Wednesday, January 28, 2004

ack. so I'm supposed to leave for Whistler today with a couple of folks from work. I just found out that the guy that's supposed to drive doesn't have a current passport and his birth certificates are on the east coast...so there's no way he can get into Canada. Looks like I'm going to have to drive now....so I'm scrambling to get directions and make sure my car is all good for driving up there. The good news---road conditions are "bare" right now.



Kinda sucks--I stayed up til 4am last night working on my self evaluation and packing....I was looking forward to just sleeping in the car. Not going to happen now I guess!

Monday, January 26, 2004

what a crazy day.



It started off with me coming into work and getting an email from a good friend/co-worker and finding out that his father very suddenly passed away in the middle of the night--very healthy and only 49 years old. No clue what happened. That's just awful. I was so overwhelmed with emotion in the morning...even crying a bit as I talked about the ordeal with our other team mate. It's events like this that just make you realize how much we take for granted our parents.



All day today, I was just writing. I must be bug eyed by now. I really didn't plan all my reviews writing as well as I could have this year. iIve knocked a bunch of reviews out...but I still have my manager review and my self-evaluation to finish...the two documents that take the longest. There is no way that i'm going to finish these tonight...and I've already given my manager a heads up that they'll be a bit late. I hope that's all right.



And then, after work, Pierre and I broke up. [sigh] I know this may sound like it's coming from left field if you've only been reading my blog...but it's something we've talked about for awhile. It was very much a mutual decision and our friendship is very much intact. I have no regrets and am just happy that I have gained such a wonderful friend in my life. But it'll be a bit hard getting over this. 14 months is a long time to say goodbye to.



Fortunately, my day ended on a good note. I went to see the Seattle Opera's Carmen with my friend, Peter, at the new Marion Oliver McCall Hall, which was just stunning. Oh, what a beautiful opera house it was. The performance itself was just exquisite. The woman that played Carmen had a gorgeous, velvety voice that instantly grabbed the attention of the entire audience.



But here I am, faced with my self-evaluation again...and I just feel like holding my cat. It's been a rough day.

Sunday, January 25, 2004

So long, Captain Kangaroo. I have faint memories of catching his show in its last running years...but I do remember waking up early as a child and watching his show.



Yesterday, I went up to Stevens Pass with Peter and 2 other Microsofties for a day of snowboarding. Man oh man did we get hit with snow---a total of 6 inches! The drive up was hard---instead of the usual 1.5 hours, it took us nearly 3 hours with all the snow on the road. There were accidents aplenty...but well worth the longer drive: there was POWDER everywhere. It was really one of the best snow days I've had in awhile. The snow there was just absolutely incredible...and there were many times when I'd cruise through a small bowl where the powder would ride up to my waist. What an amazing feeling. I love days like this because it's okay to fall...in fact, it's fun to fall because the snow is so fluffy. This really got me geared up for the Whistler trip next weekend.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Gong Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It's the Year of the Monkey!



Re-org time at work.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EUGENE!



I took Eugene out for his birthday last night at Bandoleone and then we watched The Company, the latest Robert Altman film about a company of ballet dancers (Joffrey). I really loved it. As far as plot or storyline goes, this film lacked it---as Eugene stated, it was more of an organic film, sketches of the life of a professional ballet dancer. What I loved most---the sounds. When you watch a performance or see ballet in movies, you never hear what the dancers hear when they're on stage. Altman really captures the sound of the toeboxes hitting the floor and the swishing the tulle. I remember when I danced ballet how loud it seemed to me the noises from our pointe shoes while performing on stage. But all the audience hears is the music. And of course, the dancing in the movie was really marvelous--the choreography and everything was just spectacular. I left wanting to see more.



Catching up with Eugene got me thinking again about this upcoming year. In my last post, I only put up one New Year's resolution---which is the most important to me right now. But here's a full blown list of things I'd like to have accomplished by year's end:



  1. Get my health back in shape--go to annual physical [done]. I put my health on the shelf last year so that I could go all out at work. While that got my projects done, it killed me physically. Not quite the best prioritization. I need to work smarter and just take better care of myself.

  2. Start going to the gym again. I just flat out stopped going last year cuz' work was so irregular. I need to find a time regularly for working out and stick to it. I miss that energy.

  3. Start going salsa dancing again. Same story as the gym.

  4. Learn to knit

  5. Take a class in some other form of dance---like bellydancing (although I've tried it) or flamenco

  6. Figure out my next steps in my career. I'm kind of in a bleh state--that is, I'm comfortable where I am but haven't quite figured out the direction I want to go yet...which makes me feel like I'm in this in-between puddle of bleh right now.

