THE GREAT WAAAaaallll

I finally uploaded all the pictures I needed for this entry. So here is our backpacking trip on the Great Wall of China, October 5 - October 6, 2005, in all its glory...

We woke up Wednesday morning and got everything together in our backpacks including warm clothing, tent, sleeping bags, snack foods, water, BEER...you know, all the essentials. We headed out around 11:30 a.m.

Yes, behold the streets of China!

We had a very important errand to run before we could actually start our trip, however. Taking little miss horny dawg Soooobway to the vet for bording and a possible (hopeful) spaying. So we walked...

What an amazing city!

Then we arrived at NPH animal hospital and Devin and Harry brought Subway in.

The NPH stands for "Naughty Pets Hospital". I should have gotten a picture of the other side of the sign, which had these very words in English. I don't know WHY I didn't. Instead, I took a picture of the victims sitting outside in the sun.

Devin and Harry took a while inside the vet, trying to find out if they would be able to spay Subway during her stay or not. One thing I noticed during our trip, the Chinese were easily confused by the White Boy and the Chinese Boy. Yea. It took them forever in there. And after forever and some maybes we found for absolute SURE that NO, THEY COULD NOT spay the doggie while she was in HEAT.

From the vet we walked to the bus stop, which took only about ten minutes.

After a two and a half hour bus ride we arrived at the bottom of the mountain where there were a whole lotta little dudes (one of which GRABBED MELANIE'S ASS) waiting at the bus stop to wheel n' deal witcha for a van ride up to the bottom of the Wall.

After another 45 minutes in a tiny van we arrived at Jinshan.

Ooooh, the sign at that starts our journey up to the first tower...

We finally got UP and UP and UP to the actual Wall around dusk. And then it was GROUP SHOT!!

After that we climbed and climbed and climbed... UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN these GIANT sets of STEEP stairs that extended over the mountain for THREE HOURS. As we got further away from the entry tower in Jinshan, the terrian got tough...and crumbly. OH SHIT! The stairs are now a crumbled lump, lets hope it doesn't break away under my foot! We'd stop every few towers to rest. It's a very good thing that we hiked at night. We would have sweat to death during the day. We had plenty of illumination from our headlamps and the beautiful full moon that rose as we trekked away. I didn't get a damn picture of THAT either! I was too exhausted from the climbing to think about being a photographer. After about 15 towers or so, we decided to stop and camp. That's when the fun began! Woo WOOOooooo!!! Party on The Great Wall!!!

Harry was kinda in a bad mood by the time we got up there, so he wasn't too willing to be in any of our silly shots. But he did volunteer some useful information once we got ALL THE WAY to that spot... He said that sometimes there are beggars who hassel tourists for cash. Great timing Harry! Needless to say, we didn't sleep very well that night. But we all piled into the tent when it got unbearably cold outside...

We were awake when dawn started crackin', so we got to the snappin'... O' pics, that is...

YES...

We climbed ALL THAT MOE-FUKKIN' WAY! Now it's time to start back...

Oh dear...

It was when we started on our trip back that we realized that there was NO WAY in HELL we could have stayed more than one night on the wall given the fact that we had packed more BEER than WATER. We had to conserve water on our hike back and we felt like IDIOTS. Oh well, ya live (yes, we were a bit dehydrated but lived) and learn.

And here we are, at the end of our morning hike down the Wall, proud of our accomplishment...

*Whew* I climbed the Great Wall of China. And I have a sweatshirt that says so. Good for me!

Storm a comin'

Just in case anyone was wondering, I am working on getting the rest of the China pictures posted. I'm putting together the Great Wall entry and there are a lot of pictures to sort through. So far I've just uploaded a few. I didn't forget, I'm just putting it off again. But it'll eventually get done.

In the meantime, the week is going okay. Although, I'm upset about something right now and I don't feel like writing about it. I'm doing this entry to take my mind off of it. It's given me an anxiety attack and I have to chill. Yes, I'm chillin'...everything is FINE. JUST FINE. CHILL, JULIE, CHILL FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.

