Stick: … and we should get some coasters.
Meg: I don’t think we’re really coaster people.
Stick: Yes, but I’d like to be.

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Tags: getting older, minor milestones, moving, Stick

Last night while Stick was playing the new evolution game Spore, he announced excitedly “Meg! I’ve become sentient!”
Let the record state that I made no response.

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Tags: gaming, Stick

“When I was looking at job boards,” Stick told me last night, “I found a perfect job for Evil Incarnate.” Evil Incarnate is an ex-boyfriend, the one who bears striking resemblance to my love-hate struggles with Mandarin. I suppose the name says it all.
“Send it along,” I said, “He’s not that all happy where he’s […]

The other day, Stick saw my throwing-star picture and called me “the worst ninja ever”. Turns out, I’m not even the worst ninja in Essex county.
CLIFTON — Two “modern day Ninjas” calling themselves Shinobi Warriors on a quest to rid the area of drug users and drug dealers have been put out of business by […]

I’m quoted in USA Today, in an article about the pre-Olympic security measures and visa restrictions. The article talks to disappointed Beijingers — Chinese residents, long-term ex-pats and tourists — about their pre-Olympic experiences. It’s worth reading, although it’s a sad look at my dear Beijing. And it seems to confirm my worries that due […]

I’m still in Beijing, but I’m getting into an East Coast sleep pattern already. It comes from lying in bed wondering exactly what I’m going to do with myself next, and then waking up to an anxious countdown of time left in China. Four days, three days, two days.
I’m leaving for the US tomorrow. I […]

China without Stick is strangely familiar. The children hanging on the hutong’s gate, waiting to see the foreign woman, remind me of the Yantai children, watching on the steps of my apartment and shouting to their friend when they saw me coming. I don’t know if word has gotten out that Stick and the protective […]

I’ve got a bunch of photos from Hugo and Diana’s visit to put up. There always seemed to be something better to do… I’m going to backdate some of them, so if you’re family and you want to see photos, I’m going to put them up under the dates when I should have posted them.

Here […]

Stick left today, which was just as miserable as the last time he left China. Airport goodbyes don’t actually get any easier with practice. We had a really insane 36 hours getting him ready to go. Finally, as he was stuffing the last few things in his bag, the seam popped! I sewed it back […]

Stick’s new visa fell through at the last possible second. It was a dramatic disaster, but the short version is that apparently the school wasn’t quite as professional and aboveboard as we’d thought. His current visa expires tomorrow, so he is flying home tomorrow night.
I did my year in Yantai alone, and I really don’t […]