  7. Travel somewhere I haven't been (I try to do this every year--last year, it was Koh Samui and Los Cabos)

  8. Make it to all of my friend's weddings. This is the year of weddings. I already know of 3 friends with weddings this year (Becky, Linda, Jigna) and I hope to make it to all of them (Texas, Washington D.C., Portland)

  9. Have a housewarming. I actually have a goal of having one no later than spring's end---but I need to make this a resolution so that I have some sort of goal to get my act together and really make my home a home.

  10. Find time to read more books. Now that I've got a giant built-in bookshelf, there's no excuse for me to not get more books. I read 3 books in China alone. So I can't really say that I'm a slow reader now.

  11. Start playing piano again. This is a slight stretch because it's dependent on me either regularly finding a piano or buying one myself--like those cool, cheaper digital ones that sound like real ones.





That's it.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

ah, new year's resolutions. I really only have one for this year--and it's just to take better care of myself. Last year was a complete blur to me as it was completely dedicated to work. I lost touch with friends, I stopped going to the gym, I stopped salsa dancing, I never went to the doctor's or the dentist (which, as silly as that sounds is horrible for me as I've always regularly made my annual checkups a priority). The result: a horrible immune system, proven by the fact that I've gotten the flu twice within a one month period. The good thing is that my manager is easing back on my workload a bit, at least for this quarter, to give me some time to recuperate and get me out of the "you're working on the most important project of this time! work work work to get it out the door!" state of mind. I need to go back to the gym again. I've already scheduled my annual physical. I want to start cooking again and dedicating my sunday nights once again to cooking up a nice feast just for myself. And I want to take up something new and different. Don't laugh--but I want to learn to knit! Starting to look up classes....

Friday, January 9, 2004

Today, I thought I could make it into work. I was starting to feel better--my temperature had gone down, my head congestion was really starting to disappear, I was really getting better. Then last night, I decided to take one small capsule of Nyquil so that I could get a good night's sleep---for the past few nights, I hadn't slept very well due to my inability to really breathe very well throughout the night coupled with jetlag. And boy, did I sleep. I woke up at 10am and wrote an email to my boss telling him that I was going to try to come into work at lunchtime. Then I went back to bed. Woke up at 12:30pm. Still dizzy with exhaust. Email from boss--"you should probably take the whole day off". Good advice--I took it. Went back to bed. Woke up at 4pm. Still dizzy and exhausted. But goddamnit--I just slept for the entire day! So I forced myself to get up and get something to eat and drink. But man--that felt good. My body hadn't experienced a decent night of sleep in awhile...probably since before leaving for my trip to China!

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

most likely, i've got a bad case of influenza---just got back from the doctor's. man, that's TWICE in about a month! I got sick like this at the beginning of December. I just want to get better---I feel like crap right now. It's funny---there is a *remote* chance that I could have SARS since I just got back from China (although highly unlikely--the only reported case in China has already been quarantined and controlled...and it was in southern China, not anywhere close to where I was). Because of that, my doctor was taking extra precautions...and had me wear a mask the entire time during my visit...and drew some blood. Interesting experience. If I still feel crappy by Friday, I'm supposed to go in for a chest x-ray. Crazy.
I forgot to mention--I'm sick. Again. I don't know what's wrong with me--my entire life, I've gotten sick at the blink of an eye. I caught a cold on the plane coming back...and it's just gotten progressively worse, especially in this chilling weather. My head is aching, I'm stuffed up, my throat is achy and I'm still jetlagged. Ugh. I HATE being sick. And what horrible timing--I have a mini launch next week---not much needs to be done...but it's too difficult being home this week to really successfully launch thing thing. But I have to stay home---"work smarter, audrey". Ugh. It's just ridiculous how easily I get sick. I swear I dig into my vacation time just for sick days.

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

It's so cold here today. Snow came down on Seattle at about 4 this morning---as much as the city was anticipating the snow, it's certainly not ready for it. There aren't enough snowplows and certainly not enough sand or salt on the roads. I spent an hour in my car today, getting stuck on hills---definitely could not make it into work. I called my boss about staying in and he was like "don't worry--no one's here anyway. No one could make it in". I can't even get my car back into my parking lot---there's a very small little slant for the entryway into my parking lot--and it was so slippery, there was no way I could get my car in without it banging against the brick wall. I just have it parked on the street in the front now---hope the police are lenient about parking today! I doubt the little meter maids can even navigate through the streets anyway. Jigna was telling me that people were snowboarding down Queen Anne Avenue--that's crazy.



I'm not looking forward to all this beautiful fluffy snow turn into ugly slush---a warm front is moving in and the weather forecaster is predicting "flooding" tomorrow. Great.

Monday, January 5, 2004

I had a really awesome trip---saw so many places and hung out with family. I'll get right to the point:



L.A.