Let's see, what else to take my mind off things... My car was broken and is now fixed, thanks to the lovely Ron. He found me a great Honda mechanic that's very close to home. Yay. Uhhh...I've decided that I'm not going to jog anymore, but power walk instead. I just had the 87th person tell me that jogging is horrible for my knees. Okay fine. There are plenty of other exercises I can do. I'm going to do the stair-climb at work today before I go home. I've also asked for another pair of rollerblades for Christmas. I miss my rollerblades, they got stolen out of an ex-boyfriend's van a few years ago. That was just the beginning of the many bad little things that happened over the five months I was with him. That's a whole 'nuther entry, as we say...

Okay, I'm off to calm down some more. Yessireee...I'm a well adjusted, emotionally sound person, I am. YUP!

Blubbering freak

After a shitty week of being sick and stressed, the weekend shaped up pretty well. Friday was a rainy, dreary day on top of my raw emotions. By the time I got home I was completely worn out. Ron had been working days (starting at 5:30 a.m.) all week instead of his usual nights, so he was sacked out on the couch when I walked through the door at 4:30 Friday afternoon. I took his silent advice, grabbed a blanket and went to sleep on my cozy bed...kitty all snuggled up to my butt. We slept until 12:30 a.m.! Since we'd each gotten a solid eight hours, we decided to pop in a movie and have a few beers. We went back to bed at about 5 a.m. Not before we had a nice talk about everything that was on our minds. Made me feel a whole helluva lot better. It's great to be able to argue and work things out like adults. Tell each other how it is and not let things fester. That's how a healthy relationship works. And in all that complaining about the passive aggressive nature of my ex, I never stopped to notice that I'M ALSO somewhat passive aggressive. Interesting. Who'da thunk?! Ron has shown me that it's such a waste of time to keep things inside, drop hints or joke instead of addressing the damn issue. Yes, my fear of confrontation is lame. It just creates more stress that I don't need.

Saturday morning I had to get up at 8:00 a.m. to go to a funeral for my friend Lisa's grandma. Since our families have been so close for such a long time (about 35 years) it was a little like losing my own grandma. But it was one of those, "She lived a good, long life" funerals so it wasn't so bad. The ceremony was held at my elementary school church. I hated going there again. It's one of those places that digs up shitty memories. Eight years at that Catholic elementary school. Terrible teachers and terrible classmates that I was stuck with the entire time and me being an emotional/anxious little kid made for a fucked up time in my life. I STILL have dreams about that place. It definately made a huge contribution to my current emotional status. I was itching for the ceremony to end so I could get the fuck outta there.

I enjoyed the rest of the day. The wake was held at at little Italian deli. Lisa and Paulette were cool to hang out with, they didn't irritate me at all. Lisa was very glad that I'd shown up. I almost thought I wouldn't make it since I'd been so sick, but all that sleep finally paid off and I felt fine.

Saturday evening Ron and I met up with my two friends Cathy for dinner and drinks to celebrate our engagement. I had a very good time with them as well. After dinner we played pool for a few hours, which was tons of fun. I hadn't played pool in years. I had some I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-doing-so-I'll-just-do-the-best-or-whatever-I-can luck and played pretty well. I actually impressed Ron, who is a damn good pool player. And once again, Ron impressed me with his fabulous social skills. It felt like we'd all hung out a thousand times before.

