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i was in a bad mood coming into work this morning. it began from yesterday, with XL and her contract group sitting at the back of the bus having a great time chatting and laughing. i sat in the front of the bus by myself, listening to my mp3 in an attempt to drown out the sounds.

then this morning XL had a chance to sit next to me on the bus but passed me by once again. i actually don't remember the last time she sat next to me on the morning bus. i think it was because there were no more available seats. of course i've changed up my morning routine as well, opting to climb onboard immediately instead of hanging around outside. she was wearing her cute black sun skirt i told her i liked so much too. getting off the bus, she noticed i was carrying a bag of food. i pulled it close and away so she couldn't see. "i'm not going to steal it," she said. "i don't want you to see what's inside," i replied, walking away briskly without looking at her.

i don't know why i should care so much. XL is obviously a lost cause. maybe i only want what i can't have.

things got a little bit better during the lunch break when i found XL by herself and asked her if she could help me buy something online (a 77mm 760 infrared filter RMB$190 for my wide angle lens). she tried her best but couldn't figure out how to pay using my banking security code gadget so i finally let her go.

later i did manage to figure it out on my own through translation help from lihui and yangfan. it was the second time i've bought something online and paid with my bank card. normally when i buy something online, it's always with jd.com, which has a COD service for some of their products (mostly electronics). the delivery man has a credit card reader and i swipe my card when he delivers my package. but jd.com is only really good for electronics because they have a reliable return policy; everything else they carry run a little more expensive than, say, tmall.com, which is the online place i'm buying from now.

lihui managed to root my coolpad F1 8297w smart phone using a chinese app running off of his pc. i've been reading an english forum about the F1 and nobody seemed to be able to root the phone after it's been upgraded to rom version 026, which was exactly what i did when i first got the phone. the problem was nobody on the forum could read chinese (only through google translation); if they did, they would know how to root it using a chinese PC app. later i updated the rom once again (through the auto-detecting updater) to 028. i was a little afraid that it would either lose root or not be able to upgrade. it upgraded fine and was still rooted afterwards. i tried installing google apps afterwards, but most google services are still currently down as an after effect of the recent tiananmen-related internet blockade.

maybe i like being miserable. i thought hanging out with SM can cover up some of this misery, but being with her just adds another dimension of suffering and fustration to my seriously disfunctional love life. she's self-admittedly clingy, which makes me feel a little guilty when i want to do stuff with other people, because i know it kind of bothers her. but now is not the time to be in an entangling alliance, and besides, i'm kind of used to being on my own, and no matter how great the person, eventually i get sick of them and yearn for some alone time.

i couldn't help myself when i invited XL to dinner this afternoon. "sorry, i have plans," was all she said to me, no further elaboration. of course my imagination ran wild with her having fun with all of her friends and me back in my apartment alone making rice porridge, the lonely man's gruel.

the remaining few hours of work was torture. lihui found a way to leave work early so he took advantage of it, feigning illness. i had nobody else to talk to and all i could hear was the contract department laughing and having a good time a few cubicle blocks away. as soon as the clock struck 5:50 i made a run for the exit. the medium bus was nowhere to be seen today (taking some construction managers for a team building dinner somewhere), so i hopped on the korean bus instead, which gets back in town by 6:20. by the time the bus left at 5:57, no one from the contract department had even left the office yet.

WWY half-heartedly asked me to invite her to dinner, but when i did, she back off and went to go eat with her friend maggie. a little drizzle had started by then. once we were back in town, i walked down to the street opposite one of my apartment complex entrances, where all the old ladies congregate selling fresh produce. i bought some greens i'd never seen before for RMB$1 and went to my apartment to make some noodles for dinner. i would not be eating rice porridge after all. the leafy greens i bought was called "wood ear (mushroom) greens." it had a slimy texture when cooked (sort of like spinach) and had an earthy taste to it.

rest of the night was spent ironing my shirts, which took more than an hour, since i've pretty much ran out of unwrinkled shirts. i also bought a few more things off of tmall: a pair of solar-powered fortune kitties (RMB$12 each) and an extendable monopod for taking selfies (RMB$50, not sure how i'd use it but seems sort of fun to half, and the price here in china is much cheaper than it is back in the US).