Eslade List

Today is Eslade's day of birth. She is a remarkable age at a remarkable time. To celebrate her birthday, I am enjoying a Charleston Chew--isn't that nice of me? Yesterday I sent her an email in part Spanish. I used a translation link on Google. She didn't respond back though. Probably because she was overwhelmed with my linguistic greatness and adaptability. Yes, that was why.

Also, to celebrate her birth I made a list (because I LOVE lists) and I think it is only appropriate that we fully celebrate our loved ones days of birth by doing things that make us happy too. If we are happy, they are happy. This is my list, to be read in a thick Chilean accent, but if you can't do that or even know what that sounds like, don't feel bad because Eslade won't mind.

Eslade is: (kind of like it were a FaceB status, get it?)

nocturnal--in fact, the later the hour the greater her comedy.

Unwavering in her intergrity.

¡Nada que ver!

a dedicated daughter.

Planned Spontaneity

fine using training chop sticks for months to please the Asian Princess and me.

always supportive of watching teeny bopper movies.

excellent at listening and remembering.

unabashed in admitting she almost put a certain guy's name in her Facebook status because she thought it was the search bar.

not the kind of person to even have a FaceB status because she can handle solitary independence.

up for exploring new hobbies.

calling the numbers on the back of trucks to tell them they are driving well.

punctual.

forgiving that you don't call back promptly.

one year older.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Playlist

Don't judge my playlist just yet. And if you do, judge Heider Head because most of the songs are her suggestions. But, I'm going to add more songs--so I'm looking for recommendations. I just spent $10 on iTunes to soften my revengeful feelings against my landlord. No worries, I will get my deposit back, but in a polite manner. Just kidding, I've already sliced her with my vicious rhetoric. Needless to say, my iTunes visit made me think Bloggy could use some tunes too. We all need tunes. In fact, we need tunes so much we should sing the messages we leave on others phones rather than speak them. Hum.

I feel so proud of myself that I figured out how to add a playlist. I'm so computer savvy. It almost makes me feel like going to work tomorrow. On, second thought...nah. At least I have new music to listen to on the way to work. That helps get out of bed in the morning--that and breakfast.

Sleep Guilt

For the next couple weeks I'm going to try out different blog backgrounds. I didn't realize there were so many new options bloggers could use to decorate their blogs now. It's rather fun, and vain. And I have never been opposed to fun and vain activities and so I will indulge myself.

Here's a question: Do you ever feel guilty sleeping in? In Before Tian world, I would feel guilty about all sorts of things like eating sugar before 2:00 pm, watching a movie on a weekday, or outwardly admitting you don't want to go on a hike. Well, today I slept in--very late. So late that I can't even get myself to admit what hour because even though I am an independent adult, free agent, and master of my own schedule, I feel as though my mother would disapprove and how will she ever get a daughter with such bad habits married off. Would Mr. Darcy ever sleep in? Never.

Once, Bunnicula and I watched Lost on Hulu for an entire afternoon. (Admit it, you or someone you know has lost their real friends to the fake people on Lost at some point in time. That's why it's called Lost.) After an episode would end, Bunny and I would peek at each other sheepishly hoping the other would first claim wanting to watch the next episode. It's always better not to initiate sluggishness but merely accompany it. Is initiate sluggishness an oxymoron? By the time Devry came home we had evaporated into the couches and convinced ourselves that we were living in a flashback scene of our lives and by the time we came to we would be back in our real, successful, and thin lives doing all sorts of productive things like saving small children in Bosnia.

We never came to.

However, I think it is important that once in a while we allow ourselves to sleep until we wake up. Yes, I know, everyone sleeps until they wake up; there's nothing else you can do but wake up or die. (I'm not trying to be mobid, just pointing out the facts.) But what I mean is that you sleep with no alarm, no saying to yourself "I have to be up in time for...", no consioucness of sleeping for a certain time period. You just sleep until you can't sleep anymore. I wish this was infused into my psyche earlier in life because every time I try to do this, I still wake up feeling guilty and then how will I ever suit Mr. Darcy? Oh but wait, he's fictional, like my fake friends on Lost.