Yesterday I got a little stressed over housework again, as I hadn't really done anything all week. I had been trying not to worry about it so much, but I just couldn't help it. It started with the bird cages...Pickles and Punkin's cage was full of Pickles' birdy barf. He had been going at it again on one of his favorite toys all week, and it was spread all over the place. From there everything spiralled...one thing led to another. Crusty birdy barf, I gotta bring the cage outside and spray it down. OH, since I'm doing their cage, I may as well do Toby's cage. Then there were feathers and food all over the floor and carpet so I started sweeping that, OH the couch is dirty I should spray the apholstry cleaner on it, OH the floor needs to be wiped up, OH I need to vacuum but Ron is taking a nap, OH I gotta dust too, the bathroom is gross, OH I gotta sweep up the kitty litter in the back room OH I GOTTA VACUUM!!!!!!!!!! Why is RON STILL SLEEPING?????? OH I GOTTA DO LAUNDRY!!!!!

I tried not to wake Ron as I was sorting laundry, but I can't do anything quietly when I'm stressing out. He woke up all pissy because I was cleaning like a maniac again and why can't I just RELAX because it's SUNDAY... Then he gets up to find that I've started a billion things so now he's feeling bad because he's not helping... Finally I start crying while I'm standing in the middle of my piles of clothes. I start blubbering again about how I don't want to make him mad but this is how I AM, I've been this way my whole life...and in the middle of my blubbering he says what my elementary school principal said many times, "You put SO much undue pressure on yourelf..." That just makes me cry harder. So he gives me a hug and I stand there crying and slobbering all over his shoulder. Then he says, once again, that he is there for me and that I should bring these things up and not let them grow so out of proportion. "We can work through this together, we are a team." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh... I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

OH YEA, and my car broke down this morning. I didn't panic this time. I hadn't gone far from home so I called Ron and he rescued me again. He gave me a ride to work and got the car towed to a Honda specialist. He knows all about Hondas since he worked for them for 10 years, so he was able to pre-diagnose the problem before he got it to the shop. And now I KNOW I'm not gonna get screwed by the mechanic, either! I feel so taken care of. Now I have to take care of work.

Bye bye...

Dirty Harry

It's been a tough week for Ron and I. Sickness, work stress, changing work schedules, a messy house and stress about the future have put us both in a very bad place these past few days.

All we really need to do is sort through things one day at a time. He's trying to do that, I guess, as all men have their own "system". Most of the time women just don't get that "system". He says that I have to respect his stuff and I say that he has to respect the way I like my living space...which is neat and orderly. I have to realize that it can't always be that way. I really have to work on letting things go because I'm going to drive him (and myself) crazy if I don't. It's all about compromise. Not flying off the handle and having an anxiety attack (he calls it "theatrics"...cute) over the state of my house. I'm making it much bigger than it really is. A very common reaction among those plagued by anxiety. I have to try harder to understand that he is at a crossroads in life, that he is not where he wants to be and that he has been essentially living out of a bag for six months. He's stressed to the max, but doesn't show it. Just the same, he has to try harder to understand my anxiety.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that he has never just lived alone. He's always had to put up with other people's standards, whether it be his asshole dad or his stupid roommates. I, on the other hand, have had the wonderful freedom of living alone and having my own rules. Compro-fucking-mise. Being an adult sucks. Yes, there is more to life. Enjoy it. Don't be afraid!

Fuck this.

Scott free

As I sit here all crusty-eyed, balloon-headed and lung buttery, I ask myself why...WHY did I think I could possibly avoid getting the damn sickness Ron brought home last week??! Haha, vitamins and exercise...HA HA fucking HAH! All I can do now is suffer through it and hope for the best.

Thanksgiving dressing

A quick email to a friend regarding my Thanksgiving weekend...

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Did you guys have a nice Thanksgiving? Mine was just lovely. It was just six of us, which was so wonderful... Mom, Dad, bro Steve, cousin Mark (the matchmaker) Ron and I. My parents were so cool...we were all sitting on the couch and they came out with six glasses of champagne and a card to toast our engagement. AWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! My dad made a little speech and then my cousin Mark. It was so sweet I was still curlin' mah toes an hour afterwards! I also had my first cigar outside with the men. Well, my cousin and my dad. My brother and Ron were like, "EWWww!" Cigars are good when you're drunk. Or drinking... I finished it yesterday and it tasted like SHIT! I shoulda hadda beer first...

