Grand Plans

I did essentially nothing yesterday. Okay, that’s not true – I took a three hour nap in the middle of the day, and tried not to spend the entire remainder of my time lying prone in bed. I did eventually squeeze a workout into my packed schedule toward the end of the day, but that was about it. Oh, and I worked on editing a horrendously translated document that was originally in Chinese, but still isn’t quite in “English”, per se. So much for all that motivation. (But on the bright side, E! didn’t run “The Top 101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies” even once yesterday, so that was progress.)

My “not answering the phone” tactic seems to have worked for the time being – no stalker-esque phone calls or text messages yesterday. Perhaps he found someone else to torment. Either way, I was glad for the respite, particularly since yesterday’s plans were best summarized by the “Do Not Disturb” sign on my door. Oh, and I saw a little-known, but much loved (at least by my roommates, present and former) movie called “Super Troopers” on TV last night, so that was a nice diversion. It’s about the Vermont State Highway Patrol, and shenanigans abound. I also did laundry, meaning that I washed my clothes in the bathroom sink and hung them up to dry. Advantages of living in a super-arid climate? My clothes were dry by morning. Disadvantages? The incredibly dry eyes that I wake up with most days. Thank goodness for the boatload of artificial tears that my mom stocked me up with.

As if in retaliation for my claims that I seem to be doing okay with jetlag, my body decided that it was wakey-wakey time around 2:30 this morning. I had no shot of getting back to sleep, despite lying there for close to an hour. And despite taking a Benadryl before I went to sleep a little before 10 pm last night. S’okay, though, I expected that it would take more than two days to adjust. Plus, it gave me the chance to squeeze another workout in this morning, to make up for my slothful existence of late.

So, now I’m sitting here, listening to some angry “grr” music (The Foo Fighters – although their new album, which I bought just before leaving, wouldn’t play properly on my computer. If the same thing happens with my CD player, there will be issues. Guess I’ll find out tonight.) It’s actually some good wake-up music, although I’ve been awake for hours.

Once again, the office is a ghost town this morning. It’s fine if I’m the first one here when I get here at 7:50 am. But I’ll take a stroll around the office around 9 and see if anyone, besides the girl who cleans the office, has decided to grace me with their presence. Given that our internet isn’t working (well, it stopped working just about the time I went to read the 50-some messages I have waiting for me), the IT guy had better get here before too long. Being so far away from everything kind of creates a reluctant dependence on the internet for me.

Eid starts next week, it’s a week-long Muslim holiday, and it means that essentially everything will be shut down. Our driver, who is very nice, has said that it’s still no problem for him to bring me to the office each day, but if e-mail craps out during this time…well, expect some radio silence. I actually know absolutely nothing about Eid, so perhaps I should find out a little more about it. I suppose I can get to that as soon as my internet connection comes back…

Well, I know that Gifty is here, because he just brought me some kiwis. Very nice of him, once again, but I think I need to ask TL how to handle this, if it’s inappropriate, etc., since I think it is. Of course, since he told me that it would probably be okay for me to wear a skirt to a meeting (what?????? There is NO WAY I would do that here.), I think he may not be totally clued in to what it’s like to be me here – surprising, since he’s from a Muslim country, although his country of origin is considerably more liberal. Ah, the gender-relations minefield.