Barefoot in the....kitchen....

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Have I cheesed everyone out on how much I love my husband. Not only does he bring home the bacon, but he cooks it too - well vegetarian bacon anyway. We are starting to cook at home sweet home but after a day of Tai Tai lunches and massages, who has time to cook? Where did this man come from? We spent the day shopping, then took a nap and now it is Saturday night and we are cooking!! I'm his favorite first assistant - you know - so much so I'm in here typing the blog while he is working away. We are making pickles (Will found this fab recipe from Jewish Woman Today magazine - and who better to tell us how to make pickles!). We are making pita/nan bread, Raita (cucumber/yogurt indian sauce), and we, ehm... Will, is making fresh yogurt - but I paid for it. It's technically true. Will almost got paid for the first time today, but after being here for 7 weeks the last day of the month happens to fall on China's "golden week" so the banks are closed for one week. Sigh... So we are living off of my tutoring money.

Gosh this house smells good. I'm going back to help him and then we are 18 hours into season 3 of "24" - Will Jack save the world from the Cordelia virus? Did he *really* kill Nina Meyers - we're *dying* to find out! So here are a few pics of Will picking basil from our fresh basil plant (the rosemary is right next to it), Will chopping a little garlic (hmmmm) and lastly, his barefeet in the kitchen - priceless! I just want to add one final picture - I organized a few ingredients - it wasn't much, but isn't the presentation fabulous!

Calvin and the Jackie-Os

These are pictures of my new pupil - Calvin. He is the 5 year old little brother of Chloe - who I was tuturing in Math/Biology. Her schedule was such that it went back and forth between Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday - and how was I supposed to coordinate my Ayi and my massages - I mean please. So now I have a 5 year old that I am teaching English (we'll see if my logic in trading students worked). He is a riot. We started off reading a book and I'll point at pictures and have him repeat it - or we would run around the house pointing at things. His letters for the week were: "M", "B", "R", and "S" - so by the end of the night he was running around with my Jackie-O *sunglassess* on and a *belt* around his tshirt and shorts. Whatever works, right? I am actually going back Friday for more - how much torture can I deal with for $17/hr - A LOT!

workout room etiquette

Before the interesting story is a picture of the flower guy down the block. He is nice and I've bought flowers from him twice now. Okay deals, nothing great, but pretty flowers. I tried to get him to smile, but this is all I got.

Today was interesting in that after taking Will to work I decided to be good and change to go down to our work out room. I get my gear and head down there. There are two other woman in the room - one of them is on my favorite tread mill, but hey, there are 3 others (although one is at a permanent incline). My second choice is the one right next to one of the women who is walking. I smile and start up and put my head phones on, turn on the tunes and get into my workout. After a few minutes I hear - "EXCUSE me - excuse me - but your treadmill is too loud and it is bothering my workout - I can't concentrate. Can you please use the other one." I take a deep breath and tell her I would prefer to use the one she is on, and the far one is broken in a permanent incline. She and the other women pipe up that "well you can call the management, they fixed this the other day - (her bike machine she is on) - Like I'm supposed to stop my workout to go deal with the management company - I don't think so. I said they are in here daily looking at stuff and they have never fixed the permanent incline. However, I do not want to seem like the rude American (and no, these women were Chinese, not French). So I go to the other treadmill - which I think sounds equally as loud - unfortunately, the stupid thing is calibrated wrong and I'm huffing and puffing with my heart rate in the 180s until I figured it out.

After about 10 minutes I stop (I DON"T CARE IF IT IS LOUD) I proceed to go test the other treadmill and then test mine again - nope the other one works better. So I say screw it I"m using that treadmill - thank goodness the stupid lady is almost done. She leaves, shortly thereafter the other woman leaves. Has this ever happened to anyone before? I have been running while someone else is on the "loud" treadmill and I don't say anything - I don't notice, but I still wouldn't say anything. I was so pissed. My heart rate was high as I'm sure was my blood pressure. Thank goodness for small miracles to ease the tension to laughter, because as I'm jogging away I'm looking around enjoying the scenary and all of a sudden I see this Chinese man appear in his apartment across the way on the 5th floor taking his clothes off!!! Interesting scenery, eh? Eeeewwww!!! What is he thinking taking off his clothes at 830am in front of his window!!! It is like right in front of me. I chuckle, because what the hell what happened to the baggy underwear. I was starting to be able to deal with that. He's ironing his pants naked - so at least the ironing board is in the way. Where is my camera for this choice shot?