We went to Ron's moms for her birthday and a psuedo-Thanksgiving/leftover celebration on Saturday. That was really fun, too. His mom is so nice! She pulled out the 'ol photo albums and I got to see a whole lotta darlin' little boy Ronnie pictures! I kept saying, "Aww, lookit duh lil' pooooooooooopiessss!", like a dork. I also got a great picture of Ron from when he was in Hawii, visiting a friend. The friend happened to have a cockatoo and since I'm the bird freak he asked his mom to find it. OH MAN! He looks so cute! He was 25 and had a really hard body, a tan and lots of blond highlights in his hair. Ooooh sexy sexy! Then of course he's got a sulfur-crested cockatoo on his shoulder! I asked his mom if I could borrow it so I could make a copy...it's so cute! I had it out on the coffee table and he kept turning it over 'cause he didn't want to look at it. Poor guy, it makes him all self concious 'cause he was in such good shape! He still is, mostly. 'Cept for the developing beer gut... He's gotta work on that one. I don't wanna be a nag though, don't wanna start that shit! Although, women are very prone to nagging. The key is catching yourself before you get carried away.

Okay, gotta work 'cause I'm busy as hell again. It's never just an even flow here. Fuck. Talk to you later.

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Yes, as the email stated, I am buried at work today. I'm going to have to try my best to put on a positive attitude toward this FUCKING TIME OF...ahem...this time year because I'm just tired of it. Why can't Christmas be more like Thanksgiving? All the damn greetings and gifts and bullshit. I'm overwhelmed. But I'll put on a fucking HAPPY FACE and get through it like I always do.

My weekend wasn't THAT lovely, actually. Ron was sick. That means I was sick, too. Not really, I just spent the majority of the weekend catering to Mr. I. M. Sickie. And just as I figured, I have a scratchy throat today. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into anything major because I have to work this week. My boss is out of town again and we are slammed. We finally got our container of merchandise from Poland in on the 23rd (yes, the fucking DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING when everyone gets to go home early!) and so we have tons of stocking to do. Not to mention all the backorders we have to send out. Ron and my brother Steve were nice to help us unload the container, as it was a very very last minute deal. We didn't find out exactly when it would arrive until the AFTERNOON before!

That reminds me of something funny, however... I was so pissed when I found out about the container's arrival. I KNEW it would happen like that because it's always inconvenient. My brother had said he'd help like he did last year and has Mondays and Tuesdays off. It would have been perfect for the container to arrive on one of those days, right? Well, when I found out that it was arriving on Wednesday, I called my brother right away. He didn't answer his phone so I tried IMing him. Here's the thing...my brother and boss BOTH have the same name of STEVE and are BOTH on my IM list. So the IM goes like this...

ME: "Steve..."

BOSS: "Yes?"

Now, at this point I think to ask why he isn't answering his cell phone. This surely would have prevented me from going into the cussfest that ensued....

ME: "Well guess what! The goddamnedmutherfuckingsonovvabitch CONTAINER is coming in tomorrow!"

ME AGAIN: "Of course it can't come AFTER fucking Thanksgiving! Heavens NO!"

ME AGAIN: "So now you probaby can't fucking do it because you have to fucking WORK tomorrow! Right???! DAMNIT??"

BOSS: "Julie! This is your boss, downstairs!!!"

I almost shit my pants. I got that rush of adreneline all over my body and my head felt like it was gonna float away. I was mortified. I sat there like that for about two minutes until my boss called to say he was leaving the office to get some things together and try to find some help. He asked that I find out if my brother could still do it and see if Ron might possibly be able to lend a hand. I'm like, "Oh-oh-oh-kay..." It turned out just like it always does. Fine. Fine only after I proceed to throw a panicked tantrum. And I'll say it again...I'm ONE LUCKY little bitch to have such a cool boss. Initially, he was confused by my obscene ramblings, but once he realized that the message was OBVIOUSLY not meant for him he thought it was hilarious! I am SUCH a dork. But at least everyone expects nothing less!

