Operation Pack Like Mad

Operation Pack Like Mad is in progress. Nine years of accumulated junk is a lot of stuff. We get rid of bunches of it every time we move (on average once every 18 months), the last movers broke about half of our stuff, and our storeroom got flooded this year, but still....

On the good side, it's getting done, and it looks like it's getting done. My room is completely empty except for a small stack of clothes I'm taking back to the States and some assorted junk which also goes in the suitcase. It's annoying because I'm packing for the States, but I'm not going for at least another two weeks. At least I'm going, unless something like the Chinese government having a panic attack because my visa isn't in my current passport but in my old one, which has holes punched all over it and the words "CANCELED WITHOUT PREJUDICE" stamped on the first page... which might very well happen.

Jessa!!!

My friend Jessa would like for me to publicly proclaim her awesomeness, so... SHE'S AWESOME! Oh, and after I start churning out bestsellers, we're going to go live together in the Marshall Islands and eat Persian rice and lasagna every day. Sounds fun! And all the other awesome people on this planet should feel free to come join us in the Marshall Islands.

crossing the street, how to stay alive when

As I was walking home from dinner at The Dive (the food was really, really good, and oh so cheap) tonight, I had some thoughts about crossing the street. Those of you who haven't been to China probably cannot even begin to imagine the madness that surrounds every step you take, especially on blacktop.

In Dalian, there was no method to the madness whatsoever--routinely, I would dash in front of the bus going at about 60 kilometers per hour, slither my way past the two motorcycles with barely a meter of room in between, veer hard left (or right, or try an avoid a car as I jumped back) to avoid the bicycle going the wrong way down the street, firmly shout at two taxi drivers that I was certain I didn't need a ride, and hope to make it to the other side alive. Lights counted for nothing, guts and survival instinct were it, and you just had to go, or wait twenty minutes for another tiny gap to appear.

In Ningbo, things are different. First off, the lights actually count for something, though not quite what they do in most other parts of the world. Red lights don't count for the five or ten seconds before they turn green, green lights mean that everyone has the right of way, though some more so than others, and yellow lights are simply there for decoration, they don't mean anything at all. But at least it is consistently so.

Ningbo taxi drivers, on the other hand, are both suicidal and homicidal.

packing is a mess

We spent all after noon packing, and everything is a tremendous mess:

And if you look straight down from our living room window...

The illegal satellite dish attached (rather precariously) to the ledge outside our window. They took it down for two weeks when some government official was supposed to come and inspect the city and stuck it IN our living room, but now it's back up again, and we can watch bad TV in English versus only being able to watch bad TV in Chinese.

must pack/don't want to

Wrote 1005 words today (so far) and I'm pretty happy with it all. This is my fifth rewrite, and I'm hoping that it'll be the last.

Mom and I played rummy 500 last night, and I clobbered her by 230 points. Since we played rummy all night instead of packing, I have to pack today. I'm really, really not looking forward to it. Carew says, "Quit dragging your heels, Layli!" but... Packing is Not Fun. Unpacking is fun. Unfortunately, it has recently come to my attention that you can't unpack without packing, so (sniff sniff) off I go.

Then maybe I can write more with a clear conscience.

***

I didn't do much packing, I haven't gotten anymore writing done, but I did bake muffins for breakfast (at 2:00 PM, but breakfast nevertheless). Along with the muffins, I had some smoked tofu and lettuce leaves dipped in ranch dressing. I also snacked on some cheez-its (don't tell Mom!).

plot plot plot

Argh. Listening to John McCutcheon and plotting. It's not going well. I'm too fond of my protagonists, so I'm having to force myself to be mean to them and make something happen. I do hate conflict, but it's fun to write once I get going. I suspect that's when Juliana (one of the three girls that inhabit my brain) takes over. She loves a fight or a nice, juicy argument.

Maybe The Fray will help. At least the name is suitable. Music always plays with my emotions utterly shamelessly. Maybe it'll work to my advantage today, if I'm careful about what I listen to...?

***

Plotting not going well. I've decided to work with what I've got so far (seven chapters worth) and see how it goes from there. Have switched from drinking cranberry juice to eating tortilla chips. YUM!

more (funny) pics

Sorry for the blurriness. "Fried Washroom WI. Perk in Barbecue Sauce" The Chinese says "fried MUSHROOM with PORK"

I combed my hair with a fine-tooth comb. And just what exactly am I doing with my eyes?

pics, at last

It's the first day of vacation, and so far I've done the following:

• made muffins (yum, blueberry ones, from a mix though)
• sorted old photos
• read the various blogs I read
• ripped a bunch of music onto the computer
• messed around
• written in my journal
• reinstalled the driver for the camera (for the fifth time)
• cleaned my room
• messed around a bit more
• reinstalled the driver for the camera again...and IT WORKED!!! My computer no longer makes strange whirring noises and crashes when I hook the camera up to it! I have no idea why it worked that particular time though...

