5 Recent Occurences and Reflections upon Them

1) Last night I dreamt that without noticing it I had gained eighty pounds and was looking at myself in the mirror as the realization first dawned. With horror, I studied my double chin and sagging Santa belly and the sick way my thighs dimpled from being pressed together. Panic washed over me as I realized that I would have to exercise and diet off what amounted to an extra person of my body. I woke up with a gasp and laid there in that strange state of half consciousness where you are unsure which reality to grasp on to. Ah but the sweet relief that followed!

2) I’d been dutifully slogging through “Wild Swans” with little progress when I had an intellectual rebellion. Sometimes you read a book to make yourself smarter, to learn something, and sometimes you read a book just for pleasure and for a break from the damn T.V. Rarely, you come across something that does both.

I plucked up “Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim” by David Sedaris in a fit of irritation, thinking, "Life is short, and I refuse on general principle to read something this boring for fun. I'm not that desperate!" Anyway, I’d been saving this Sedaris book for a day when I was feeling really blue or homesick, because reading his books makes me laugh out loud. Sometimes when you read a humorist, you feel shallow and vaguely disgusted when its all over, like you've just eaten an entire sleeve of Oreos or spent three hours watching stupid videos on You Tube. But reading David Sedaris never makes me feel that way. Instead it makes me feel like with the right perspective ordinary life can be funny and still illustrate a lesson of some sort.

3) Eric has finally wearied of downloading songs for me and showed me how to download music myself. I'm ashamed that its taken me so long to learn something so simple, but I tend to wait until he gets fed up and teaches me in a huff. I’ve been very busy selecting things that neither he nor Jessica (my two biggest musical taste-makers) would approve of, show tunes, silly pop dance music (ask and I’ll say I listen to it while I'm working out, just don't ask when I work out...) and soundtracks from sappy chick flicks. I'll maintain till the day I die that the Harry Connick Junior standards from "When Harry Met Sally" are excellent!

Anyway, while I was reorganizing my i-pod to accommodate all the new Justin Timberlake songs, I whipped up some new mixes and have been busy painting some cool album art. One is a collection of Lullabies and the other working title is "Songs that Aren't in English". If I can master more than one computer skill in a week, I'll try and post them here so you can all have a listen.

4) We visited another factory today and during the obligatory Chinese lunch that followed we tried a new version of those delicious snow mountain buns. Apparently each restaurant has their own special recipe. I was trying to find them at the grocery store, but to be best they really need to be hot from the oven, so we'll just have to order them every time we go out and then restrain ourselves from gobbling the whole tray (to keep dream number one from becoming a reality).

5) Lastly, I just bought a beautiful pale pink silk dress with rouching and a lacy bodice that reminds me of Maria's pretty little Swiss Miss frock from the begining of The Sound of Music for $16. I twirled all around our little apartment singing and generally irritating my husband. I can't help it, I love it here.