I really need to work now. I have to try to have a nice day. I feel shitty. I just started my damn period, my throat is scratchy and I have a headache. And Ron is being a butthead. OH JOY.

Never Ending

Note to self: Never EVER watch a movie like "War of the Worlds" RIGHT before going to BED...lest this leads to NIGHTMARES ALL NIGHT LONG. The kind that you're so glad to wake from, yet upon drifting back to sleep only return to the exact place you left off! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Yes, definately an afternoon flick. Especially when I've been having nothing but weird, vivid dreams lately. ESPECIALLY. Talk about baiting the hook.

Dreams and reality

I was having a nightmare early this morning and was very thankful that Ron woke me from it when he came to bed at 3:30 a.m. I don't know why, but I've been having the strangest dreams lately. Many of them include my old highschool and classmates from elementary school. And it's not so much the scenery in the dream, it's the overall mood of it.

Last nights dream was awful both emotionally and visually. The first thing I remember is being at the doctor's office in a horrible state. I had large staples running up and down the length of my thighs and butt cheeks. Not standard, surgical staples like one would get to close up a wound... No, these were heavy duty staples that are used in heavy duty office staplers. The strangest thing was the way they were embedded in my skin. First of all, they weren't bent in the way that staples bend when you cha-chunk them into papers. These only had one side bent in that manner. The other side of the staple looked as though it had been carefully inserted into the very top layer of my epidermis. Not quite all the way to the blood layer. You could see the staple under the transparent skin. There were also about five small pairs of scissors, each with one sharp, stainless steel blade inserted in the same manner as the staples had been. And it actually hurt. I felt pain, the kind of pain that disappears the very instant you wake up.

The main emotion in the dream was that of intense fear. Fear that I was being poisoned by the metal, fear of the pain and, most evident, fear of the people who had done this to me. Cruel, malicious gangster girls...or "Cholas" who were members of a large and menacing Mexican gang that tormented the city for years. They had targeted me and were going to induce torture to no end before they finally killed me. I hadn't seen the girls in my dream, nor had I heard them tell me these things. I just knew...and they had just performed this particular act of torture on me when the dream began.

I nervously waited in the dank waiting room at the doctors office as the doctor took each and every one of the 20 other people in the room, ahead of me. Next thing I knew the doctor was getting ready to leave. I got up and limped after him as he was gathering his coat and keys. I chased him down the hallway, feeling the instruments in my leg move as I struggled to keep up. I caught him as he was opening the door to the parking lot, grabbing his coat and pleading with him to help me. Some of the staples and scissors had caused bleeding... He just looked at me and said he was sorry, but he was out of time for the day...and with that, roughly pulled his coat from my grip and disappeared through the huge metal doors that slammed behind him. I immediatly heaved the door open and screamed a very angry and frustrated, "FUCK YOU!!!" at his beemer as it exited the lot.

As the dream continued I ended up in another dimly-lit room, removing the staples and scissors with my own hands. The process was slow and I felt a dull pain as I pulled each one out. It was very strange that I actually felt them sliding out. Completely gross! By the time I was done my legs were covered in what looked like bloody scratches. Oozing, bloody scratches. Okay...I'll stop now. The last part of the dream involved driving home in the middle of the night. I distinctly remember the panicked feeling I had as I reached over to lock my car doors, fearing that the Cholas were on the prowl. Weird as hell. What the fuck does this dream mean?? I know I'm not anxious about my recent engagement...if anything it's a happy, exicted anxiousness... Hmmmmm...

Oh yea, and during the dream I couldn't get enough water. I was dying of thirst. I can attribute that to my relatively low consumption of water last night. Add to that fact the relatively stiff drink I had with dinner (one that so very knocked me out on the couch that I didn't even hear or feel Pickles flutter over to my shoulder from his cage that I'd left open during their playtime) and we have total dehydration. Needless to say that when I awoke to Ron getting into bed I had such a dry mouth that my tongue was stuck firmly to the roof of my mouth. EWWWW!!!!

