lights out:

i left work later than usual today to speak to someone who currently lives in shanghai.  lovely lady.  i must say, my perception of mainland chinese folk has changed dramatically over the last two years.  i stepped across the border to shenzhen for the first time two years ago, and dared not to look at any mainlander straight in the eye.  i would secretly observe from the corners of my eyes and almost immediately, a cold shiver would run all throughout my body.  there was something strange about them. my preconceptions about the mainland had me think of them as a poor, shameless and aggressive kind.  i was worried someone would mark me and take me to a dark room and sell off my organs one by one on the black market.  some of that suspicion still remains with me unfortunately; i still cannot say i am 100% comfortable and trusting, but my eyes have definitely opened up as have my perceptions on my ancestors.  i have learned that there are your good eggs and your bad eggs.  i suppose i always knew this, but i had to see it for myself to believe it.

so as i was saying, i left work later than usual and had to pee before i closed up the office.  at 7:59pm, i walk into the bathroom, pulled down my pants and started to pee.  as i reached to grab 10+ squares of toilet paper (i am a toilet paper fiend), the lights suddenly went out.  my heart jumped.  i said out loud, "oh shit."  i quickly wiped, pulled my pants up, ran my hands through water and ran the eff out.  8:00pm.  eff.  that must be the time they shut down the lights to save on energy.  there is a bit of an eerie hollow echo-y silence by the bathroom that really spooks me out also - i guess you'll never hear of me working that late again.  

stinky dixie

dixie, or dick see, is taxi in cantonese. i've been a really bad girl and have been taking a dick see to work in the mornings, much more often than i should be. my husband will probably read this and call me right away to say, babe! stop wasting my money! but ever since i was scolded for being the last consultant to stroll into work every morning at 8:45am, i've taken the liberty to say, fack that, i ain't wakin' up earlier just so that i can bust my ass in the mornings. ima take a cab and save myself the 10 minutes there.

anyhoot. there are two things about dick sees and dick see drivers that have been pissing me off for the last two years since i've moved to this little island city; one, they stink and two, they are waaaay too break-happy with their foot. from the time they leave my building to the time they reach my office, the cabbie will have tapped on the breaks about 5 hundred facking trillion times. it's enough to make a person gag. and speaking of gagging, what's up with the stank inside the car? the smells are about as hallucinogenic as pepe le pew splattered across highway 66.