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FEB

18

2014

not much to say other than the coughing and nose running continues. i've avoid xianglian all day, as if to test her to see if she'd ask me if anything was wrong or else she didn't care or notice. by late afternoon i sent her a text message, asking if she was interested in getting some fried chicken, tonight being the monthly special 2-for-1 night. but i noticed she hadn't been at her desk for hours and figured she'd slipped home again. however, she was only in a meeting, and wrote me back to let me know she already had dinner plans. i told her this felt familiar, since a month ago we were scheduled for fried chicken but she backed out over dinner plans. she did tell me it was to treat the sister of her roommate, who was finally moving out of their apartment and going back to school. i told her i understand.

a minute later she texted me again: "i've noticed maybe you're a little depressed?" she added. ah, she passed the test! "just a little," i lied to her, even though the answer was a lot, since this cold was making me miserable, both physically and emotionally. i told her i was a little homesick, which isn't true but the closest thing i could say to express how i was feeling. she asked if i was angry because we weren't getting fried chicken, then said if i felt lonely i was welcomed to come join them for maocai dinner. i thanked her for the invite, but told her my destiny was with dico's. she said she'd treat me next month to fried chicken. the better answer would've been, "i'll treat you to dinner tomorrow night!" since i don't know where i'll be next month. right now i'm pretty sick and tired of china, of the long hours, of the people, of everything.

nobody knows about my trip to shanghai, except mr.lee and herbert. i'm not going to tell anyone either. i kind of want people to be worried about where i am (childish, i know), but once i start uploading photos to my qq zone, they'll catch on fairly quickly that i'm not in any sort of danger.

i also had a meeting of my own, for most of the morning. i drank so much water, i was running to the bathroom every 15 minutes, my bladder to the bursting point. i've been taking more of that chinese cough medicine, it works pretty well despite not really sure what's in it. later in the late afternoon i took a pair of mucinex-d i had in my bag. i've been saving those up for emergencies, but i was leaking enough that i wanted a relief.

xianglian asked when i was leaving, as if she was timing her departure with mine. we walked out together, but a young man was trying to get her attention, so i bounded for the bus on my own. once we got back into town, i got off at the closest stop to the chongbai mall and headed to dico's, that ubiquitous chinese fried chicken chain. having been there before on promotional night, i was ready for the crowd. i wanted to combine a large chicken sandwich combo with a smaller chicken sandwich combo that came with fries. but the cashier told me that only a few things were eligible for 2-for-1, and the small sandwich combo wasn't one of them. i ended up getting the large combo (double chicken sandwich, coke, drumstick, spicy wings, RMB$41) with a serving of spicy fries (RMB$9).

loren called me tonight, worked out some more details about my weekend shanghai trip. he actually lives around the hongqiao airport, which is almost 2 hours away from the pudong airport, where i'm arriving saturday morning at 11:00. so i won't be able to meet them until 1:00. nevertheless, he seemed to be in high spirits to see me again, and told me after lunch he'd disappear to give grace and i some private time together, but i told them we could all still hang out, since i wasn't just here to visit this mystery girl.

i was in bed by 9:00, but skyped my mother for half an hour, then worked on the blog for a little bit longer, until sometime around 10:30, where i finally decided to go sleep. early! hope this is helping with my recovery.