First night in China

As I promised last night, I'm going to start with the China pictures. I'll just post a few and explain them as I go along.

So here goes...

This was taken by a kind patron at the 'Bus Bar' in Beijing. This was our first night there. Our flight took off at 1:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon and we arrived in Beijing at 12:30 a.m., Sunday morning. The first flight was 14 grueling hours...then we landed in Shanghai and had two hours to kill before our flight to Beijing. We were exhausted and once we got all our boarding pass and passport bullshit taken care of, we zonked out in our little plastic airport chairs. Good thing I woke up to go potty, or we'd have missed our flight! Yes, then we had another two hour flight to Beijing in a smaller, much older, much stinkier plane. It didn't matter though, we fell asleep again anyway. We got to the airport and Devin and Harry picked us up (in a cab) and took us to the 'Bus Bar'. Good thing we had gotten a fifth wind by then...

'Member this little ditty? I posted this before. Once I saw all the scribbles on the wall, I just HAD to get me a marker and add my famous 'Juliedogpoocone' art to the wall. In case I haven't said this before, not only am I weird...I'm kinda sick. And gross.

I drew this a long time ago...

Yea, sick sense of humor here, I know. So Melanie wanted me to draw this on the wall 'cause everyone loves it so.

Here's the finished product. I did the whole dog this time, modeled it after Devin's dog Subway (pronounced Soo-bway to make it more uh, Chinese, I guess) who I'd just met when we stopped by Devin's place to drop off our crap. Subway is the doggie who was on her period all week. FUUUun. She's a cute little hyper black dog, looks just like a small hyena. I came to find that she looks like a lot of other dogs that I saw that week. The Chinese like fairly small dogs with curly tails 'cause they make great pets and great meals. Yes, they eat dogs. But not that often anymore. Gross. Yea.

We couldn't just go to ONE bar on our first night. We hadn't even been awake for 24 hours yet! So we took a picture right outside of the Bus Bar and headed to the next bar... We're only half drunk here. I don't remember the name of the next bar we went to, but it was pretty close by. I think we walked about five blocks to a little area of bars. I saw my first REAL panhandlers outside of this bar! A family in rags literally rattling their pans of change in our faces. Not a good idea to give panhandlers in foreign countries money. It's commmon sense. Just look the other way, kinda like we do here! 'Cept it's hard to do that when their child runs over and grabs your leg! It wasn't MY leg, thank God, it was Harry's...he was the only Chinese guy in our group. Harry handled it well, I think...nice at first and then a stern yell and the kid let go. Interesting.

"Waid duh minnit...I kin doooit!" Once we were in this second, much darker bar, I HAD to get a picture!

"Redd-die?"

"AWWWWW!!!!"

The nameless bar was cool, too. Lots of wood everywhere. And WESTERNized dance music! Lotta foreigners dancing around in there. Melanie and I went to the restroom, by this time we were starting to get used to the idea of squatting over a porcelain hole in the floor since we pretty much started drinking the minute we got to Beijing. We weren't, however, used to random water spigots sticking out of the wall. Melanie walked past it and her purse got stuck and pulled it on. She let out a startled, "EEeep! What the hell??!", and stood there for a moment watching her right pant leg get soaked. I just stood there and laughed hysterically. She couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on at first because a. It didn't look like the usual American water spigot we were used to and b. She thought it just came on by itself when she walked past it! By the time she figured it out her leg and shoe were soaked. And DAMN me for not getting a picture. It was funny.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to post this and see how it looks and then finish the rest of the evening later. I might add it to this, I might not. But I have some things to do and I'm spending too much time on this right now!

Later!