So I get up to get guzzle a drink out of the bathroom faucet and come back to bed. Now awake, I ask Ron how his day was because he seemed a little upset as he escorted my drowsy ass to bed when he got home from work at about 11:30. He then uloaded his awful day on me, siting his best friend and the people at work for taking it just over the top of shitty. This is another thing that I love about Ron. It was now my turn to make him feel better. He empowers me in such a way that it feels so good to listen to him and make suggestions. We go back and forth with this and it feels wonderful. It's not just him patting me on the back and telling me that I'm not crazy, or telling me that, "he doesn't know what the tell me"... But still, his being upset kept him awake for a bit longer and in turn, kept me awake. So I'm fucking tired today. But I could tell he had been holding some things in and I made sure to drive home the fact that he NEEDS to TALK TO ME when he feels bad. It's only human to hate seeing the ones you love upset. That's another reason why people need support from each other.

I don't want to get into all that we talked about but I will say one thing, I HATE, with every fiber of my being, powertripping, egotistical, arrogant assholes. They seem to be surrounding and closing in on me. Makes it so difficult to keep up with the positive attitude. But self assurance and positive attitude are the tools that are supposed to get us through this. Right?

Punkin'

OH YEA! And another new development... I got Pickles a birdy buddy. Another lovebird named Pumpkin. I'm not sure if it's a boy or a girl, but they seem to be getting along fine. I got little Punkin' on Saturday. I brought Pickles in to my favorite parrot store and they happened to have one, lone lovebird. I put the cages side by side for about an hour and they seemed fine so I brought him/her home. So far so good, but Pickles still wants his mama too much. Oh well, now it's time to start Operation Ignor Oboxious Bird Behavior like I started before. I'm hope that with time they'll really become 'lovebirds'... I'll post a pic of the two of them. They're so cute! I can barely tell them apart! Now this is THE LAST animal addition to my household. I swear. NO MORE. Shit, I have THREE birds again. Came around full circle, didn't I...

Calming

OH BOY oh boy... Ron sure handles my panic attacks well. He's so calm about it. This particular crying freak out was over my cable being turned off. It's a long story, but he called them back for me and straightened things out. I had misunderstood the lady I'd talked to, thinking I'd have to pay more to get it turned back on. This of course led me to panic and cry because I can't AFFORD to pay more and I NEED MY BASIC CABLE DAMMIT! It's the fucking simple things in life, okay? I want my ANIMAL PLANET and COMEDY CENTRAL!!!!! So I called Ronnie poop. And Ronnie poop rescued me again. First, he calmed me like he always does in a very nonthreatening, gentle way. Then he called them and gave them hell. He's SO good at working with people to get what he wants. That's one of his great strengths. So he worked it all out with them and I should have my cable back by Friday. And since I have to wait so long, he made sure that I received a credit as well. GO RON!!!! Thank you, honey pile.

Day Two in China

And now I will finally continue with my China trip pictures. These are from our second full day there. We spent the day walking around and checking out the temples that were practically around the corner from Devin's place.

Actually, I'll start out with the night before day two...we went to Tianemen Square which was another awesome, historic experience.

On our way back from the square I got an action shot of Melanie and Devin...

This was in an area of shops around a big lake in Beijing. A local gathering place where there was live music and such. We got bombarded by many Chinese people saying,"Hi, Hello, HELLO, HI THERE, Hi, Hello!!!" to the foreign tourists. We were quite eyecatching, the three white folks and one Chinese man. I tried to get a shot of the Chinese Starbucks but you couldn't make out the sign (the most important part) because it was overexposed.

On to the next day. This is a candid shot caught by Devin that morning as she came outta the public bathroom ('member, there's one on EVERY corner!), completely oblivious 'cause she just woke up.

