And Today

Well, today was quiet. Not very productive, not very exciting. SXb had called to tell me about a fantastic book-sale going on yesterday (but I was already booked up), today, and tomorrow. He and his friends went yesterday, but I just couldn't drop everything. Well, I could have but I just didn't want to I'm afraid. I considered going today. I really should have done it. But I got up late and by the time I was done chatting with Colin and doing laundry (which HAD to be done) and having breakfast and a shower …it was 2 in the afternoon, and the book-sale was on the other side of the city, and I figured it was probably too late for today. Then the question is, should I go tomorrow? The whole thing made me gloomy.

I did get a bit of translating done while I was waiting for the laundry, but not as much as I would have liked. It would be good if I could spend a good solid day tomorrow working on it, but on the other hand, the book-sale…etc.

Had the Yihe Wang rice bowl across the street again, this time with black pepper beef, for my lunch. Once again, filling, delicious, and only $2 including the thick hot soy milk. Hurray!

To walk off lunch, I wandered through the Haidian Book-city. I have finally come to understand that the book city is not just the building, as I'd thought, but a whole alley that had once been devoted to book-sellers but has been crowded in on by sellers of DVDs, art, tons of ugly clothing, shoes, also street vendors selling fake stuff, and disgusting smelling meat sizzling in portable woks. A sketchy but interesting place. It took me so long to understand it because it's heavily under construction, carpeted with green cloth and strewn with rubble--a total mess. Didn't find any books I wanted there, but in the places near the school I found a few that were of interest, including one I've been meaning to buy for a long time, the Dictionary of People's Names from Past and Present. Unlike many of my other purchases, which are for the future, this one is for the present as well, immediately useful!

I also picked up my new business cards, in Chinese and English: a little clunky but still fairly cool. I won't post them here, as that would be foolish. But I wanted to mention it because it's exciting: my first business cards since 1999!

And then I just came home and killed time. Tried to do some shreds of work and got frustrated. Wrote this long post, so my left wrist is starting to feel achy. Read SO many blogs. Decided I should cut down. And finally feel like getting down to work...at 10 PM, with bed-time only about an hour away.