Some random pixies

I took a few pictures tonight. They're kinda blurry, but OH well. I'll get the hang of my camera some day. I'm still stoked about even knowing how to post digital pictures onna internet. A year ago, I had NO idea I'd be doing such a thing!!!! M'kay, but I still gotta learn how to get 'em a little less fuzzy. Anyhow....This is inspired by my recent changes to the arrangement of my livingroom furniture. It started with wanting to move the bird cages...I didn't like the way I'd situated them. Pickles was on one side of the room, next to the couch and Toby was all the way on the other side of the room, next to the bedroom door. His cage has been there a few weeks, I was just trying it out. Doesn't work. Ron and I always trip on it coming out of the bedroom door. I also wanted the birds to be able to see and hear each other better. They've already started mimicking each other, it's so cute! Nice for them to be able to entertain themselves with each other's presence while we're gone for the day.

Soooo... Here are the pics!

But first, my new haircut...

In' it CUTE? I love it shorter again. It had gotten down to my shoulders and I was tired of it again. Change is good.

YEEeeaaa... Change is GOOOoood.

This is how my livingroom used to look...last Friday when my brother Steve and his friend Chris came over. Chris had picked Steve up from the airport. They stopped by for a little Hey-loh. I was thereby relieved of my little black kitty sitting. And there's Ron in his usual spot.

The NEW and IMPROVED living room situation!!! I love it. Mainly because it is a much needed change for me. Yes, change is gooooot. I like where I decided to put the cages. It works well. Not to mention the chair and the couch right next to each other with a little coffee table and lamp in between. How quaint! Mmmm-hmmm. The Stan man likes it. Doncha STtaaaannn??!! Yeaayuh.

And my big brudder Steve. I was always closer to him than to my oldest brother, Eric. Must be 'cause we're both weirdos. We speak the same language. 'Course I love my brother Eric but...but he's just so NORMAL. Hehe...the family man. Can't relate to him much at this time in my life.

The bird cage set up is so much better this way.

Aaaand the other side of the livingroom. Those are Ron's beloved bikes. He was a BMX boy years ago...still is. He loves to get out and ride when he can. He ADORES the bikes. These are his two favorites that he rides pretty regularly, so they're not in storage with the others. He's also got a beautiful old beach cruiser in my back patio room. It rides like a dreeeeeamm....

I also had a rare opportunity in which my camera accompanied me in the car. So I took advantage of it when I got stuck in traffic. Perfect way to pass the time while sitting behind breaklights.

Why not take a picture of the Original Bob's Bigboy. THE Bob's bigboy. It's cool, they have carshows there a lot.

Close to Bob's is a hole in the wall that my parents went every Saturday for their weekly breakfast outing. I used to love the Saturday mornings while they were at breakfast. I'd watch cartoons and play and just be the weirdo I could be in front of them...lest they start to worry...

I was on my way to visit my friend, Rosemary last week. I had to bring my camera with me and show her the pictures off of it because I STILL have been too lazy to put my China pictures on Photopaper. Not to worry, Melanie is beating me to it and she is going to do me the favor and get me some copies. Thanks, darling...

Okay, I think that's it for this entry for now. I loaded some more China pics so I'll post a few tomorrow. No. Really!!! I will!!!

Apologies

I've been reading some blogs today in between my tasks. I discovered a new one today, Randomandodd. I came across an entry of hers that really made me think...in terms of my ex...

It's about time that I start to let go of the anger and the 'feeling of being wronged' that I've been holding on to for the past year. Well, I HAVE started to let it go, as I've mentioned in other posts...it's just not gone yet. I'm still healing. This is normal. Hell, it's all I knew for so long. Anyway, here are some things that I feel I should apologize to HIM for. As, nothing is EVER one sided. I have to start forgiving and forgetting so that I can move on. Here are the ones that really touched me. Thanks, Random.

1. "I'm sorry I called when I shouldn't have. It's better to leave well enough alone."

I would have had none of the awful hell I went through the very last time we got back together and tried again...during the time he was dealing with the fact he'd knocked up some chick he didn't love. I wouldn't have turned into a horrible, jealous monster. I should never have called him that drunken night in January. It was so selfish of me.

2. "Sorry for not being 'the one' and wasting your time."

