Shanghai Regrets

Believing you have all the time in the world--such as an entire year in Shanghai--lulls you into thinking that you have a boundless largesse of opportunity. So you put off what you really want to do. What you want to see. What you want to accomplish. As I have learned recently, reality can shift with a single phone call. Or an email, marked with a red flag.

I've been asking my kiddos what last adventures they want to take with me in Shanghai before we leave for home: visiting the Science & Technology Museum? Touring the historic Jewish neighborhood? Shopping in the Underground markets? Geocaching?

As for me, my biggest regret isn't what I didn't see or do in Shanghai. It's not having the time to turn acquaintances into True Friends. Like with Margaret, my dear buddy Shelli's friend.


From Malaysia, Margaret's half-Pakistani, half Malay with the most extraordinary childhood story. She is a walking novel. Just look at her! She's one of the most beautiful and sexy women I've ever met.

Today I'm thankful to have met marvelous people throughout my travels in Shanghai. However abbreviated this time in China was, I have been blessed with interesting mentors and fierce protectors along the way.

Inspiration Monday

One of my girlfriends who paved the hard path I find myself following now sent me a wonderful quote:

"Let yourself begin anew. Pack your bags. Choose carefully what you bring, because packing is an important ritual. Take along some humility and lessons from the past. Toss in some curiousity and excitement about what you haven't learned. Say your good byes to those you're leaving behind. Don't worry who you will meet or where you will go. The way has been prepared. The people you are to meet will be expecting you. A new journey has begun. Let it be magical. Let it unfold."
--Journey to the Heart Daily Meditations

So today I will journal about what I will bring on this next journey: humility will need its own enormous duffle bag. And the lessons? Whoo boy, I will need an entire cargo container for all the lessons I've learned in the last two weeks. All the things I wish I could redo, rephrase, rethink.

Today I am thankful for the Right Words that people are feeding me. Thank you so much for your loving support.

Shanghai Foot Massage: Happy Feet

The mark of a good friend is her willingness to talk sense into you. So when my friend, Stacey, realized I had only put together a Must-Do-Before-I-Leave-Shanghai list for my kiddos and not myself, she immediately remedied that oversight.

Top on her list: A foot massage in a truly local spot. None of this fancy spa business nonsense.

Imagine a street lined with neon lights advertising massages--so glaring that one might mistake the signs for Those Kinds of Massages. I was a little skeptical, a lot nervous. But this was Stacey. She of wholesome goodness. She of amazing character. She of discerning taste.

So I pushed through the door. Selected the foot massage I wanted (just herbs, no oil). And was taken to a room of our own. The foot masseuses lugged in heavy tubs of scorching hot water. And told Stacey and me to SUCK IT UP when we looked nervously at the thick steam spiraling into the air. One image came to mind: bubbling volcano. And this was supposed to feel good?

(Note to my germ-phobic sister who just finished a microbes class in nursing school: the bucket was lined with plastic. I am assuming--HOPING--that the plastic liner is changed with every client. So far, no weird fungal action on my footsie tootsies, thank you.)


I mistakenly thought foot massage = foot massage. But no! My back was tended to first. Thank goodness. My shoulder muscles were so tight that the woman leaned her scant weight into me.



For tiny little women, these masseuses had surprisingly STRONG hands as they pressed and pummelled and slapped (yes! slapped!) my calves, heels, and toes.


Bottom line: painful, but oddly therapeutic and weirdly pleasant. Better than a full-body massage in the states, for sure. And for less than $10 an hour, I can see why people get addicted to these.


Two thumbs up. (Or should I say, two big toes up?)



Today I am thankful for the kindness of girlfriends and strangers who have been taking such exquisite care of me.

Shanghai Chic

So my good friend and co-diva of readergirlz, Lorie Ann Grover, challenged me to find the most fashionable figure in Shanghai. Out to lunch with my family, I spotted The One:

Hip down to the dog's four-sneakered paws.

Fashionable or questionable?

Today I am thankful for all things ludicrous that make me laugh.

Poetry Friday: Sutta Nipata

Sutta Nipata

Buddha

Let your love flow outward through the universe,

to its height, its depth, its broad extrent,

a limitless love, without hatred or enmity.

Panda Pajama Party

Dearest All: Thank you so much for your outpouring of support. Really. I am so humbled that people around the world even read this blog, much less respond with such care.

Twenty-one days left in Shanghai and counting. And what am I doing? Procrastinating, that's what. A scant five weeks ago, I unpacked the entire house when our shipment finally arrived from its three-month oceanbound journey spanning Seattle to Shanghai. I just can't even stand the Sisyphean task of boxing everything back up. No no no no no nooooooooo.

Good thing then that my college friend, Shelli, called this morning and asked if I wanted to go to Yuyuan Garden to shop for my daughter's birthday party favors. As my friends know, I am not much of a shopper. I don't care for the butt brush--you know, when all the merchandise is stuffed so close together, you can't move without having your tush brush against something. Well, welcome to shopping in Shanghai.

However. Shopping or packing. You can guess which was the lesser evil. Let the butt brush begin.

My daughter chose a PANDA PAJAMA party as her birthday festivity theme. No problem, I thought. Uh-huh. Now, China is The Land of the Panda, right? So tell me why it is virtually impossible to find a single panda anything. Frogs, yes. Rabbits, yes. Tigers, yes. Strange, unidentifiable creatures, oh YES. But pandas?

(Side note: in China, what you see above are PLUSH animals. STUFFED animals are taxidermical specimens.)

For an hour, I trolled the enormous market for panda trinkets, scouring stall after stall. At last: panda stickers. And then nirvana for the paper freak that I am: a stall that sold only giftwrap and paper bags. Including one with BAMBOO on it. Perhaps not a panda, but do we all agree that panda food is good enough?

Today I am thankful for girlfriends who know how to divert me and force me out of my big, must-be-packed-soon house...even if it is with shopping.

Homeward Bound

Due to unforeseen and absolutely sad personal reasons, I will be returning to the states with my kiddos at the end of November. On Thanksgiving, to be exact.


So in the midst of sorrow, I am trying to find some things (anything!) to be thankful for. Here's what I came up with:

• My family. From my parents who said, "Come Home." To my in-laws who echoed, "You are always welcome here." To my sister who stands tall next to me no matter what. And especially my kiddos who are Pure Love and Light itself. For all of them, I am thankful.
  
• My friends. No one has better, more loyal, more loving friends than I do. No one. I am truly the most blessed person. Who else has friends who meet them at the airport...with presents for the kiddos? Who has friends who don't take no for an answer and show up on my doorstep anyway? Who has friends who are housesitting, yet say, "You need to move back? No problem!" For all of my buddies, I am thankful.

• My readers. On the darkest of all days, a teen reader emailed me, telling me that my forthcoming book changed her perception about herself. And then she quoted me back to myself. As odd as that experience was, those words were actually the right message at the right time: "To dream, you must starve doubt. Feed hope." For all the authors who write so that we can find solace in story--and the readers of this work, I am thankful!

• And today...after returning to Shanghai and having to visit the Police Station to register myself yet again, I am counting myself as very THANKFUL not to have to stand in that endless line, serviced by one lone man, ever ever again. As an addendum, I am also thankful not to have to return to the Public Security Bureau in Shanghai. Honestly.

4. By the time I return to the states, there will be a NEW president. And for THAT, I am exceedingly thankful.

So my project in the next three weeks is to continue adding to my Thankful List. I will be feasting on hope. Will you?