Another Mid Weeker

I have pictures. On my computer desktop. I want you to see them. But when I do find the time to blog, and then I even turn on my vpn and try to upload pictures, and it's suuuuuuper slow and doesn't work ... the result is a huge de-motivater.

This weekend I traipsed into Shanghai Fashion Week with my media credentials and got to take my seat by the runway before the civilians. Free flow grey goose martinis. Lots of people way more fashionable than myself. 

Last week I got an advanced tour of the Australia Pavilion at the World Expo site. Then there was the Avatar-themed banquet at the Marriott ... Last year, all of these things would've warranted their own blog posts. Right now, I seriously don't have the time. There's still a lot of organizational stuff I'm trying to tackle at work. I'm hoping my load will lighten somewhat down the line. 

But the takeaway is, my job is pretty sweet. And the perks are super fun. 

I was walking through the Expo site - with about 100 Chinese journalist - when I caught myself thinking "this is basically a glorified, multi-million dollar Australian chamber of commerce ad." I mean it was, but it was also the World Expo, and I got to see it before everyone else. That's pretty cool.

Sometime after my family went to Cambodia and before I reached high school the idea "international journalist" first sprouted in my pea brain. I remember thinking that I really liked "journaling" in my diary and that I would like to do something like that overseas. I didn't have any idea who would read it. But that half-baked adolescent idea - that's what I do now.

Sophomore year of high school, my guidance counselor was talking to me about college. I don't remember where I said I wanted to go, but he said something like, "Well do you want to live in that city? Because most people end up living where they went to college." I remember getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. It was a defiant feeling - I didn't like him telling me that college was the end of the line. Where I went to college would turn into the rest of my life. It seemed so final, inescapable. And I was only 16.

Thinking back on those things, I feel like I'm doing what I should be right now. Though I also think it's natural for us to reflect and pick anecdotes that make our stories make sense. Life needs a narrative. Alaska, Los Angeles, Oregon, Taiwan, Shanghai. That's mine. So far.