Three days off

I've finally gotten a long break - a full three days! Yay! Today was the first day.

I slept horribly last night, and Oreo came to wake me up at 7h00. Mom was getting her blood drawn downstairs, so she told me to keep Oreo in my room, which I did and Oreo kept whining and jumping around wanting to be let out. Eventually when I thought it was safe to do so, I did and I went back to sleep. I think I've started having trouble sleeping again after the CD player on loan from Uncle Tsu stopped working. Gotta have that fixed, or get a new one. Anyway, I hoped to sleep all day, but Mom woke me up at 11h30 and dragged me out to lunch, to meet her friend and then to go shopping.

First, we had lunch at 糖朝 (http://www.tangchao.com.tw/), which is also in HK and Japan. I think I've been to the one on Aoyama Doori, come to think of it. Mom ordered a fish congee and fried breadstick wrapped in a noodle blanket. The congee was quite delicious, but everything just looked so white and.....boring. I wanted something green or red or just anything with color. Then Mom picked up the menu and whispered something to the waiter and told me it would be a surprise. A few minutes later, when I was expecting something along the line of stir-fried vegetables, instead came a big, dreamy bowl of fruit with black jelly. It came in two bowls, the goodies were in one bowl and it was stacked right on top of another one. In between the bowls, smoke from dry ice flowed out, and it really made eating fruit...fun.

After lunch, Mom brought me to visit a friend of her, who she said was a jewelry designer. Her atelier was very comfortable, with lots of bodhisattva figures, pictures and other Buddhist-related items. It was tranquil, I was tired and just had a huge lunch, so I really wanted to sleep, except she only had wooden benches. No chairs, just benches... I didn't find anything interesting about her jewelry, but I did like her cat, names "Porche." After an hour, I really couldn't stand it anymore, so we headed over to Sogo Department Store. I'm completely out of things to wear and probably the only thing I can do with Mom peacefully is shop, so it was the perfect opportunity. A bajillion dollars and two hours later, we walked out with two big bags of mostly my things and a hole burning through my purse. But it felt good to spend money on myself once in a while. I've been a scrooge and have been spending it all on the "necessary" items, like reading materials and other things for work.

It was about dinner time, so we drove over to Auntie Chunyen's noodle place by Taipei Main Station. But of course, between the car park and the restaurant, we had to do some shopping too. There was a little marketplace between buildings that Mom used to shop at when she was little. There were mostly very inexpensive things, the average blouse costing maybe TWD400 or so. Mom loves those. I really don't... I like places that are clean and comfortable, where clothes are kept in nice boxes even when in storage, not in big 30-gallon garbage bags... But sometimes you get some cheap good finds in those places. After dinner, we stopped by another clothing store. This was a real store, but it sold things you'd find in those in-between-buildings marketplaces. But to my surprise, I spent another half a bajillion dollars there, trying to piece together things to wear to work. I kind of regret buying all those things now, but it's too late for that. I just hope I never have to go there again with Mom. She'll call me stuck up if I don't want to buy when we're in places like that. I really hate those places...

It's going to take some effort to wear those inexpensive things with class. I think I need some nice pieces and interesting or expensie-looking accessories to wear at the same time so there's a feel of quality. I don't have a lot of money left to go shop fot those things... *sigh* I think I will call up the recording studio and give them my September schedule for voice overs... Maybe I'll just bring Dad and his credit card shopping on my next weekend off! Maybe Judy Mama will get some new clothes and send me more of her old ones! Hee.

Tomorrow, Mom's off to Taichung, so I think I can actually get some rest. Perhaps I'll ask Maria to give me a massage and the I will get my long overdue haircut then come home and clean my room. Michael left breakfast on my desk this morning and I didn't notice until 22h00 because it was so messy. Bad girl.

Oyasuminasai.