Random Thoughts on a Rainy Day

It's raining here in Xi'an and we just came home from a little walk to a local mall. The mall here is like 8 stories high and arranged like a very upscale open air market. All the stores are arranged around the escalator and there's not really an official opening or doorway per store.

I have had so much to process and think about that I decided to share with you all the stuff going on in my head. Be afraid. Be very afraid! These are just some of my observations of traveling to another nation, all the way across the globe. Are you ready for this? (Keep in mind, most of it is typed with my tongue firmly in my cheek and there is no offense intended!)

• My beauty regime and daily preparations to "face the world" are meaningless in this land. Once they get done staring and poking each other to look at my big, wild red hair, the natives' gazes immediately drop to my feet. I'm guessing it is to see what fashionable, middle-aged white women wear when abroad.


• The boxes that they pass off for beds here make me feel older than I ever thought possible by the time I drag myself out of bed each morning. My bones feel bruised and my joints ache by 4 a.m. They warned me about the hard beds. I knew it was coming. So far, the only good thing I can glean from these hard "beds" is that Aidan doesn't even feel me sliding out from under the covers in the mornings.


• One great thing about a daughter who doesn't hear from one ear is how deeply she sleeps. Seriously, her habit is to turn her head onto her hearing ear when she's really asleep, so The Boss and I don't really have to soft-shoe around the sleeping baby. This bodes well for Shaggy's drum practice and Dr. D's French horn rehearsals :)


• If I loved my front-loader washer and dryer before I came to China, I am absolutely crazy about them now. I canNOT wait to wash every single thing we brought with us. Packing light by utilizing only 2 or 3 color schemes was a terrific idea. I am now sick of aqua and brown and rust. And I may never wear those brown capris again. Or at least for a couple weeks!


• I am thankful for my flip flops. We had been warned that, while the hotels are very nice and almost luxurious, the management doesn't have the same concern for clean floors that we (I?) do. I am also grateful for my Sw!ffer and Mr. St*nley Ste*mer.


• I am actually beginning to miss the smell of my town. For those of you who know where I live and what piggy place is nearby, you may really think I've gone off the deep end. But trust me, facing all these foreign smells is challenging at best. The thoughts of the land of pig processing is strangely comforting. (Seriously, it's mostly that industrial diesel smell, but on a rainy day one can really smell the sewers here.)


• After more than a week of old HBO and time-delayed CNN, I am thinking that I might spend Sunday after our flight home just watching about 14 shows at once. In English. With no Stallone anywhere in sight.


• I am seriously grateful for Uncle Bob D's blackberry tip. He knows what I'm talking about. It has rescued The Boss and I numerous times from gastrointestinal distress of varying kinds. And Uncle Bob? While I've not seen any fresh peaches any where since we've arrived, I think this land is some kind of Coca Col* nirvana. Brilliant stroke of marketing on their part but really unfortunate for The Boss and I. We've gone over to the dark side and become P*psi people (you can blame The Boss, he started it!). Can someone get me a Diet Wild Cherry P*psi please?

Well, that's not all. There's plenty more crazy thoughts like these running through my head almost every minute of our time here. Except for when we're crossing streets. Then all I can think is "Please don't let me get hit. Please don't let me get hit." But seriously, my mom commented earlier in the week about sensory overload - that's my brain. I canNOT shut it off. Many of these thoughts make me giggle, and so I'm sure the Chinese people are quite entertained by the crazy white lady with the frizzy red hair laughing to herself as she walks down the sidewalks. Hmmmph. Welcome to my life :)

So, I know why you are all here and I won't make you wait any more. Prepare to feel the sweetness running through your veins. There should be a warning on pics like these: "Warning! Cuteness Quotient Likely to be Exceeded When Viewing Pictures." So don't say I didn't warn you.

The obligatory shampoo mohawk shot. I now have one of all 5 of my kids :)

My new favorite - she's a Water Baby!

Now she smells like a Gang baby - fresh, clean and all Johnson & Johnson-y.

There, were they cute enough for ya? We're off to catch the show at the lobby fish tank. Scared of it at first, she is now completely entranced by the colors and motion. And by The Boss's imitations of fish lips. Personally, that's the part that scares me. Just a little.