a werewolf in paris

I think I'm becoming nocturnal, if I wasn't always so. My mother fondly recalls my early years as an infant. Not really. I had somehow decided that I functioned in Eastern Standard Time rather than the China time I was born in. This meant that I slept like a dead log through the day and stayed up crying from dusk until dawn. I went through five nannies. I guess I am a creature of the night.

This is the fifth night I am up late doing at least 8 or 9 different things. I got into this bad cycle after Bangkok, where I found out aside from the Royal Palace, Pat"Pong" night market, and Muay Thai boxing, which I did in one of our five days there, there wasn't much else I felt like except loitering in shiny shopping malls. I were templed-out, monumented-out, night market-ed out, and after a crap experience at Bangkok's most esteemed thai-food institution, even Thai food-ed out. With all of nothing to lure me out of bed in the mornings, I slept until all ungodly hours of the day, yelling at cleaning ladies to ignore my sheets as I was happy in my undisturbed filth, ending up in a competition with myself to see how late I can stay up.

I won with 5 am two nights ago at the Shenzhen airport. I seem to be eternally condemned to catching shit flights that arrive past midnight and connect at six am the next day. I am then so lazy to find a hotel for four hours that I just sit on a filthy bench and wait it out. But I really love the night. Nobody engages me in useless conversations that I cannot wait to get out of, the sun doesn't beckon me into the outdoors, which I love, really, and even the spam in my inbox shuffles in at less frequent intervals. And since I'm one of those people who obsessively check my email for any flicker of movement, that means less distractions.

There. I just completed the daunting task of 'editing' my Facebook "Connections" list. I like how Facebook named it that rather than "Authentic Lifelong Friends", apparently they know what they're dealing with. My connections were getting out of hand, so I just whittled it down by about 700. Besides, I think FB is phasing out, we're going in the direction of multi-platform communication. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds about right. Twitter's the way of the world, and by that declaration I'm not a citizen of the world because China's banned it as of now. Google wave is the way of the future, and it's probably a good thing Microsoft didn't spend a gazillion dollars buying FB out.

Speaking of gazillion, I am overwhelmed with all the activities I have on my plate. Good overwhelmed, not the other kind. I am developing a food tour in Shanghai, so am reading up all I can on the city's back alleys, see-and-be-seen venues, hidden gems, long-standing institutions, traditions and trends. Adlyn has created a monster spreadsheet of tasks for me to complete this month. I said I wanted to work on everything she could hand me, but even for me this is a challenge.

Hias Gourmet work is only a part of the personal goals I want to accomplish this month. I already have an eternally growing pile of books beside my bed that I WILL read by this month. I am on a lounge/mood music binge, so that means I just spent 3 hours ripping 20 cds onto my ipod, listening to them from morning until night. I go to sleep with sweet dreams of Stephane Pompougnac and I in the infamous Hotel Costes. In addition to the vast food literature I'm tackling, I re-caught the lit bug after reading Steinbeck's East of Eden. I need more greats! Give me major Fitzgerald, none of that minor stuff!

I am still working on all my vacay photos. I have set myself realistic goals however, of one city a day, in the order that they occur, and have labelled and organized all my photos in detail for this express purpose. I have just finished sorting through the last week in Beijing. Why the f couldn't god have made the days 50 hours long? That way I may have a chance at completing a respectable fraction of my tasks.

Anywhoo. I think I'm going to enter a photo competition. The grand prize is a ten day trip for one through the safaris of Tanzania. It is my personal goal to win this prize. Maybe if I write it out on the internet for the world to see, I'd feel completely committed, and it will help me in my endeavor. Godspeed to myself.

I have just gone brain dead. It is 4 am. I have to go to sleep now before the light of dawn turns me into a werewolf.



Friedens -the pseudo german term my friend has coined for peace