So, here are pictures, at long last, of the Yunnan trip almost two months ago.

Yes, the sign (in the Kunming airport) does really say "Electronic Ticket CUSS Self Check-in"

The gorgeous old city of Lijiang

...which has lots of artsy-craftsy stuff

More general prettiness

The view from our restaurant window

Batik tablecloths, anyone?

Steep, steep hill. Especially when you have altitude sickness.

"the naxi nationality talk big hepatic"? Ooo-kay then.

"chicken beans bean jilly"

Embroidery, and ermbroiderer.

angelicacy...and other delectable made up words

I was thinking about made up words that I often use. They're fun to think of and use (most of the below words were accidents, funny mistakes or things that just HAPPENED though). But here are some of my favourites:

• Angelicacy: noun derived from the word "angelic"
• Scrumptilicious: scrumptious and delicious
• Engorgilate: exaggerate
• Chicken freeze: panic or become overexcited
• Josh: slightly egocentric (from the deputy chief of staff in the Bartlet administration)
• Complicator: computer
• Famishalated: famished and starvalated
• Burrocracia: bureaucracy (of the mulish sort)
• WASC: can be used as noun, verb (WASC-ify etc.), adjective or swear word, meaning red tape

I think they're pretty cute.

thoughts on keeping batty

Took a break, started browsing blogs. Blogs are, like I've said before, VERY fun. I'm to December tenth, '01 on Holly Lisle's, and am also reading A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, which I find highly amusing, as well as instructive on how to keep batty.

"Batty" as a nickname for me has quite a few meanings. In Chinese, the word for bat is 蝙蝠 biānfú, fú for short, which has the same sound as the Chinese word for luck or prosperity, 福. Therefor, a lot of Chinese traditional art, especially from the Bai and Yi minorities feature bats, which I think are both cute and cool (but I like rats as pets, so...). Every time I see something with a bat on it, I tend to get overexcited and want to spend ridiculously large amounts of money on it, so some of my Chinese friends started calling me "Bat". Mom found this to be HIGHLY entertaining (I have no idea why), and began to call me Batty. *resigned sigh*

freedom is near

Last night, after I blogged, I was doing the dishes when I re-noticed the kitchen door. The kitchen has a sliding wood door with a glass panel on top, and on the glass is a BUNNY with a FISHING POLE and a PAIL full of sand. Oh, and the bunny is wearing shorts but no top. I had completely blocked it out until the door came off its roller and tried to smash my poor toes.

We also have flying cockroaches taking over the kitchen and mold in every drawer and cabinet (don't ask, it's awful).

I should be writing right now--I haven't written anything anywhere close to decent in a month or so. I've just been way too tired. Hopefully I'll finally have time after tomorrow, because (just in case you weren't aware) tomorrow is the last day of school. Starting at 3:00 pm, GMT +8 I will be FREE!!!

Happy! Wheee!

Must go write now.

aleatory

More than half way through semester exams, I'm developing a head cold, shingles and irritation. Ugh. On the plus side, two more days of school left, and Mom finally accepted the Nottingham job. That's actually VERY good news. It's such a relief to know what's (maybe) going to be happening next year. *

I'm embarking on the daunting quest of reading the archives of Holly Lisle's Blog. Starting right from November '01. I love blogs. They're just like people, each has its own flavour and quirks. I like all people as abstract concepts--their motives and thoughts and reactions fascinate/disgust/astonish/amuse me, or do all at once. It's only when I have to actually deal with some of the people that they burn me out or make me want to scream. But I haven't thrown anything at anybody for quite a while now. I must be getting positively tame!

*What an awkward sentence! And yes, I do read Robin McKinley's blog. It's also fantastic.

chaos

Yesterday was chaotic. Mom and I spent most of the day packing. I had a two hour break during which I talked to Brynne and Carew, and spent another two hours reviewing for exams.

Today was also spent packing. We're to the point where there are boxes all over, but it doesn't looked like we've actually packed anything either. Studied more... played a LOT of solitaire...

