a good time"

A few weeks ago in class, I showed my students several traditional haikus, and then I told them that they could just write a silly one and gave the example "I can do magic/I have green eyes, black hair/I'm Harry Potter".

Together as a class we then wrote a similar haiku about Yao Ming and one about Obama, and then I asked the students to write a haiku about themselves. The formula I presented had their names in the last line like the Harry Potter poem, but I only gave that because my students look around in fear and don't do anything if don't give very specific directions. (Once I do give specific directions, many ignore them and do something more creative, which is what I'd prefer anyway. :) )

This is a large sample of what I got back (spelling and punctuation unchanged):

THE MAJORITY WROTE

Most wrote two bland details in the first two lines and then wrote "I am __ __ __" or "My name is __ __" (because most names here are two or three syllables). For example:

I am a student
I live in Hunan, China
I am Liu Si Jie

or

I like basketball
I like play computer games
My name is Kuang Ting

IMPRESSIVE ONES

I read in the room
But the room is so dirty
I begin to clean

Dark and small in vain
Wander under your big feet
I'm crazy shadow

(Written during the last class before they were let out for a long weekend.)
The sun is shining
The holiday is coming
Excited Owen

I am from Hengshan
I like laughing and crying
My name is Deng Ye

He is very rich
so he likes spending money.
It is a waste.

I'm Vanessa
Other people live to eat
while I eat to live

I can do anything
May I help you, boys and girls
My name is Wang Jun

I can't remember the whole poem (and I already gave it back to her), but one student's 7-syllable line was, "I am proud of my father".

(This student's English name is Will.)
See me at the gate.
a clever and handsome boy
you "will" know my name.

I have twenty eight teeth
You can see all when I smile
My name is Long Min

("Zhu" is a common Chinese name, and it also means "pig" in Chinese.)
The pig is lazy
I'm more lazy than the pig
So I must be zhu

FUNNY ONES

I am a student
I am from HuNan Province
I like my school. Ha.

I enjoy eating meat
If I say goodbye to meat
It is the last day.

I have a best friend
Sometimes she looks like Yeti
My name is Liu Jing Lan

(I confiscated a cell phone from this student and wouldn't let him leave after the bell rang until he wrote a poem.)
I am a big bad egg
I play the game in the class
I am Den Lin Jian

I like fish. very much.
My favorite color is green. not else.
My name is green fish.

(Note the reversal of color.)
I am a black man
I used to be a white man
I'm Michael Jackson

I am very hungry
I want to the supermarket
I need so many food

I need to study
My Dad requires me to
My name is Mattin

I'm a high student
I like listening music
My name is Shan Min

The god is a girl
I am a god of myself
So god is LiuQiong

I'm enjoy freedom
I just want to do myself
because I'm Honki

I got a stomache
I am not a luky dog
I like warm weather

I like eating food
But I'm not a lazy girl
I am Xie Qiao Yong

Like father Like son,
what do you think about it?
I don't think so.

My name is Vicky
The world is very nice
I love my mother

I like a grow up
Because grow up so heavy
I hope me quiet grow up

where are you from
I do not know about you
Hi. have a good time

I play basketball
I love basketball so much
I'm eating apple.
Apples taste very good.

(This student initially wrote a dull-but-correct haiku. Then I directed all the students to write their names and student numbers on their papers before turning them in, and he wrote this.)
My name is B1
I like the number of 3
but you give me 8

I love my home.
What are you doing now?
How to do it.

THE BEST ONES

(They often say "very" instead of "really".)
I'm a common girl
And very like you!
I am He Yan Xi

tell me the reason.
why you are so beautiful
my name is Devil.

I like sky very much
I think I'm very handsome
My teacher is cute.

You are beautiful
You're an American girl
You are my teacher

You're a beautiful girl
like the red rose and light moon
I'll express to you

The Twenty-Ninth

I don't have a very clear idea for this post. I just felt that enough things have happened that I ought to post. Those things are:

1) I had a fabulous morning on Friday, which put me into an insanely good mood in time for my daily lunchtime Skyping with A. My morning classes went fabulously--I explained things a little differently, and the kids GOT it. I had figured out a much better way to help Ryan (a student who asked me early in the year for extra help with her pronunciation -- we work for 20ish minutes every Friday lunchtime right after her class), so she left our session smiling very broadly (as opposed to totally disheartened, like last week). I also ran and showered before classes (something I wish I did everyday, but rarely ever do) and did a load of laundry and maybe even had proper food? I can't even remember. In any case, I felt like an extremely successful human being.

2) I had a totally horrible morning yesterday. Celebrations for the school's 100th anniversary were starting that afternoon, so the students had their minds on anything but English that morning. Teaching was like banging my head against the blackboard. My three classes painfully trudged through only a very small portion of my lesson, which means the schedules for those classes (on top of the ones that have been outright canceled because of the celebrations) are all screwy. Ordinarily, I can usually take such things in stride, but my patience was unusually short and my stress level unusually high for whatever reason.

Moreover, I was looking forward to my lunchtime chat with A because he has quite a relaxing effect on me, but it was then that my bloody (poor, ancient) computer decided its flirtation with dying (it had been having fleeting difficulties recognizing the power cord) had become a full-blown love affair. I had to trek back to the office to use the computer there and figure out how to set up Gmail video chat in effin' Chinese.

But it did eventually work, and I was aware that my evil mood was unreasonable, and talking to A did calm me down.

3) I did not run 40 minutes yesterday as I should have, because I was too tired and too scared. BUT, I did it today in the full heat of high noon in China. I. RAN. FORTY. MINUTES. That's SO many minutes! I even confirmed with A that that is significantly more minutes than either of us ever thought I'd run. Plus, plus, plus the students picked today of all days to take notice of me again (after the first flurry when I started running, they've been highly disinterested). First, one of my students hopped on the track and started running with me, but he didn't even make it a lap. I think it was partly because he didn't warm up or hit a stride, but mostly because he wasn't expecting me to turn around and run the other way mid-lap. (It was rather Bugs Bunny-esque how he went sailing on in the other direction.)

Then, when I had 15-20 minutes left, two Senior 3 boys stopped by and tried to talk to me whenever I ran past them. After a few times of waving at my headphones and saying, "I can't hear you!", they parked themselves in the shade and WATCHED me finish! And a workman and few younger students joined them!

When I did finally finish (I had a rough time at the beginning -- it was SO hot -- and again around the 25-30-minute mark, but I ran through it and finished feeling pretty good), the two Senior 3 boys came out to talk. They asked me about my shuffle

Me: My boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday.
Them [as if I'd said something MOST salacious]: OOoooh.

and how long I had just run

Me [all supercool and nonchalant]: Forty minutes.
Them: Wow, you are an athlete. How many years have you been training?

Then because I was going to stretch, they asked me to show them how. So I did that quickly (hilarious) and went inside to shower and crow to A.