Ayi and me

I meant to take a picture of Daisy while she was here on Saturday - but hopefully once she starts, she'll let me grab an "action" shot - you know while I'm timing how long it takes her to clean the toilet (that was for you Jenny - I'm not REALLY going to do that - yet). She was a bundle of energy and talks fast - whew - I didn't get everything, but we had a good time chatting. She was going to come Tues/Thurs/Sat, but I thought I don't need that , lets start with 2 days, but not really sure if her priced changed and I'm not sure if I really nailed down how long she will be here each day. She charges 400RMB/month ($50) coming 2x a week for probably a minimum of 2 hours each day. If I calculate that out, it is really kind of expensive (ie "tie *gway* la) - for what the actual going rate is. But when I REALLY stop to think about it is still only $3US an hour - good grief. She is trying to put her 17 year old through school and it costs her $2000 US dollars a year (which is pretty expensive). I think I can splurge to help her with that. It is a fine line - the Chinese like to negotiate, so they start high, but, I don't want to get ripped off, but I don't want to be cheap either. The balancing act stresses me out.

She is going to help me pay the bills, she is going to clean one day and lightly clean the other and then will help me cook a meal. So I give her all the ingredients and she will go buy the stuff and give me the receipt. She was telling me I was spending too much money on stuff. So hopefully the money I save will cover her "higher wages." I think just having her as a resource will be valuable. It was interesting trying to explain vegetarian though - but hopefully in a few months I'll be a wiz with fried rice and be making a few sauces too! Thanks Mom for the great cookbook you gave us before we left - we have found some good Chinese recipes that we are going to try. She also said she would help me with my Chinese lessons which start at Berlitz on October 10th. I go 2x a week for 2.5 hours each time. I'm soooo excited about that. Then I can come back to talk to Daisy in Mandarin, well at least try anyway.

I'm off on a walking adventure to meet up with a few Tai Tai's for lunch - camera in hand - maybe I'll find tomorrow's picture. :)

Fashion Nonsense

A couple pictures for you today. Ever since Will got one of the new Dell fancy schmancy small laptops all I hear is how he wants a new bag - he doesn't need a big backpack anymore. So I ask, "What, do you want a man purse or something?" He ponders and with enough testosterone, says "Yes, yes I do want a man purse." So, on his way to work today, since his computer fits into my "faux" Kate Spade purse, I let him try it out. Please weigh in on the man purse. Maybe I can get him a clutch in a animal print....meow.

My other fashion nonsense picture is unfortunately a very common occurence here in Shanghai ladies footwear. Anklet hose - huh? I swear - I feel like I"m in a time capsule and my fashionista friends back home better take me aside each time I make it back to the states so I don't fall into the trap of not knowing the latest fashion trends are. A very small percentage of folks here are what I call fashion forward so I need to keep checking out anthropologie online so I can take the pictures to the fabric market - and don't get me started on the footwear here - I'm almost glad I have big feet. I almost caved on these ugly brown sandels out of desperation. Is the world ending? I thought this was the Paris of the East...

Exterior Apartment pictures

Here are some views from our front porch and back porch, the street in front of our house and what our apartment buildings look like.

More picutures....

Here are a few pictures so far - our new Tibetan buffet, group shot of new friends eating yummy Indian food, and my personal favorite - I grabbed the PERFECT split crotched shot - I can't believe my luck, hopefully the kid won't recoginize himself in 20 years and sue me.... You can double click on the picture to enlarge them a little bit...

Hodge Podge of thoughts...

