#saditude

as is becoming our unintended tradition, AWD and i headed to the ballpark friday night to see the home team crash and burn and lose their chance at the next round of major league baseball playoffs (see also: the red sox's spectacular flameout last year).

it was so exciting to have the nats in the playoffs (first time in 81 years or some such) and we were really lucky to score some tickets for game 5. the stadium was packed with every seat and standing room filled, and the nats got off to an incredible start with three runs (including a homer!) in the first inning. we had already lots our voices before the second inning started.

i usually lose focus during baseball games, but this one was completely riveting because every single play mattered so much. and because everyone else was so into it. by the time we were up 6-0, people were feeling pretty good. sort of like this.

and then, just like that, the crappity crap crap closing pitcher walked two batters, loaded the bases and before you knew it we had lost the whole thing, 9-7. it was so sad. and a little pathetic. but mostly sad. everyone just sort of shuffled out of the stadium in silence, and it was a pretty quiet metro ride home.

the good news is, the nats winning or losing doesn't really have any impact on the long-term quality of my life. (though i can't say the same for the guy on the metro who kept saying there was no reason to go on living.) and, even though the outcome was less than ideal, it was an incredibly exciting, fun game.

not to mention that, seeing as we are a household made up of a red sox fan and a mariners fan, we are pretty used to this sort of thing.

the day i turned 31

the day i turned 31 we landed on mainland china. so i have a stamp in my passport with my birthday on it. this makes me happy.

the day i turned 31 we were stopped by chinese customs agents who went through our suitcases claiming they were looking for "magazines." we didn't have any. once they were satisfied, one of the agents said to us, "you are tourists?" we said, "yes." he said, "welcome to china" in a way that sounded both friendly and ominous. we just smiled and walked away. quickly.

the day i turned 31, we visited the sun and moon pagodas in guilin and went to an acrobat show (term used loosely).

the day i turned 31 we bought two pieces of individually wrapped cake and, after 15 minutes of gesturing to communicate that we wanted them for takeaway (we finally resorted to pointing to the phrase in our mandarin-english phrase book) we took them back to our hotel room and celebrated. we even splurged on a soda from the minibar.

the thing i learned this year is that even the worst most hard and horrible thing i can imagine, if it happens, can be endured and, actually, endured well. my goal for the next year is to avoid living in fear of the next worst most hard and horrible thing that might be around the corner and instead enjoy the wonderful, happy and good things that make up the bulk of my life. realistically speaking, bad and hard things are inevitable. so really there is no sense in being worried about and braced against them all the time. especially because good things are inevitable, too. and i certainly have been blessed with more than my fair share of those.

king of (hong) kong

our first stop was hong kong, where my old mission companion michelle was the perfect hostess, not to mention a total trooper spending all day out and about with us with a baby in tow. i loved seeing hong kong, but i loved catching up with her and meeting her little family just as much.

with michelle as our guide we hit all the must-sees, including...

macau, a former portugese settlement that is actually a different country even though it's just an hour-long ferry ride away, which meant more stamps in our passport. hurrah! the portugese had the good sense to list all their historical sites with unesco before they transferred power back to the chinese in the 1990s, so all the old historical buildings are still standing. there are also a lot of casinos. we didn't bother with those.

hong kong island is basically a big mountain, and you can take a tram up to the peak and look out over all the splendor. so, we did.

and, if you happen to need to travel from the residential mid-levels to the business district, known as central, you can just take the commuter escalator. during morning rush-hour it goes down, transporting all the morning commuters, and for the rest of the day it runs up, bringing everyone back home. i thought it was basically the coolest, most brilliant thing i had ever seen.

we also hit some downtown markets (one for knock-offs, one for jade),

watched the famous hong kong light show (in the rain!) and then took the famous star ferry home,

and took a cable car to the world's largest seated outdoor bronze budhha, all those qualifiers being really important as without any one of them he wouldn't qualify as the world's largest anymore.

hong kong was an easy place to visit and a great place to get our feet wet. after three glorious days there, our adventure was well under way.