It’s no secret that moving to China was not on my list of things to do “for a good time”. I’ve never tried to hide that fact, though sometimes I wonder if I should have. Having this blog has helped me to pull through and find the humor in some of the challenges. I think sometimes Mr. Hot Stuff, though he tries to be understanding, wishes that I enjoyed living here more than I do. I know he loves me and just wants me to be happy and does his best to further that. In fact, I know I have a few family members who have the “just buck up and have fun” attitude about this China adventure. This doesn’t offend me, I just need a little space for my own way. I’m more like vanilla ice cream and they are more like fudge-topped, triple-death chocolate brownies with sprinkles. I love having them around; they bring richness to life and fun perspective to everything. But their responsibilities and personalities are different than mine are, so I take my own approach to this. To illustrate: I was once with a couple of friends on a long, boring-as-vanilla flight – somewhere in China as it happens – and in order to alleviate the boredom, one of them started a game to come up with 101 things to do with a Handi-Wipe. We made it all the way to 25 before I decided to say the one that had popped into my head first, “Well, you could use it to wipe your hands.” They looked at me in amazement as if to say, “Oh yeah, you could do that with it,” and then burst into uncontrollable laughter. When you are vanilla ice cream, it’s all about the timing. We continued to laugh after that, and together came up with 101 things. I think it took us nearly 3 hours. My talent is stating the obvious. It can be quite funny when everyone around you gets so caught up in “thinking outside the box” that they miss all the great stuff the box might hold.

Back to my point… hmm… trying to remember… Oh yeah, if some of my posts are too “heavy” or “negative” for you and you are just sick to death of what you see as my negative perspective of China and the news, that’s ok. Go find a kid and play crash-‘em-up trucks for a while and you’ll feel better, or paint your toenails a happy color, that works too. My life isn’t all solemnity and soberness; eventually I’ll find the chocolate-brownie-death that puts you in your comfort zones, and then, whap!! You’ll be unexpectedly hit in the pie-hole with vanilla ice cream, and you’ll love it. 😉

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