Wheeling through the Year

Spring again, and the first reference that leapt to mind was e e cumming’s Balloonman. For some reason, though, that seemed familiar, and after a moment, I remembered why. A little less than three years ago I used the exact same poem to talk about springtime in Beijing. Considering the number of poems which talk about springtime, this is a little ridiculous. Ah, well. It’s hard to beat words like puddle-wonderful and mud-luscious.

Actually, today is neither muddy nor puddleful. The humidity is down a bit, and the temperature is holding steady at a lovely 73 degrees. It is so nice, in fact, that I am writing this post while sitting in the courtyard garden.

The garden was one of the major reasons I chose this apartment back in July. I figured once in cooled down a bit, it would be a nice place to sit in my free time and enjoy the outdoors (as much of it as there is in downtown Guangzhou, anyway). But, it was too hot, and then it was too wet, and then it was too cold. So this is actually the first time I’ve actually realized that little dream-idea of sitting in the garden with my laptop, typing away like some sort of modern blogger. Ah, the 21^st century. Across from me are about four young women with their babies in strollers. About twenty feet to my right, there is a man swimming laps in the neighboring gym’s pool (another reason for choosing this apartment).

Strangely, now is when the old leaves fall off.

I was planning on listening to the ambient noise, but after about five minutes, I realized that the major ambient sounds are the two neighboring construction sites, so I’ve given into the antisocial tendency of our modern era and put in my headphones. I’m listening to my new CD, thank you Meg, The Goat Rodeo Sessions. It’s a collaboration between Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, and Yo Yo Ma. So… basically, it’s Yo Yo Ma playing bluegrass, and it’s awesome. My favorite track so far is called “Quarter Chicken Dark.”

fruit salad for my birthday!

Yesterday, as most of you know, was my birthday. My only plans for the day were birthday cake and Thai food, and I succeeded on both counts. The traditionalist in me wanted a Betty Crocker Best Chocolate Cake, so I spent the morning visiting three different international grocery stores to find the ingredients (baking chocolate was the hardest to find). I don’t have an electric mixer, and I wasn’t about to attempt it by hand, so homemade buttercream frosting was out, but I indulged in some canned chocolate fudge frosting. I also decided to go all the way and picked up birthday candles and writing icing. I’ll tell you, nothing feels quite as silly as writing “Happy Birthday” on your own birthday cake, but I managed it.

I am terrible at planning ahead, so I sent a text message invite to dinner to all my friends at about 11am on my birthday, and seven of them still managed to come, so I was quite pleased. We went to the Thai Garden restaurant on the top floor of Tee Mall. I’d never been, but my flatmate had, and she said it was good. It was. We had chicken baked in a pineapple, Thai fried noodles, spicy mussels, rice-stuffed chicken wings, dragonfruit salad, some vegetarian red curry, and warm pumpkin coconut cakes. Nothing like Thai food in Maine, though, so my craving for American pad thai remains unsatisfied.

 After dinner, we all walked back to my apartment and ate the cake, which everyone said was delicious. I may or may not have had a piece for breakfast today, but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t admit it in a place my mother could read about it. Not when she and my Dad sent me such a lovely birthday card and e-present. I also bought myself a couple birthday presents, but I shall keep that a secret for a future post. The tailor is still working on them.

So, to sum up a rather aimless post, it is Spring, I am 24 years old, and I’m okay with life right now. I just started reading a scholarly work on interactions between China and America in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and I was going to bore you all with my thoughts on it, but this post is already quite long. Perhaps I’ll save it for next week. Oh, and I got a birthday hug from my friend, so all my birthday wishes came true*.

Thanks for all the psychic hugs. Look how happy they made me.

*Well, except for the one where the Doctor stops by and offers me a ride through time and space, but there’s always next year.