this morning i turned on the AC before getting out of bed. it was like turning on a massive wall-mounted hot air blow dryer. electricity cost be damned, i gotta get warm! i saw the temperature had already dropped to 58 degrees overnight. after 30 minutes of heating though, it was up to 63 degrees, but a lot hotter if i stand right in front of the fan. after the usual morning routine, i made myself a sandwich. i'm a sad sandwich maker, rarely getting too creative, rely on as few ingredients as possible. i will totally make a sandwich that's nothing more than a piece of sandwich meat and two slices of bread. the meat was this western-style chinese ham, more of a salami sausage but the chinese would never call it that since it's confusing. the bread was some raisin bread. as a bonus, i squeezed out some mayonnaise.
i was running a few minutes late and didn't have time to eat my sandwich. i wrapped it in a paper towel and left the apartment. there was a slight drizzle but i didn't want to bother taking out my umbrella so i used the paper towel to keep my sandwich dry. as i had a few minutes before the bus left, i hid in a dry doorway and ate my sandwich. it wasn't bad, but maybe a nice piece of crispy lettuce would've made the sandwich more interesting. the ham was good, it even had a little smoked flavor. the mayonnaise added an extra dimension. the raisin bread? sort of a weird choice for a sandwich, a little bit sweet, maybe i'll try a different bread next time.
i sat next to zengfei on the bus; she's making it easy by not sitting with her roommate and leaving the seat next to hers free. i would've sat next to her yesterday but i ended up sitting next to lihui so i could chat with him. zengfei and i talked about earthquakes for some reason since i was curious if they ever experience them in the chongqing area.
the only real piece of work i had to do today was to attend the kickoff meeting after the lunch break to discuss the 2014 chinese new year celebration ceremony. our owner counterparts really want 2 sets of cohosts, but our company is pushing for just 2 cohosts, since they had a bad experience last year with too many people emceeing the event. another potential issue: sarah li (a name that causes me to snicker internally every time) my cohostess is slightly taller than me. they're concerned it might look embarrassing for me, but i assured them i didn't mind. not only is sarah hosting, but she's also going to contribute some talent to the festivities, singing a song at some point. we sat next to each other during the meeting, i noticed her rayban eyeglass frames. i've only seen her with her nerd glasses and baggy flannel shirt, but it's easy to see she'd clean up nicely.
without first getting the okay from us, wangyan informed yuwei that she'd been selected as an additional cohost. yuwei was very excited to learn of this, but this totally foils my plan to get to know some secretaries from the owner's side of the building. later yuwei learned it's still a work-in-progress and nothing's been decided yet.
i made QQ friends with zouyan today, the office matchmaker. i discovered a while back of her reputation of interviewing every new guy who comes to work on this project, to figure out if they're single or not. i was actually kind of hurt that after so many months, i've never been approached. but once we started instant messaging, she wasted no time in asking me if i had a girlfriend. "why not xianglian?" she asked. i don't even know how she knew, but she probably has a network of girls who spy for her. i didn't realize i was being so obvious, but who knows what girls talk about behind boys' backs. so my response to her was measured. i told her i thought xianglian was nice, but we're still only at the getting-to-know-each-other phase. "why not? xianglian is single," she told me, which i already knew, "and she cooks" she added. she then told me that xianglian thinks i'm nice. zouyan also told me she knew which girls are single in every department, a good person to ask if i have questions.
lihui moved to a different cubicle today because he was out of place at his old cubicle, surrounded by construction engineers. however, not much is different at his new location, just surrounded by civil and mechanical engineers. but he discovered there's no wifi reception from his new spot, so he asked permission to move again. this time, he moved to a place almost right next to my cubicle, heartlessly kicking out some girl in the process, relegating her to the siberia of office space.
originally loren and i were going to try out the buffet steak place on the 4th floor of the chongbai mall, but at the last minute he said we should postpone it until tomorrow night. so it was the office dinner for us, which i didn't mind, meant i'd get home early.
back in town, i got off at the stop closer to the yonghui supermarket so i could see if they had any of those special santa head decorations i've been searching for. lihui told me earlier that they might have them at the fengcheng market in old changshou, but those places are probably all closed by the time i get off of work. yonghui is actually a pretty terrible supermarket, with not that much selections. goes without saying, they only had a little bit of christmas stuff, nothing what i was looking for. i bought some snacks then came home.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - "The Track of My Tears"