I know this is a hodge podge of thoughts and comments, but wanted to share more on some of the Chinese people we have met so far

I am starting to learn a few more phrases from Mary’s driver Gu, but more importantly I have been able to talk to him about what it is like to live in China and then I teach him a few new English words - for example "hysterical", "boring", and “exhausted”. He likes to ask about food as well – so we talked about BBQ and what having a BBQ means. I also tried to explain lasagna and the various shapes of pasta – a la penne and fusili, but I think sticking with spaghetti is just easier right now.

We talk about the Chinese versus American government, we talk about travel. He has only been about 2 hours south of Shanghai ever in his life (he is 31 years old). Gu (sounds like Ku) tells me that it is VERY difficult to get a visa to travel outside China for Chinese citizens. We talk about inflation and how much more expensive Shanghai has gotten in the last few years. The pluses and minuses of living under Communism – now you have the option of not having the government pick your job, but if you are poor and from the countryside, it is extremely difficult to move up in life.

How it is a very family oriented culture – he and his wife live with his parents. You still shouldn’t give money to people begging in the streets – he says most of them are lying and don’t want to work hard. I asked, even the ones holding cute babies – he said yes, sometimes they just “borrow” a friend’s baby. I asked him if the Chinese liked it that more westerners are here – he said yes and no. One of the things he mentioned was that we have brought in too much fast food and sugar. The Chinese population is starting to deal with overeating and weight related problems.

There is not really any health insurance and if you can’t pay for your care as soon as you walk into a clinic or hospital they WILL turn you away. You have to usually know someone at the hospital to be seen by a decent doctor too. Gu laughs at my stories just as you all do – and thinks my Chinese is very good after 6 weeks and appreciates how hard I’m trying. As much as they all stare at me, I really haven’t had anyone not try to help if I really needed it.

We met a nice gentleman on the subway the other day – he was 72 and retired. In only a 5 minute subway ride we learned he used to be a mechanical engineer and learned English and Russian when he was in school. After our brief interaction, we realized how silly we were not to have exchanged contact information – can you imagine the great conversations we could have had about his life in China for the past 72 years - I’m sure he has even more of an opinion on how his country has changed. We hope that we’ll run into him again…

Sardine Central - Shanghai

The good news is that Will bought me a nice small digital camera, the bad news is that the instructions are in chinese. So I'm still trying to figure it out and then how to download the pictures. Will is out of town until Saturday so I was on my own again today.

Today I hung out with Amy Klibaner (as we all know and love her "Asian Amy" - our other friend Amy Mckinley is known as "white Amy" - coined by Patty's driver Samuel). Amy K is from NYC and is a big time foodie. She has been in Shanghai less than a year and goes back to NYC often so it suprises us all on how she knows were all these great restuarants are. We met for lunch at this cool little Mediterranean place in the French Concession area of town - the cool groovy part of town - mix of rich and poor, clubs, hip restaurants, shopping). I'll get pictures soon I promise. After lunch we spent 3 hours walking around where Amy lives - it is such a vibrant place. We then stopped off for gellato and then went to get a massage. Not bad, right? I'm not finished yet!

The most fun I had was on the way home - it always seems to happpen to me that way. I decided to be a local and take the metro (subway). I made it to the entrance and realized that it was 6pm on Friday - RUSH HOUR. Metro 1 is like the locals metro and even during the day it is packed. So what do I mean by packed. I have never been able to get a seat. Today was WORSE! I have never seen so many people packed in. You definitely didn't need to hang on to ANYTHING because we were packed in there so tight - like barely breathable. It was EXCITING - well it was exciting because I knew I only had 2 stops before I could get off - and when I did - I was basically shoved off from behind with all the people following me - I was a rock star shoving back through the crowd while another crowd was getting on. Sardine Central alright. But I made it back and am sitting here with a bowl of cereal (my favorite) and a Heiniken - it was that or Tsing Dao (which I'm sooo over) or budweiser which the locals actually like. I'm going to go put in my ripped off DVD of Memoirs of a Geisha (since Will won't watch it with me) and tuck myself into bed! Sweet Dreams of Will coming home tomorrow and telling him we have an Ayi!