Three years of happiness, thinking we'd get married... Then three years of breaking up with him and getting back together with him, making him think I wanted to work things out and eventually get married. Another selfish act. Which leads to...

3. "I'm sorry I pushed you away because I didn't know how to just tell you that I wasn't happy with you anymore." ...and get it the FUCK overwith!!!

Yup, today is another day of thinking too much. I'm analyzing again. Thinking about getting married leads to thinking about relationship patterns and a huge, sordid list of "what ifs". All I can do is learn from my mistakes, just like every other human being.

That's it for now.

Ba-a-ck to lyfe, ba-a-ck to re-al-ity

It's slow today at work and I'm dying for the weekend to arrive. This week has been boring. I miss Ron, I've barely seen him all week because by the time I get home from work he's at work. Then I have to spend the night at my brother's for the cat. Although last night was fun, I met him for his 'lunch' hour for dinner after I got off of work. His work is not too far from mine so we met halfway for din din.

I'm feeling down again this week. Not really DOWN, just...bleh. Bored. Not sure what to do with myself. It'll pass as it always does. All I feel like doing is lying around watching t.v. or sleeping. And I wouldn't mind doing those things with Ron. Yea, I'm a dork. I miss him. We've only been together a year though. Once we're married (I do believe we will be getting married perty damn soon...as we're both ready) I'll cherish alone time. Speaking of that...that's actually another thing I have to look forward to. Getting married! I'm excited. Really I am. I'm just...eh...this week. But I should put that one (getting married) on my list of why I should be happy. The list I MUST run through my head when I feel this way. Even though it doesn't help with the blob in my stomach.

Since I got back from my trip is when this feeling started again. Vacation's over. Back to life, baaaack to real-it-eee. I've had a horrid time getting out of bed in the morning. I'm not feeling very motivated at work because of the slow down. Actually, I'm just plain not feeling motivated at all. I hate it when I feel this way, like every day is just a chore. That's an awful way to live life. I know.

Well I'm looking forward to tonight at least. I'm meeting my friend for dinner at the Shabu Shabu place. I see her about once every three or four months. An old friend from one of my temp jobs, Rosemary. I think I may have mentioned her before. She's very open minded and is great to talk to. She always has wonderful advice, too. Not that I really need any right now. But I'm sure she'll help me get out of this mood some. Being social helps. And tomorrow is Friday. But I still hafta get outta cozy bed in the morning. Fuck.

Okay, there are a few things that I can work on. I should do them. The end of the day is coming soon. I can't wait.

Some highlights

Here are some highlights from the China trip written in an email to my friend last week. I haven't been in the mood to write about the trip much in here 'cause I'm a little tired of talking about it at the moment. I've been a broken record for a week...

****************************************

HAHA! No! But I DID pick up the "Chinaman's Squat" while I was there! When I got home I seriously hugged my toilet! I'm sure with all of your camping, you've had to take a squattin' shit... It's NOT easy man! Indoor plumbing is a wonderful thing. Especially a full sized toilet with a 'trap'...you know the curvy pipe in the back? That totally keeps the shit smell out...I never knew it worked so well.