Hey there! Everything come out alright?

Before we left for the temples I had to take some random pictures...

Ron is the bike fan so there are several pictures of old bikes that I saw all over the place. I even got hit by one! Not too hard though, I was just trying to avoid being hit by a car when a bike came sailing past my arm, cutting a nice little triangle outta my wrist. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way there. I'd like it to be that way here. It would really help my road rage to be able to just mow down that stupid mutherfucker who decided to just step off the curb without looking... And I wish I would have gotten a picture of the dirty look I got from that particular Chinaman bicyclist. Hmmm, I wish I coulda gotten MANY pictures of all the dirty looks we got. Them people is always mad. Gee, I wunner why??

This is the view down the little hallway to the outside of the Hutong. I was ready to go.

And off we went...Devin closing the doors at the front of the Hutong entrance.

And then we made it outside the Hutong. This is what the "streets" look like. Many people make a living from their home. The front of their Hutong is the shop/bakery/whatever and they live in the back.

Oooooooooh! Another old bike! These were all over the place. The back part was used to carry food, laundry, children, pets, trash...

And I just had to get this lovely picture of the back of a Chinese car. I think they'd curse us if they saw the rediculous, overpriced, gas guzzling fucking SUV MONSTERS we all drive here. I really admire their economy... It's 'cause they have to, I know. They're not free and spoiled like us Americans.

After about 15 minutes of walking, we arrived at the first temple, Confusious Temple. It's mostly courtyard with a few temples spread out on the grounds. Unfortunately, the main temple was under construction and we couldn't go in. But it was still beautiful, not to mention serene... There were these amazing trees all around, covering the courtyard with dappled sunlight...

An altar to Confusious...I didn't realize that I was stepping on some incense offerings as I took this picture. Melanie's like, "Uh, Julie..." Don't worry, I bowed and apologized!

Inside one of the temples... I can't believe the gorgeous artistic detail! That's one of the things I love about Chinese culture, their amazing artwork. Everything is art to them...

Even the trashcans...

Yes, that's a Confusious trashcan. Lovely, ain't it?

On to the Buddhist temple...

Yea dude, I'm a fucking tourist, get the fuck outta my picture!!

There were a lot of temples to Buddha. Who'duh thunk it? Pfft...

Oooh, and they were burning incense and making offerings all over the place!

We had to do it, too. Gotta be respectful to duh Buddha.

Make some wishes!!

More amazing artistic detail. Wow...

Here we have the three of us doing our "handshake"...

Devin started this little ditty when he came to visit us over the summer. Every time we'd do/see/say something cool out came the hands for the handshake. Making it all the way to fucking China to visit our friend makes for a whole lotta handshakes! We had to catch one of them... I know, I know, we're just TOOO CORNY, aren't we?! Hehe!

So we visited two whole temples and all that walking around in awe made us tired and hungry. This is on our way back home to get ready for dinner...

Devin's all..."Hey birdlady! Oooooh, BIRDS! What are they??" Why, they're Myna birds! WOW! COOL! AWESUUMMM!!!!! Yea. These guys are famous for their parrotlike mimicking ablility. I think I posted this pic in one of my other deleted China trip entries. Here it is again. Birdies. Yay.

And then we ended the day with a wonderful Chinese dinner din din. Oh yummy yummy dumplin's!!!!

Okay, that's it for now. Next is an organized entry on our backpacking trip to The Great Wall.

Thar she blows!

This is the best picture I could get for now... As with all of my pictures, it's a little blurry. So LOOK! THERE IT IS! A RING!! ISN'T THAT EXCITING???? Hehe... I love it though, it's just my style. Very simple and elegant. I love the setting, right around the center diamond are three little ones set in the band on each side. Makes it all sparkly n' such. So sparkly n' such that I've almost rearended people while admiring it in the car. You know, 'cause I just GOTTA look at it every ten seconds. Yea. There it is... Woowooweewah. Happy Day!