To Ayi or not to Ayi

We've been here 7 weeks and as much as I wanted to believe getting an Ayi would be the coolest thing ever, I have hesitated on calling to set up interviews with a few. The task was a little overwhelming since I didn't speak the language and then to have to sit there while someone else cleaned my house - well it sounds nice, but since I have never had one, it was still weird. Our real estate person Lydia gave me a referral - which I have found out can be a good thing or a bad thing. One of the wives has been through 8 Ayi's for various reasons - one night one served them chicken feet! Another one couldn't get the concept of starting laundry immediately, and then going to do other chores, another story from another friend said her Ayi stole some money - the prospect of firing someone as well made me uncomfortable as well - although I have done it before. Then we hear from one of Will's co-workers that his is AWESOME - they text each other, she buys food, cooks, cleans while he is at work, etc.. I guess there is good and bad experiences in anything.

Out of the blue, she actually called me (I remember telling Lydia it was okay to give her my number, but I didn't think she would call and speak that good of English! It is broken and I have to speak slow, but she speaks ENGLISH!) Her name is Daisy and she is coming over to the apartment for an "interview" of sorts on Saturday afternoon to see what I need done, etc. I think ironing and folding clothes top my list of things I hate to do and maybe dust. I also thought she could help with grocery shopping since it would be cool if she could teach us to cook some dumplings, etc.. and tell us what all the "stuff" is at the chinese markets, etc.. woo hoo. Cross your fingers or do that great prayer thing!

What's this line for....

The company Will works for shall remain nameless, but since he is new here, things have not gone exactly as planned - like having "the company" pay our rent with our relocation allowance. At this point I felt like a big American loser and had a mini-mental episode yesterday when I told Will - we just need to pay the nice man before he kicks us to the curb - reminding him of our past tenant who stayed in my house pretty much rent free for about 6 months until we took her to court, which she lost and then proceeded to file an appeal - and I digress. Okay, so I'm still a little bitter about that. So we decided to suck it up and just get a cash advance on our credit card for a few days until our relocation money came in.

I volunteered to go down to a safe international bank to get the $$ out. I thought getting there 10 minutes BEFORE the bank opened would be a great idea - but as I walked up, I see this line out the door of people waiting to get in. Well, since I rarely see a line in China (nobody is that organized and/or if you leave even the littlest space in front of you, that is enough for someone to walk in front of you and stand there - I've learned to decrease my personal space - A LOT).

The guard hands me a piece of paper (some kind of form) in Chinese. I shrug and get in line (the people at this bank speak English, so I figured they would explain what I needed to fill in). The bank opens, and I stand in line patiently, thinking I'm never going to get done in the 30 minutes I alotted before meeting with the landlord on the other side of town. Other people get in line behind me, but some go around and enter the bank. I sort of question this, but hey, I don't want to lose my place in line because believe me, there is no "saving" and there are twice as many people in line now. Finally, the nice security man comes to me with the English version of this form (this would have been helpful 15 minutes ago). I look down and it is an application for a Canadian visa. Shit. I shake my head no and the nice man takes me from line and ushers me in to the bank (the woman behind me that kept bumping me with her purse - ie no personal space - is quickly moving up - told yall there was no going back). I feel like a bone head for just standing there like everyone else in the herd, but how was I really supposed to know. Stupid foreigner.

Antiques and Massage

Will told me earlier in the week that all he wanted to do this weekend was relax. He has been working really hard, but doesn't get to see alot of Shanghai because he takes the subway one stop goes to work and comes home. Our friends Amy and Josh were coordinating another trip to the antique warehouse, so we all got together for brunch (5 couples) and then on to look at antiques. I came prepared this time with measurements and a metric tape measure (much to Will's chagrin). I wanted to look for a buffet table/sofa table to sit behind the white couch (now there are pictures, you know what I'm talking about!)so we can try to separate out the living/dining areas.