The trip though, was wonderful from beginning to end. We got tons of pictures and even some videos! Melanie got these cool disposable digital video cameras. It was so much fun to 'document' our trip and all of the pics and videos turned out great! We lived among the people in our friend Devins hutong (a small grouping of small apartments with a little courtyard), walked up and down those dusty streets and used the public bathroom at the end of the street a lot. Ya couldn't shit in Devins toilet hole 'cause the plumbing couldn't take it. Most of the people didn't have indoor plumbing in their hutongs so there are public bathrooms everywhere. Some of the stories I have... Like the brawl our friends got into with the owners of a Peking duck restaurant. The customer isn't always right in China, nor are they immune to insults! Picture Melanie and I standing outside while Devin and his friend Harry (our wonderful, native host, I don't know what we would have done in terms of the language barrier if it weren't for him) are yelling back and forth at the owner and his wife! We had walked out (or tried to) because, instead of replacing our cold duck as Harry requested when we finally got the rest of the meal, the owner just took it away and insulted him! Devin was trying to get Harry to just give them the money and leave it alone, but he kept fighting. A hostess even came up and slapped him!! Then there was the full body message we got from Chinese prostitutes... Um, that one was my fault. We had been walking around and around looking for a good deal and this last place looked nice to me. I was tired of walking around looking and wanted to get the damn message already! I'm like, "SIGH, can't we just stay HERE??" I didn't find out until afterwards that they were actually prostitutes! Then of course there was the whole partying (with hash and beer) on the Great Wall experience. We hiked that mother fucker, slept in a tower, watched the sunrise and then hiked back. I'll send you some pics of the wall...yes, those curves go UP and DOOOooowwwnnn... and it's a million years old so the shit's falling apart. Crazy fucking hike! Oh yea, and to top it all off...their little girl doggie, Subway, was in heat the whole week!

Everyone was right, too... It seemd like forever until the trip. When it was finally time to go and all through the trip (which flew) everything was so surreal. Now I'm back and it's all over and I'm like..."What? It's over already?" Bleh. I'm still tired from the trip. It was 19 hours with a layover in Shanghai on the way there and 15 hours with a layover in Shanghai on the way back. Fuuuuck. I've never experienced a plane ride that horribly long before...

***************************************

So there. Some highlights. Woopie. It's time to go home now. I'm hungry.

FAH-LAASSHH

It's a rainy Tuesday. The first major storm of the season. What a storm it's been! Last week must have been summer's last sputter 'cause it was pretty damn hot during the day. On Saturday was an abrupt change in the weather. Lots of wind and much much cooler. Finally, some fall weather. I am very ready for it. Sunday brought clouds and by the evening, thunderstorms. OH how I LOVE thunderstorms!! Yes, I've mentioned this before. All of Sunday night and into Monday afternoon we had some knarly thunderstorms! THUNDERSTORMS! YAAAAYYY FOR THUNDERSTORMS!!! FLASH! FLASH! BOOM BOOM BASH!!! Uh huh. Yeaup. Them there thunderstorms is fun.

And that's all for the excitement. Life goes on. Not much happening this week. I'm pet sitting again. This time for my brother. He adopted a little black boy kitty from his old apartment. He's a really friendly, sweet boy with lots of personality. So the bro is gone until Friday and asked that I look after little Frankie man. It would be very easy except for one thing, Frankie is an outdoor kitty. My brother works nights so the kitty is out all afternoon and evening and doesn't usually return until about 10 or 11 at night. Then he sleeps inside, of course. So I have to spend the nights there. Ugh... It's fine, I just like to stay home once I get home. Ron doesn't get home from work until late so I'm not gonna see him all week. Oh well... At least it's just one cat and not a dog that'll shit all over the carpet.

Hmmm...what else... I did the shitload of laundry I had over the weekend. Felt soooooo wonderful to get it all done. The only shitty thing I have left to do is grocery shopping. I'm a little tiffed at Ron 'cause he said he'd do it last week during the day while I was at work. He put it off until the weekend and we were both gonna go, but that didn't happen. So he said he'd go yesterday...nope...he overslept...so he said he'd go last night after class...nope, too tired...so he said he'd go today...nope, overslept... ARRGUGHG! Yea, it's a little irritating when someone says they'll do something and they don't. It's no big deal, I know, I'm just a little pissy 'cause the kitchen is like Mother Hubbard's and now EYE have to go or it looks like it'll never get done. No prob. I'll do it tomorrow. Really. With all the other things Ron does. He IS very thoughtful. He's just a typical human male. I can't blame him for that. But I can still get irritated with him.

