i don't care what i'm doing at the time but when the clock strikes 11:00 i expect to be in bed sleeping. i went to bed at 1:00 last night and 5 hours is just not enough sleep when i have to wake up at 6:30. ideally i want to be in bed by 10:00 but that's just not going to happen. once i get back home from work around 7:00, i pretty much have 3-4 hours of free time before i have to go to sleep. i pretty much can't do anything with so little time, or expect to be tired at work the next day.

nothing much happened at the office today. monday went by a little faster because i had some work to do, translating 2 change alert notices into change proposals. i also edited a dispute letter. i made a new QQ friend, some girl at the office whom i probably seen before but i don't know her from her name. the IT guy introduced her to me, said she wanted to practice her english. instant messaging does make the day go by even quicker. by the time i replied she'd already left the office.

i continue to run into ms.pan. she asked me today if i was having dinner at the office, even though i didn't see her asking anyone else (the kitchen staff has to have a rough count of how many people will be staying for dinner to figure out how much to cook). apparently she's also in charge of coordinating meeting spaces and sent out a company wide e-mail with this week's meeting schedule broken down by date and location.

i talked to admin about the uninvited strangers coming into my apartment sunday morning. they said they'd look into it. what i wanted them to do was to tell me they'd change the locks immediately. i don't care about anyone stealing my cash, but i can't lose my camera, and more importantly, i can't lose my laptop that has all my photos. i have to remind myself to back up onto my portable hard drive one of these days.

the office supply girl (ms.red car) came back from vacation. i asked her for some tape and some highlighters (scented no less, blue for cotton candy, purple for grape). i got laughed at for the way i was asking her, kneeling by her desk. "what're doing, proposing?" one of her coworkers asked me.

i also went out on a smoke break with the IT guy, even though i don't smoke. i was surprised to see how many people did smoke though, about half the staff according to li (the IT guy). nicotine cuts through cultural barriers too, as there were some koreans as well as a german. when i asked if any of the ladies smoked, li said no.

i learned a new excel skill: hiding rows and columns. this is going to make my life a whole lot easier now that i don't have to cut and paste from the template.

the bus ride home was interesting because the door seemed to be stuck. my office mate luoren keeping jeering anyone trying to get off who couldn't open the door. a lot of people resorted to kicking ("don't kick the glass!" the lady bus driver warned them), but all you had to do was wiggle the sliding arm and the door slides open (a little violently, but opens nonetheless).

when i got back to my apartment by 7:00, i called my neighbor ms.yu to see if she had any salt to give me (because i'm too cheap to by any of my own). she was out having dinner and said if she came home early she'd drop it off.

i went back out to get a haircut. i've been noticing more and more guys at the office with fresh cuts, and figured i was due. i went out looking for a place and saw the familiar barbar shop pole at a 2nd floor shop right outside my apartment. it seemed a little fancy, staffed by flamboyantly gay chinese hairdressers, but a standard haircut was just RMB$30 (US$5) so i gave it a try. they washed my hair first and the guy who was washing me had hands so gently i nearly fell asleep, like getting a scalp massage. they then cut my hair. since i didn't have my glasses, from the fuzzy color blobs i could make out in the mirror, it looked okay. after another wash (this new guy was a bit rougher), they blow dried my hair and asked if i wanted some mousse/hairspray. i said no since i was going home afterwards. the guy cut it way short, and left only a tuft of hair poking out from the front but cut it short everywhere else, which isn't what i wanted (short in the back and sides, but gently trim the top). i hated it immediately, but maybe some product make take the ugly edges off.