We found a couple nice pieces and then Will got a little shifty on me - what if we don't get relocated back - should we really buy anything? What? Huh? My head is spinning, I thought we just did measurements this morning in case we found anything? Why am I the one that always looks like I'm pouting - I thought we did measurements so we could "measure" and therefore seriously look at pieces. I swear - is this an episode of Nick and Jessica: Newlyweds - well, that is a bad example. I know that tuna is not really chicken (of the sea) and when you measure something that means your serious enough to consider buying something. In the end, we agreed that it wasn't really a disagreement, just a miscommunication :). So next week we are getting a TIBETAN BUFFET delivered. It is sooo cool (Will LOVES it too!). I think they said their pieces are about 80-100 years old - so although we have no extra money, how can you not bring a piece home to tell your grandkids you bought this when you lived in China! It cost about $450US. Pictures next week!!

Then since Will really wanted to relax, I obliged him (since he went shopping with me) and took him to the Dragonfly Spa and we spent 2 hours getting a body massage and an oriental foot massage. Very relaxing and it was $60 total for both of us - evens out spending $$ on the buffet, right? At least that is how I try to reason with myself.

Today is Sunday afternoon and we went to an "approved farmers market" - Will is happy in the kitchen making Babba Ganouj and I need to get my butt in gear to go fold and iron some clothes.

Picture Pages

Finally - I have a few pictures to show you our apartment. It is just a start - but so you know that we are not living in some slum somewhere. :)

Chinese 101

Well we have been here 5 weeks and wanted to give you all a Chinese lesson - and also so I can document what I have learned so far and in a year I can come back and compare where I was - naive and with a vocab of less than 20 words. Most of the words I only know "phentically" - not even the pinyan - don't worry I haven't figured out any of the chinese characters...

Ni Hao (knee how) - Hello
Xie Xie (shay shay - you say this one REALLY fast) - Thank you (this is the second phrase I learned - especially "No, xie xie" when asked if I wanted rolex or gucci on the street).
Ni Hao ma? (knee how ma) - How are you?
The most common American response (because most of us think it is funny) is
Ma Ma Hu Hu (ma ma who who) - literal translation is "horse horse tiger tiger" - which means "I'm doing so so." No I haven't figured out what the words are for: "I'm fine" or "I'm not doing so great today"
Zaijian (say jee n - accent on first syllabyl) - Good bye
Yo-gwhy - right
Zo-gwhy - left
Itazo (Eat a zo - long o at end) - straight
Dwey poo chee - I'm sorry (I say this one a lot)
May kwan see - It's okay
Tie gwey la (accent is on the second syllabyl) - It's too expensive (need to know this one before going to the markets!)
Fongzi (like Fonz but with a "ng" at the end and then quick z sound, not "zee")
means "apartment"
Juh lee (soft j, accent first syllabal) - means "here"
Nah lee (accent 1st) - means "there"

Isn't it amazing what you can learn and remember in order for you to get around, albeit not always successfully -

Will and I are going antique shopping this weekend with our new found friends Amy and Josh and I need to go back to getting ready since I have my Tai Tai lunch at "Simply Thai" today - we all thought it was appropriate.

I survived!

Thank you for all your prayers - We arrived on time and the three of us made it out alive and relatively happy. I made it through my haircut without a major panic attack. Granted, it is too short and I didn't like the way he styled it, but heck, that is how it always is. It is a great cut for $30 (I did go ahead and give the guy a tip). So no fun and exciting story about that. I spent too much money today because I also bought "taxi cards" - written in English and Chinese so we don't have an incident like we had last night trying to get to dinner. I knew how to get to this place by the metro lines, but since it was raining we thought we would splurge for the $4 (there and back) taxi ride.

One tip when you come to Shanghai - the faster you say the streets, the more they understand you. Also, if you put the accent in the wrong place, trust me, it will be a different street. I had the doorman and some other random guy at our apartment complex yelling back and forth at the taxi driver giving him directions (they understood my Chinese, the taxi guy didn't). Even after we got in the taxi the driver kept yelling, like we were going to understanding - except that he was probably saying "You Stupid Americans" - I learned "stupid" in Chinese - "Bin Bin" - they think it is funny when you point to yourself and say that. An easy ice breaker. :) Too bad I can't say much else, but I guess that is the point.