Oh yea, and it was my mom's birthday on Sunday. The family (mom, dad, other brother and sister-in-law, brother's MIL, neice, nephew, Ron and I) all met at an Outb@ck. That place is delicious. Yum yum YUMMY! And my mom LOVED the little tea set I got her from China. But when we were done eating and opening gifts, the ladies just kept gabbing and gabbing. I'm not really that close to my sis-in-law or her mom...or my oldest brother, for that matter...so I started getting bored. I mean, I love them all, it's just that we don't have much in common at all. We're opposites. I'm much closer to the brother I'm cat sitting for. He's a weirdo, like me. Anyway, I got so bored I started doing something I always used to do at restaurants when I was little and my parents kept talking and talking...I started making 'experiments' out of my water. Adding leftovers, salt, pepper, lemon, sugar, etc. to my glass of water and stirring it around. Fascinating. Yes, I'm still 10 in my mind. But I've established that already. Ron got a kick out of it. He was the only one.

Okay, I was just taking a little break from work. Time to get back to it. Gotta get the shipments out. I'm going to leave on time today for the first time since I got back from China. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.

Boring Entry over and out.

*KKSSHHHTT*

Toby and Pickles

Finally, a picture of Toby... MY Toby. Even though he looks like all the other parrotlets I've posted, he's MINE. Yea.

In't he cute?! Little tiny guy...My adorable little guy. He's warming up to me quite well. My favorite thing about him so far is his curiosity and playfulness. The minute I put a new toy in his cage, he's gotta check it out and play with it. I love it!

In Pickles news, I have started making some changes in the way I treat him. I am always complaining about how he regurgitates, humps (both mating behaviors) and plucks. He gets obsessed with mating and is always humping or regurgitating on his favorite toys. Well, before I left for China I took the hump/regurge toys out of his cage. This was to make cleanings easier on Ron, so he didn't have to clean up the piles of barf left by mister horny as he makes love to his twirly rope. The twirly rope is Pickles' favorite thing. It's what he's sitting on right here...

He just LOVES to puke on that thing. I finally took it out of his cage, along with another fuzzy toy he likes to hump. He preferres soft/fuzzy toys for his pleasuring.

I was gone for a week, too. Ya see, I made a mistake with Pickles...he is so bonded to me that he thinks of me as his mate. The past two springtime/mating seasons have been hell with him. He gets so obsessed, almost everytime I come over to play with him he starts doing the mating dance and humping his favorite toys. Stupid me has just let him do it, thinking it would take his mind off of plucking. It hasn't. Ever. So I've decided to try something new. Since I've gotten home, Pickles has made friends with Ron. Ron worked with him while I was gone. Before I left, Pickles would bite him when he stuck his fingers through the bars. When I got home, Ron showed me how Pickles not only doesn't bite through the bars, he lets him PET him too! Then he showed me a 'surprise'. He picked up one of Stan's old squeeky toys and started squeeking it at Pickles. Pickles started MIMICKING IT!!! It was so awesome!!!! Seeing those things made me realize A. Ron is an animal lover just like me and has the patience needed to get to know a parrot (priceless to me) and B. This is JUST what I needed to start changing Pickles undesired behavior.

I've decided to take away all but one of his hump toys. He had five! I've also decided to ignore his mating behavior when he does it towards me. Now when he makes the regurge motion and I just put him down. If he does it on the one hump toy I left for him (only to play with when he's out on the playstand on top of his cage) I walk away. I AM his object of sexual desire and this is WRONG. For more reasons than one, I know. I try to take his mind off sex by redirecting him, too. I've started 'communicating' with him with the squeaky toys as well as encouraging him to play with other toys. I ring bells, show him different ways to play with the toys... Parrots are so much smarter than people give them credit for. I've read so many books and articles about them and I can't believe I didn't try this sooner. And all the books say that you shouldn't develope a sexual relationship with your parrot. It's a lot easier to do so than one would think. Just petting them on the back gets them stimulated when they're sexually mature!!

Now I have the tools though...a parrot's favorite thing, once they're bonded and used to you, is attention from you. Their next favorite thing is vocal stimulation or any kind of interesting noise...bells, beeps, squeeks, speech... So if Pickles starts either sexual stuff or plucking, I know to redirect his behavior or just ignore it. That's how parrots learn. Positive reinforcement...works so well for them, and all pets! Isn't that wonderful??!