And why won't yahoo load? Or yahoo mail? It's quite annoying. I noticed that China has unblocked blogspot though. I wonder why.

1.5 down, 3.5 to go!

I think my exams went well. My mind is going "uh-oh". Last time I thought my exams went well, I did NOT make satisfactory grades (at least A-). Hopefully this time I did better. I'm confident about my English, biology and Chinese exams. It's math that I'm worried about. For the first time in my life, I'm not positive that I'm going to make an A. Ugh. Saxon math must be the worst ever math curricula. NOTHING IN IT MAKES SENSE! Grr...

water water everywhere

Oh. My. Gosh. There is a second Lake Superior in my kitchen. This is not a hyperbole, it is not an exaggeration, and I am not joking. For some strange reason, the washing machine is SQUIRTING water all over the kitchen and absolutely cannot be turned off. Mom and I just spent three quarters of an hour mopping the floor. It certainly broke up the monotony of nationalism in Western Europe...

double, triple, quadruple panic...again

Wow. I have exams tomorrow. The thought just dawned on me. The tiger has pounced, and I've been caught unaware. I must MUST go study for my history final (tomorrow--AAAAAH!!). But I still might end up doing something else and cramming in the morning. Oh well, as long as I can remember the reason why Great Britain wasn't affected by revolutions and reforms in the 18th century.

whoop-de-do (only slightly sarcastic, REALLY)

ONE WEEK UNTIL SCHOOL IS OUT!!! I've never looked forward to the end more. And it's almost here! Yipee!

I really can't see beyond the end of school, and exams, right now. I have some vague ideas of what I want to do--read, write, hang out, sleep late--but...it feels a bit of a waste to only do that for two months of my life. Of course, going to school 180 days a year is a pretty good waste of my time, but that's a whole other rant I'm not prepared to get into yet.

fun fun fun

I've been playing again. There's so much awesome stuff on the internet!!! This is what caught my eye tonight, along with this and this. I love geometry, and architecture more than is reasonable. If I were to design and build my own house, it'd probably look like a cross between the Klein bottle house and some Frank Lloyd Wright design.

School is almost out!!!

prolix (go look it up!)

Well. It's been quite a while since I last was on blogger. A lot has happened in that time.

1. I'd been having headaches, and found that my eyesight has actually gotten BETTER and needed to get new glasses, or lenses at least. Since, at long last, my frames were a wee bit narrow for my face (I've had the same frames since I was nine), I also now have new frames. Half-frames, actually. They're a nice, metallic blue, not light blue but not navy either. They match my eyes perfectly and "show off my oddly black eyebrows and lashes which do not match my hair at all", as Mom put it.
   
2. A last minute trip to Suzhou, the end of the silk road, was made this past weekend, to look at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University. Mom has a job offer there. It's a college campus (new and, while not unbearably ugly and institutional, still not pleasing to the eye or an architectural joy) plunked into a field. I hope the cows have been evicted, but I can't say for sure. Now there's a bunch of construction going on around it, so the effect is somewhat less than satisfactory. The school itself is okay. We still don't know which of the two offers to take.
   
3. I've been reading Dick Francis. Again. In chronological order. All his heroes are very similar-- analytical, penetrating, ruthless, and an interesting combination of optimistic and realistic. The heroes also have a habit of taking the law into their own hands and being too proud to let people get away with harming them.
   
4. I've been looking at online high schools which offer AP/college courses and are affordable. So far, the one that Mom and I like the best is Brigham Young University's online high school. I'm happy because it offers psychology, AP psychology, sociology, astronomy, creative writing, journalism, poetry, philosophy, Latin, Spanish, French, AP biology, human anatomy, integrated physics and chemistry along with bunches of other courses I'd like to take. Hopefully that'll keep me busy next year.
   
5. I took half of my English final on Friday and missed an A+ by half a mark and a stupid mistake.
   
6. Met the Suzhou Baha'is, who were charming and Persian as all get out. The food was wonderful.
7. Found a copy of "The Essential Rumi". I plan to read it sometime...
   

queen of weirdom (I need to think of a better name for my kingdom)

I am weird. Anyone who reads this blog already knows that I am queen of weirdom, but I was just re-appreciating my weirdness. You see, I came home from school, and got myself a snack: a mug of (cool) Earl Grey tea seeped until it's almost the colour of coffee, a mug of cold coconut milk, a handful of coconut chips (yes, I have a thing for coconut), a cinnamon Altoid and a store-bought muffin which no doubt will end up killing me in a highly unpleasant way. Hooray for healthy snacks and a well-balanced diet!

stressed

15 more days of school left (I'm counting this one as finished). All my teachers are dumping work on us because... I don't know, it's just what teachers do, come exam time. You'd think they'd let us rest a little beforehand though...