My next adventure is to Dragonfly Spa (www.dragonfly.net.cn) who wants a $30 hour long massage?? I do I do! And our gift card is transferrable - another thing to entice visitors, right? I guess I need to keep tutoring because I also get to pick up my new dress and skirt on Friday from the fabric market - we'll see how the skirt I designed myself turns out.

Diamonds are a girls best friend...uh, I mean pearls

I finally have the computer back - it only took 2 full days of Will downloading and updating and rebooting...geesh. He also taught me how to restart without having to "hard restart" - hopefully that will prevent any future mishaps.

Well today is the day - I hate to actually say that I'm going to a lady's coffee today (with a BAZAAR)... deep breath and sigh... The good news is that Dell is reimbursing us for the membership - but then again it is only $50 for the year (probably so the spouses don't go completely crazy - it is cheaper than psych treatment). This membership includes many great events throughout the year for expats to get together and discuss pearls and jewels and fashion and a ball (so I had my mom ship Will's tux here for the events). I'm breathless in anticipation. It shouldn't be too bad - at least I'm going with a couple of other wives from Dell and I bought a fake coach bag at the fakie market on Sunday...so I should be all set, right? Then again, they will all probably have the real thing. At least I had them spray on the fake leather smell..

To switch subjects completely, I had Jerry and Patty's driver pick out my Chinese name. I didn't know you really did this, but I guess you do - you can even get it put on your passport. So, here it goes - Mei Jie Xi (May Jay She) - it means some white flower in the winter and then small clean river.... okay...it sounds nice and it doesn't mean anything bad. I compare that to the "American" names that I have seen thus far that the Chinese have chosen as their own .... I already told you about Echo and Clear at the hotel... but I have also seen "Yoyo" at the electronics store and "Green" at Starbucks. However, my favorite is one that Angela told me she saw - yes it is true...some poor soul chose the name "Cocaine" - not kidding at all. I think I need to keep a tally of names because it just "cracks" me up (that pun was for you Will).

And last but not least...start praying now...I have made an appointment for my first Chinese haircut - it is on Wendesday at 10am (Shanghai time) - so Tuesday evening 7-10pm depending on where you are in the US - think pleasent thoughts.

What's that button for....

Well 3 hours after Will left on his first business trip on Thursday Tracy was clicking away checking email and working on the blog. I actually was good and when VirusScan came up to update the computer I clicked on it to download whatever new files it was going to give me. It got about 84% done and crashed. So I decided to do a "hard restart" and pushed the "big button." To my dismay, the computer tried to restart only not to restart and gave me this ugly blue screen. I played with the F-12 button a little and it gave me this blue screen and ugly error (Where is a Mac when you need it). All I saw was that the computer was going to do some physical dump of its memory. What the.... Damnit - Will is on the plane and I have no email - its not fair.

I know the first question he'll ask is...
"So what button did you push." I think he is some former relation to my Dad or are all guys that way when trying to assess a mechanical situation of which something is broken and they didn't touch it last ... Let me provide additional examples... "What were you doing when you started the car", "What switch did you touch..." My other favorite is when you stand there and know you have restarted and restarted whatever aforementioned mechanical thing and either A. Whew, thank goodness it still doesn't work for him either. or B. It starts/works right away and you stand there baffled and try to explain to your significant other that you swore it wasn't working before. This has to have been documented sometime in history before.

Anyway...it is now Saturday afternoon and Will is home and has spent 3-4 hours putting a "new image" on the home computer (whatever that means - its bad don't worry) and it is still not done yet. So I'm typing away on his fancy schmancy new work computer waiting for my precious computer to get fixed. This was supposed to be a *brief* blog to explain where I have been and that we are both still alive, but this is what happens when 3 days of pent up typing come out.