Two Notes

This is an attempt to get myself to blog. I'm not officially starting to blog again, just warming up. However, after various conversations with Unicorn, Isa, and The Queen, I feel like I should pick up blogging again. I went to Unicorn's the other night; she was worried that she and T would be in the basement putting the babies to sleep and unable to hear the door. So, as a good wife would do (which by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of The Good Wife) she instructed T to write a note and put it on the door. This was T's note:

Isa & Tian Tian

If you are reading this, it means we are putting the children to sleep. We may not be able to hear you knock. But not to fear Walter will bark if he sees you which will alert us. He is however in Jeff's office to your right. Maybe knocking on his window will alert us sooner.

As for now while you wait, enjoy some of Jo's and Millie's fantastic coloring skills found here. (followed by arrows pointing to various scribbles on the paper)

Now, unfortunately, I never got to see this note when I arrived. What I read was the following by Unicorn:

Hello there!

We are still tucking in babies, be up in a min.
Walter is locked up, so please just come in and be at home!

Unicorn

As a good husband would do, T wrote the note and then sought Unicorn's approval which obviously was not given. "She ought to have just done it herself." I only noticed T's first note when leaving because the note was still taped on the glass door and I could see there was writing on the other side. Isa and I had a good laugh at comparing the two notes. I'm not sure why it was so funny to us.

Another List

Haven't blogged in an extremely LONG time; good time for a list.

Priorities Over Studying (it's my last semester, for crying out loud):

-laundry and dishes; this is an excellent way to still feel productive
-dejunk my closet; I make two piles, one to go to Plato's and one for DI
-dejunk my closet again; I remind myself that even though the pants are super cute, I still don't fit into them, just like I didn't fit into them a year ago when I bought them (then I fold them nicely and place them...hopefully not back in the closet)
-eat
-watch movie trailers on HULU
-go to the gym
-eat
-devise ways of seeking revenge on Sporto
-organize my planner
-read the police beat (oh I love you police beat; may you always be true)
-avoid reflection of the future
-visit the girls: Josephine Sarah and Amelia Rose (Shell's twins)
-remind myself of all my good qualities
-sing songs I first heard on the school bus (Cranberries, Lisa Loeb, Des'ree, etc)
-call Chenko and tell her anecdotes; Chenko loves a good anecdote.
-put on the eyeshadow that has sat in my makeup bag for three years and never been used
-use punctuation in manners entirely new
-have late night chats with Eslade
-miss the Asian Princess
-blog, or think about blogging and then not blog but eat

Taiwan Reincarnated II

Country Visit

Yesterday, I went to Qiao Zhou
To see the country with my own eyes.
My future awaited the past—
Rice paddies, Taiwanese, and Aborigines.
Delivered by the fast-line train,
I pressed my face to the window and watched
Green banana leaves smear by,
“How beautiful!” I thought.
Bananas for ice cream sundaes and hot bread,
Curving yellow smiles of silliness
Tempting me to enjoy
A banana world in Qiao Zhou.
A banana country.
I stared out the window and
Lin Mei stared at me.
“Those aren’t banana trees,”
She said.

Morning Thoughts

For the past several months, I've chosen to walk plugged into the sounds around me rather than my shuffle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my metallic purple shuffle (compliments of Unicorn and Mary Poppins) but I like to save it for the gym or late-night papers--makes it more like a treat. Here's a list of thoughts (because lists are made of great and it's Friday) that I've had this morning:

-I wish Daniel Day-Lewis would be like he was in the 90's. Oh, I heart you crazy man.
-I will not buy any granola bars from the vending machine today.
-What day is it again?
-I should pray.
-Oh, she's wearing cute shoes.
-Pastry.
-I MUST go to bed earlier.
-Maybe I'll get to work and there will be beds in place of chairs.
-Can't the bell tower mix their tunes up a bit.
-Oh, I hope I already missed the National Anthem.
-Oh, yay, the National Anthem. I really am grateful to be an American.
-I will assume he is Canadian and not judge him for walking during the flag raising.
-Maybe John Krasinski look alike in the ward will ask me out.
-Maybe John Krasinski will ask me out.
-Something good will happen today.