What its like to be a trophy house-wife, siiiiinnnggging in the rain...

I now know how it feels now to be a trophy-housewife, and as long as I don’t have to watch “The View”, “Oprah”, or “Dr. Phil”, it is definitely the greatest thing in the world. It started out with what I do everyday, in class from 8 to 12, but was lucky enough to watch movies I had never seen, “Mulan” and “Kung-Fu Hustle” in both classes (in Chinese). Mulan, as most Disney movies are, was great and Kung-Fu was highly entertaining. Anywho, lets say those two movies were proxies for watching Oprah and the like all morning; was grazing on snacks like Pocky the whole time too, which is like a proxy for bon-bons.

Then right after class went to get our cheap massages…not sure if I mentioned this before (and even if I did is tremendous enough to mention again) but the already cheap massages are even cheaper before 5 PM on M to Thurs…cheap as in 78 RMB (or about $10) for either an hour full body or 80 mins of foot reflexology + simple shoulder, back, and neck massage. That’s not all folks – that price also includes ALL YOU CAN EAT made-to-order food. If most of you know me, it is a losing proposition when you offer me all you can eat…

So anywho, got the 80 mins massage while I ate sliced fruit, dumplings, then afterwards sat in their lounge and ate an omlet with rice, more sliced fruit, and mushroom noodle soup. So essentially I stayed at this spa for over 2.5 hours getting a massage and eating…how about that? Then off to go shopping at the suit place as previously mentioned – picking up the final version of my custom, made-to-measure suit. How did it end up? See for yourself (you like the look with cargo shorts?):

Worth every penny of the 950 RMB I paid, or about $127 USD – less than the alteration jobs usually for the off the rack suits I buy in the states. Naturally, I then had the shopping bug and bought a made-to-measure custom 85% cashmere/15% wool with silk inner lining overcoat for 1300 RMB, or about $175 USD – will be going Saturday for my second fitting, will update on how it went. Okay, okay, did not stop there – bought a nice, custom made-to-measure dress shirt in a nice blue textured houndstooth pattern with French cuffs for…get ready…wait for it….$80 RMB or about $11 USD!!!! This is too much fun. The sad part is as quickly as China is growing, I bet it will already be a good deal more expensive in a year or two.

After that, came home and….went to eat again. So by 7 PM, all I had gotten done was:

1) Watched two movies

2) Ate dumplings and fruit while I got a foot massage

3) Ate more in a new-age lounge with Enya playing in the background (although not always like that…last time the TV had a pirated “Transformers” playing)

4) Shopped…a lot

5) Ate

On another note, after dinner, it was POURING….like, as Forrest Gump would say “big ‘ol fat rain”….monsoon type stuff. And even though the campus restaurant is only a 5 minute walk, when its raining so hard it feels so far away. It was too much fun running back to the dorm – I felt like a little kid again. We were splashing in the biggest puddles, laughing, jumping around…sometimes it’s the littlest things that are so much fun you know? The only gross part is the sewage system is not the greatest in Beijing, and therefore is overwhelmed very quickly = huge puddles, likely mixed with a lot of…sewage…yummy.

(Soaked down to the bone...too much fun)

Okay…time to fill up the bubble bath, pop in some Kenny-G, have a couple of Xanax, and have some alone time with me, the new Cosmo magazine, and a bottle of red wine…