Saturday Part 1 – Couples that clean&shop together, stay together…

We miraculously had a fairly uneventful move-in – that is until Tracy found Amoxicillin and Flagyl in the bathroom drawer (I found out about and visited a REAL pharmacy and oh my gosh what you can buy OTC and self treat - a whole ‘nuther blog entry). So although the landlord had the apartment cleaned prior to move in, Will and Tracy proceeded to scrub down the entire apartment on Saturday AM before our big trip to IKEA.

I thought I had achieved shopping greatness when I could battle the post Thanksgiving crowds at some of the biggest shopping malls in Michigan as a youngster under the tutelage of my Grandmother, Aunt and Mother. I was not prepared for this. 3 comments: 1. It’s Saturday 2. There is 1 IKEA 3. The population of Shanghai ~ 22 million - need I say more? I was no match for this, I just had to think about survival. In the end, it took us 3 ½ hours to get through the herd and the most exciting thing didn’t happen until we were standing in the checkout line.

I would have to say my most interesting visions have been of old men walking around in their baggy underwear (in public) and of pre-potty trained toddlers wearing split-crotched pants. You don’t really want to know why, but that is why I’m here, to enlighten you. There is a nice couple standing in line in front of us - the father was holding their ~18 month old son who was peacefully sleeping. The boy wakes up and all a sudden the father gasps and jumps. He proceeds to turn the child around in my direction while the child continues to PEE all over the floor in front of the check-out. I was quick, but not quick enough and some of the pee SPLASHED on my sandaled (but still) bare foot. I swallowed hard and stepped back. The boy pees for at least a minute, meanwhile mom and dad are giggling and NO ONE ELSE moves from line (there are literally at least 1000 people spread out between 40 checkout lanes). Heck no one even makes eye contact - like this happens all the time - and now there is a PUDDLE of toddler urine at checkout lane 17 at IKEA. With urine on my foot I pondered the “what ifs” of #2. Funny that now I don’t mind (so much) the old men in their baggy underwear.

Saturday Part Deux - Some Enchanted Evening.....

After our trip to IKEA we were set to relax and take a little nap before going off to our first anniversary dinner at the fancy M on the Bund. We set our alarm to give us an hour plus before we had to leave. We got up at 5pm and was about to take a shower and I remembered I never bought a hair dryer (You all know my hair issues). Will suggested I just get dressed up and go with wet hair (hello? I know he thinks I’m beautiful no matter what I look like, but this is 1st anniversary dinner!!!). I start to cry. Although he was still tired, my wonderful husband offered to make a “quick” trip to the store to pick up a hair dryer. Bless you my knight in shining armor (geez I’m such a pain in the ass).

I jump in the shower, get dressed, get my make-up on, iron his pants and shirt and now it 6:05pm…my hair is starting to frizz. I text him–Where R U? 5 minutes later he comes through the door with the hair dryer and looking like shit.I knew he was tired (heck, I was still tired).I make the offer to cancel dinner since he is tired(I bluffed thinking he wouldn’t actually choose this option).He agrees to cancel dinner, I start weeping (again)–I know he’s tired but boohoo it’s our fancy dinner. I feel really bad because he feels bad but of course I still pout and go to the bathroom and passive aggressively scrub my makeup off (I’m such a ….fill in the blank).

(WARNING – some material is graphic in nature, please read at your own risk).
From the bathroom I hear gagging and come running in to find Will projectile vomiting his lunch into our stock pot by the bedside. Okay now I feel *really* bad because he *really* is sick (I start crying). I take him to the bathroom where he proceeds to empty the contents of his stomach (curry tuna fish). I bring in ginger ale, melba toast, wipe his forehead and lit a few candles to bring this some enchanted evening to a memorable close. I love this man, I love him I love him I love him. Damn Chinese cooking. I love him and bless him for loving me.

Out of contact for a few days....

We have almost moved all of our stuff into our new place - unfortunately we do not have the ADSL hooked up just yet so we will be offline for a few days. I'm sure I'll have lots to tell in my next blog and maybe a few pictures finally. :)