Hey, this shit gets me excited. It's a hobby and I love it. I love my birds...all my pets. It's my duty to make their lives as comfortable as possible.

So that's it for now. And no, I'm NOT going to get a life!

It's Allright...da-doodah-dee-doodle-dee

The day is over and I'm not an idiot anymore. All has been resolved. The best part is that what I was beating myself up over wasn't even worth it. My boss was completely understanding and told me that it wasn't my fault. Everything is fine. I needn't worry.

I feel much much better now, obviously. Very tired though. Stressing out sure does take a lot outta ya. I think I'm going to go home and skip doing laundry and/or grocery shopping AGAIN. I'm really gonna have to break down and do some laundry tomorrow though 'cause the underwear is diminishing yet again. 'Nuther lazy week.

Time to head home. Maybe I'll post some more pics tonight. I'll probably be on the computer some. I'm purging all the spyware shit off of it again tonight. Gotta do another major cleaning. Something about my computer, man... It just screams, "Come and FUCK with me!!!" Okay, buh buh bye.

Head in my ass

Sometimes I really hate being me. I am so fucking stupid. I fucked up at work with the fucking phones AGAIN. My boss is trying to cut costs and had me get rid of a couple of phone lines. So, trying to be efficient, I called the phone company last night before I left and got it all done. Wrong. I had the line with the security system removed and now they have to come out and it's gonna cost MORE money. FUCK! I'm never going to be able to do ANYTHING right. How in the fuck am I ever going to get anywhere in life if I can't even follow simple directions without confusing and fucking up the whole thing??? I HATE it when I do these things because I KNOW better! I just have a DUH moment and it's over!!! Me and my fucking DUH moments!!! I'm so tired of them! I'm so fucking STUPID!!!!!

Okay, I know this is totally negative and I really shouldn't put myself down. That's the reason I keep fucking up. I don't believe in myself. I need to have more confidence in my ability. I am NOT stupid!!! HAHAHA!!! Sure...

I'm having a horrid morning. Then Ron called to say that there is a fucking plumber at my house digging the place up because there is a leak in the water main. The plumber says that the landlord had gotten permission from me. Unless I'm losing my mind (which is very well possible) I don't remember authorizing that! The dickhead landlord didn't even call me last night to REMIND me that a plumber would be coming!!! ASSHOLE!

I'm just having a mild panic attack today. Seems everything is wrong. But it's not. Just panicking again. I know this phone thing is just a blip and these things happen. It's just that I could have done it right and I didn't. I'm lame. No I'm not. Yes I am. I think I need a career that involves only sticking my head squarely up my ass. I'm good at that.

I'm back

Whew. I'm at my first day at work, back from China. WOW what an amazing trip. Completely and totally amazing. I will remember this experience for a lifetime. Now I'm trying to adjust to everyday life again. It's weird. I'm loaded at work. I should get back to it. I'll post pics and talk about my trip when I have more time and am back to normal.

I'm HERE!

Helloh-oh-oh from CHINA baby!!! Yea, Devin's got DSL. Perty dayam cool. I am having SUCH a fucking blast I can't even beGIN to explain it here. 'Course I don't have the time. The wonderful details of this trip will come out, I'm sure, over time. I have only been here about a day and a half and I already have tons of fantastic pictures. Melanie also has a disposable digital video camera! We've taken about four 'movies' so far and they are fucking side-splitting hilarious!!!! Naturally. 'Cause ya just KNOW my friends and I are so damn funny.

So that's about all I can go into now. I'll be posting some pics just as soon as I get around to it. Which could be sooner...or later.

Oh yes, and it's amazing how uncomfortable and LONG a 14 hour plane ride can be. Wow. I really didn't understand the meaning of travel. Great experience. I'm so fucking glad I did this. I NEEDED this!!!!