Saw the cousins, uncles & grandparents. Saw Return of the King for a second time and ate a lot of good food. Hope my uncle's family can make it up to Seattle so that we can go on a ski trip to Whistler together.



TRIP TO CHINA




Dec 28-29

One 12-hour flight and I was in Beijing. Soon learned that our entire group was made up of about 60 people spread across 2 buses. Tour guide Andrew whisked us off to the hotel for a free evening--some of us ate, some of us slept. I passed out fortunately and got a decent night of sleep unlike most other people. In the morning, we headed off to the former imperial palace--Forbidden City--which was massive...only to walk into Tiananmen Square which can accommodate up to one million people. The population in this country is insane. There's one city that has a population of 31 million. Sheesh. After eating a so-so lunch, we went to the Temple of Heaven and then to the breathtaking Summer Palace. The majority of the Kunming Lake was frozen and people were walking all over it and ice skating. This was by far one of the most scenic places that I saw. The next day, we headed straight to the Great Wall which was as magnificent as I expected. I dressed really warmly thinking that winds would be blowing me off...but I got so hot just walking up the huge steps--quite a workout! At one point, there was a camel that tourists could take pictures with, which I did of course. Funny animal. Climbed as far as I possibly could where I found Mark, a Canadian boy from New Brunswick that I befriended on the tour. We met up with my brother and took silly touristy pictures in ancient Chinese garb. We probably spent 45 minutes doing that alone! oh, but it was fun. Seeing that we had 10 minutes to get down to the bus where everyone was waiting for us, we ran down and stopped halfway where they have a makeshift slide that cost us 10 RMB to go down. We sat in little go-karts and slid all the way down--very fun. The day ended with a short trip to the Ming Tombs, one of my dad's favorites with all of the rock and marble.



Dec 30-31

In the morning, we flew to Xi'an---what was supposed to be a short 1 hr 40 min. flight turned into 5 hours. There was so much fog (er...pollution is what it looked like to me) that the plane had to land in a city in between, stay on the runway for about an hour and a half and then take off again. I swear, there is SO much pollution in all of China. Xi'an was pretty bad---you know how China is usually shown with a haze...it's just pollution. Somehow, though, it gives it this mystical quality...especially with the sun and the mountains just slightly peaking through the clouds of dirt. Anyhow, with us arriving so late in Xi'an, everyone was so tired---so right after eating lunch in the airport (we were hungry), we headed straight to the hotel to rest for about an hour. After that, got back on the bus to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which was more beautiful than you could imagine. I can't believe it was built in 589...the whole area surrounding it made it a very peaceful location. We came in the evening and had the opportunity to see it lit up at night which was also breathtaking. Later on that evening, we came to have probably the best meal on the entire trip: a dumpling feast at a T'ang Dynasty dinner show. We were served probably about 20 different types of dumplings from your basic pork, vegetables and beef to shrimp, fish, pumpkin, duck & walnut! The show itself was full of music and dancing and colorful custumes---quite enjoyable.



The next day, we got up early as usual (our wake up calls were, on average, at 6:30am), jumped on the bus and headed to one of the ancient city walls. Xi'an is surrounded by these huge walls. From there, we went to Huaquing Hot Springs---no longer in use, it was built thousands of years ago for use by emperors and empresses. The water is still there and there's even a small spot where people can pay .50 RMB to rub their hands in the natural hot water.



No visit to Xi'an is complete without visiting the Museum of the Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses. I've been looking forward to seeing this since I first learned about them in Art History 100. The vaults were massive and spectacular. I even got a chance to meet the farmer that discovered the clay figures from digging a well on his farmland. I have a feeling that's all he does now---sits at the museum and signs books. What a huge excavation there is---who knows how many more years it will take to dig out and restore the rest of the thousands of warriors & horses buried underneath there.



That night was New Year's eve---Aaron and I gathered with all of the "kids" from the trip--ranging in age from 16 to 28. In the end, a few worried parents had us head to the karaoke club located in the hotel for some singing; however, anxious to party with the locals, Mark & I headed out to the Bell Tower Square at about 11:40pm...just in time to catch the celebration. For the most part, people had their own fireworks, lighting it up with no sense of where it might go. Some people would light up fireworks and attach it to 3 balloons and let it float up....not knowing that it'd come back down at some point, breaking up the crowd. Mark and I had to toast to the New Year and found a street vendor and ordered 2 bottles of beer. Now, this isn't just 2 small bottles of beer that you typically find in a 6-pack--these were 2 really big bottles of beer. And the cost for both? Just 3 RMB! ($1 US = 8 RMB) We were so shocked that we gave the lady 10 RMB and said Happy New Year much to her delight. Eventually, we moseyed our way into a Disco which was quite a scene. The bartenders seemed drunk themselves. At one point, after ordering a beer, the bartender brought his own glass, took my beer, poured himself a bit and toasted with me! How odd. Eventually we had to call it a night since we still had to wake up at 6 the next morning to catch a flight...