Now, the school is talking about having us sit our exams in the chem lab, where there's no leg room and only little plastic stools to sit on. They say it's easier to catch people cheating in there. Be that as it may, we have six exams, each one two hours long, and there is no way we will preform well if our derrières, legs and backs are sore. Why does the administration never think of things like that? Probably because they're too busy making another mess.

packing up

Now all of our books and boardgames are packed. I have no idea why we've started so late this time (we've moved nine times in the past fourteen years). Surely you can pack without knowing where you're moving to? We still don't have full information on either of the jobs, so Mom is very hesitant about making a decision.

Uh-oh. I just realized that I haven't packed any of the reference books or Baha'i books yet. Dangit, I thought the job was done!

Anyhow. It was ninety degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, with ninety percent humidity. It wasn't that hot, but it sure felt like it was. I'm looking forward to not being in Ningbo for most of the summer. Boiling to death in my own sweat isn't the most pleasant way that I can think of to die.

playing!

I've been playing on the net, and discovered some fascinating little toys here. This and this are also fun little playthingies.

I've been reading a bit about synaeshesia along with my usual (perhaps not so healthy) dose of autism. People's minds are so fascinating.

So, yeah. That's about it today.

news...almost

Layli is procrastinating. Layli has a history assignment due in 5 days and Layli hasn't started even looking at it. Layli believes that referring to herself in the third person is very fun, even though it probably annoys other people...

I'm listening to Wonderwall right now, and thinking about the junior youth (and youth-- you guys are awesome too)... Mom got two job offers, one here in Ningbo and one in Suzhou. We need to make a decision soon. I'll know what's going on probably by next week. It's nice to know at least which continent we're going to end up in. I had nightmares about moving to the Netherlands (Mom applied for two jobs there). I don't have anything against the Netherlands, I just don't personally want to live there.

So that's the news. Or the promise of news soon. Thank goodness.

bleh day

Well. Today was one of those kinds of days. I got out of bed and promptly tripped and fell. Then I forgot to take out the trash this morning. When I was making dinner, I dropped one clove of garlic, a bell pepper, my iPod (it's fine) and a roll of plastic bags. Then, when I was dancing around and being weird, I tripped again and banged my hip. I know have a two inch by four inch bruise on my hip and a bump on my head. Also, when I was at school, I overheard a couple of people gossiping about me. It was not nice. At all. Why do girls always go into bathrooms, stand by the sink and gossip? There are much better places for not being heard. Of course, the whole point might be to be heard, but that's too mean for me to even want to think about it.

I know I promised pictures a while ago, but there have been some technical difficulties (which involve my computer shutting down every time I plug the camera in), so please be patient. I'm working on it, but it's going v-e-r-y slowly.

patterns

I'm thinking about patterns...and rituals. For instance, I haven't been consciously aware of this, but every evening when I get on the computer, I always do the exact same thing. And I like patterns. I notice them. They're proof that nothing is random. They epitomize the chaos theory. And they make life seem manageable. I guess patterns are there for me to feel "in control". When I'm happy, I'll go against the patterns, but when anything is bothering me, I like something to be constant, unchangeable. Then, I know that at least one thing is going to way it should.

verano!!!!

Well. 23 days. AIAN is slowly vanishing from my life, though I will remember it forever...in my nightmares. Is it normal to have dreams where you ace a test and then get beaten up because of it? It shouldn't be, if it is.

I miss ginger snaps. Yesterday, Brynne talked about making ginger bread, and I got this yen for ginger snaps. I must get me some when I'm in the States, along with rice dream (original and vanilla), horchata, books and some fiddle music. That's my shopping list so far. But then there's the list of places I want to go and things I want to see, which is far more extensive and far less practical. It includes:

1. Blanchard Springs and Caverns
2. The Ozark Folk Center
3. Monona Terrace
4. The Glass Nickel (pizza place in Madison, WI)
5. Taliesin East
6. University of Wisconsin Madison campus
7. Rockport, MA
8. East Gate Mall (in Madison, I want to go eat at Cinnabon)
   

And a bunch of other stuff. Hopefully I'll get to see people too!!! YAY for summer! Again!

So yeah.