Carefree

I remember one lunchtime during high school, I walked out to the parking lot with one of my best friends, Joy. It must have been junior or senior year, when it was THE thing to drive out for lunch. This one particular day was a normal day...nothing eventful, nothing special. But something caught my eye and made me stop and forget everything. It was a big and beautiful butterfly I caught in a kind of dance with the breeze, just a few inches from me. It was wrapping around this invisible sphere again and again. It didn't seem to matter that it was in the middle of a parking lot or that a person was looking at it...it just played carelessly for however many seconds and then it was gone. Maybe it got lost along the way to wherever it was trying to go, but found something worthwhile. it made the rest of my day feel a little lighter.

Today, I saw a butterfly on the window sill of the Krispy Kreme a couple blocks from my apartment. It was there for a couple seconds...and then it fluttered off into the thick air, through the traffic, onto the other side of the street. I tried to follow it...but it disappeared between a taxi and a minibus. What was it doing here? I don't know but I could have followed it forever.

an update

so...upon reading about my friends' lives and lai's life and everyone's life online in cyberspace...i decided to jump on the bandwagon and update my life a little too. plus it makes my time here feel more legitimate. my friends, alex and andrew, and i were talking about this last night - about the value of writing. it makes you reflect on your experiences and, in a way, makes them more meaningful. it gives you less chance to forget them and, in turn, gives them more weight in your mind. there are times i feel like i'm just floating here in hong kong, without anything to just pin me down to the ground. but then i write to jim, or my girls, or to myself...and i am reminded of who i am and what i'm doing here.


so what's been happening in my life? picture tour! here are My top 10 Most Memorable
Moments of the Month. alliteration is so delicious. mm mm mmmm.


1. After a long night at the Old China Hand in ghetto Wan Chai, dancing for hours til we closed a bar/club (I forget the name), then going BACK to Old China Hand, Alex, Andrew, and I truck on through to the Immigration Tower at 7 in the morning in hopes of getting our Hong Kong ID's. This pretty much sums up the delirium that comes with hours and hours of no sleep.







2. Here are me and my girls, Jackie and Celeste, at Beirut, THE sheesha bar in Lan Kwai Fong. This was the best part of our night, after an awkward birthday party of whom happened to be Jackie's ex-boyfriend. Awkward. First time I have ever smoked sheesha and boy was it divine.








3. Yet another pitstop at Beirut...only this time, with my co-worker buddies and Celeste. This was also the night I discovered Kebabs. I will never let another night at Lan Kwai Fong go by without one of those juicy, delicious, conveniently-wrapped, and perfectly sauced-up kebabs.






4. Celeste and I took a boat off Sai Kung to visit an island which had a rocky path leading to a 'mini-island'. It was an adventure, hiking and exploring in nature...something i don't see much of. We had to jump from rock to rock and dip our legs into water just to get to this mini-island...but it was all worth it when we found a mini-coconut in the end.








5. I got my first real foot massage in Happy Valley. I remember getting one before with my family in Mainland China but I wanted to cry because they like to use knuckles. This time around, sat back, watched some flat-screen TV, and caught up on some mindless celebrity gossip as I dozed off to a man rubbing my feet. It doesn't get any better than that.





6. Released some pent-up frustration gathered up from the week by karaoke-ing! We belted out songs such as Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls, Wannabe by Spice Girls, as well as Oops I did it again, Bohemian Rhapsody, Billie Jean, oh and so much more.









7. At Dicken's Bar (right around the corner from my apartment) is the setting for our newfound weekly tradition - Trivia Night. This was our first night...when we came in dead last but dead happy because we got free beers for it.









8. Karen, Vanessa's sister, wanted some Hot Pot (which I'm ALWAYS up for). We went to a nice, local place in Sheung Wan and ate and ate to our hearts' content. Meatballs, Tofu, and Pig's Intestines...oh my! Our new nickname for it is "Got Pot" because Alex accidentally texted me 'I've been craving some got pot'. We all realize we sound like drug dealers.

9. After a long week at work, we decided to have a chill-out night. After some stir-fry, a moist chocolate cake, and a trip to Toys 'r' us, we played some trivial pursuit which we would soon find out was a little TOO british-centric. But in the end, it didn't matter because we resorted to the easier, kid cards to rebuild our self-esteem.







10. Lookin' thugged out at the Russian Bar. We're in 'the freezer' where you stand around drinking vodka shots wearing faux-fur coats and yell 'prost!' as a toast. It was quite a spectacle, especially when John Cleese coincidentally showed up and bought everyone drinks. Okay...he wasn't John Cleese, but he was damn close.