Jan 1

In the morning, we flew to Shanghai . This was the first time our group really broke up as half of the group was staying in Shanghai and the other half was going on an extended tour to other cities. My family was in the latter half. Shanghai is like the New York City of China. Lots of big buildings and lots of people. The buildings were really cool---an high-rise architecture's dream I'm sure. We parked our bus on Old Shanghai Street and made our way through the crowd as vendors tried to sell everything for ridiculously cheap prices. Eventually, we arrived at the Yuyuan Gardens, one of the most beautiful Chinese gardens I've ever seen. Chinese gardens consist of 4 elements: rock, water, plants & buildings....and this place was so rich in color and beauty. The visit was shortlived as we had to jump on the bus for the ride down to Suzhou. Arriving in Suzhou, we had dinner and then a number of us headed to a massage parlor where I got a foot massage for an hour!



Jan 2

We started off our day in Suzhou by going to Tiger Hill, the site of a leaning pagoda, much like the one in Pisa---but this one is much much older (built in 959). Beautiful beautiful. Then we hopped over to the Lingering Gardens which were also beautiful (though, admittedly, I think the Yuyuan gardens in Shanghai were nicer). The best part about these gardens was a section where they grew bonzai trees. There were so many of all different sizes and styles. The last stop in Suzhou was a silk factory. I haven't mentioned---we stopped at several factories on this entire tour---of course so that we tourists could buy buy buy. This was probably the most enjoyable place. I've never gotten a chance to see how silk was made. They showed how workers pull out a single thread from the silk cocoon and a machine basically unravels it and spins it into a big reel of silk. The coolest was watching how they make silk comforters. Essentially, instead of pulling out the threads, the workers just take out the worms and stretch the cocoon until it's about a foot wide. After airdrying in that state, they take the dried cocoons and stretch it out to the size of a comforter--single, queen or king. For a queen sized comforter, they use about 7000 cocoons! My whole family bought a bunch---I got 2 for myself. Very light and very warm.



Back on the bus to head to Hangzhou---on the way, we made a brief stop at Tongli, the "Venice of the Orient" as it's a town that's full of canals.



Jan 3

Now we were in Hangzhou. By now, many of us were so tired from traveling so much. Jefferson, our tour guide, bought a pirated vcd of Return of the King to watch on the bus because we were on the bus for so long. There was a feeble attempt to cut our day short in Hangzhou to head back to Shanghai earlier as the majority of us were on the flights for the next day to head back to the U.S....but that didn't happen. We really only spent the morning and part of the early afternoon in Hangzhou---but they were all fun places to see:



First stop: the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei, a former great general who was murdered unjustly---and as a result, now has a great mausoleum in his honor. I learned that there is a tasty snack that I love named after the traitors that betrayed Yue Fei and caused him to die: "devil's snack" or "yeow tsa guay"---the long chinese donuts that we usually eat for breakfast with jook. Afterwards, we took a scenic cruise along the Westlake, a lake that Hangzhou is known for. We then went to the Dragon Well Tea Plantation, the national tea of China where we got a demonstration and an opportunity to sample some of their finest green teas. My family, of course, went crazy and bought several cans. After lunch, we went to Ling yin Temple, the site of the largest sitting buddha in all of China (the one in Hong Kong is much larger though). Just outside of the temple there are mountains with buddhas carved into it---mind blowing. While we were there, we were entertained by a dragon dance performance. I just admit, although many of us wanted to head back to Shanghai early (I included), the extra hours spent in Hangzhou were worth it---everything we visited there was spectacular.



That evening, we sat on the bus for 3 hours to go back to Shanghai where the tour guide dropped us off on Nanjing Street for some exploring on our own. This is a famous shopping district. I'll have to admit--I was a bit disappointed. Nathan Road in Hong Kong is much better. I so wanted to go back to the area that we were in when we first arrived in Shanghai--the old Shanghai Street---that's more for locals...whereas Nanjing Street was just comprised of big department stores. At the end of Nanjing Street, we all met up again to walk along "the Bund", or the waterfront to capture the harbor view of Shanghai---which was just gorgeous. The TV tower there is magnificent.



So that was that---my entire trip to China summarized as much as I could. The next day was a full 24 hours of traveling as I still had to head back to Seattle. I came home to a very cold city--it was just 20 degrees!!! I had my heat turned off while I was gone and walked in to find my condo only 50 degrees and poor Misha sneezing up a storm!



But it's good to be back home.