Catchup

I've been busy.

Excuses, excuses but that is the truth. I have been travelling each month to China this year, which means a full week of messed up jet-lagged hours when I get back. Which means about 3 weeks out of each month I am out of commission. No blogspot in China, my friends.

In China I've been taking Mandarin lessons, in addition to my press check duties. It's been really fun; I am learning new phrases but more importantly I am learning the "notes" of the language. Chinese is a musical language - there are four (five, really) tones that convey meaning when applied to certain syllables and this makes a word. So in English you can say "how" and you can say "how?" and they kind of mean the same thing other than one is a question and one is a statement. In Mandarin if I say "bu?" it means a completely different word than if I say "BU!" So, that's been fun.

My favorite phrase is "Bu? Yao!" which translates to "DO NOT WANT". 

I head back in 7 days.

I am particularly motivated right now to be happy and do Fun Things because last week I took a proper vacation. No electricity, no phone, no internet. It was magic. And full of bears. I had a great time.

And now I am back at work and nothing is bugging me like it used to. Which is good. I hope this lasts. I am one of the few people at work that gets along with a program manager from our primary client, K, and so it's kind of my job to find a way to not let him get to me. He gets to me a lot. I am trying to not take the bait but it's hard...frat boy meets 7-year old brat in an obese adult 30-year old body. And he thinks fast. I do not. I think well...but not necessarily fast. And I hate the banter game when I'm just trying to get work done. 

The dog needs shaving again. I'll have to work this out this weekend, probably.

I have to miss my neice's first birthday. This makes me pretty sad...she's really fun and everyone will be there, and I'd really like to celebrate it with her. However, I am softened by the fact that she will not remember it at all, and thus will not be mad at me for being a no-show. All I have to do is show up at some point with some crinkly shiny paper and she'll love me forever. Or at least 20 seconds.

I am being stared at. More at 11.