Friendship beyond time

We have known each other for ten years, one year in the same classroom, and another two in the same high school. After graduation, we went our own ways. She studied in Qingdao and works in Shanghai. I’m in Beijing.

Last time we met, it was 4 or 5 years ago. But neither time nor distance can separate us. That’s the power of friendship. Real friends don’t change with time. When we get together again, the years just disappear and we quickly reconnect. That’s the magic of friendship. She helped me get through the hardest period. That’s the value of friendship.

题外话
经常会遇到很像的人：有人长得像，有人说话像，有人性格像，有人感觉像。老同学，老同事，新同事，新客户。。。好像在世界的某个角落，每个人都有自己的一面镜子。偶尔会在茫茫人海中看到一张似曾相识的脸，却不敢相认，因为不相信会有这样的巧合。于是就这样擦肩而过，或者他们本身就是我们生命中的过客。不曾相逢，是缘分未到；相逢却不相识，是有缘无分。

Annual greetings

Chinese New Year’s eve is the busiest night for my mobile phone. Thanks to SMS, it makes holiday greetings easy and efficient. Just a few thumb movements on the keypad, voila!

However, it’s weird to be addressed by a close friend with “nin” because we never talk like that. There’re also texts from acquaintances with whom I only get connected on this day. When greetings are mass produced, where can I find sincerity?

The childhood happiness of wearing new clothes on New Year’s Day, being amazed by splendid fireworks under the stars, receiving red packets from the elders… has gone forever. Nian doesn’t mean a lot to us jaded modern people any more.

The holiday

Work as if there were no tomorrow because tomorrow is the holiday.

The holiday is not always as romantic as Nancy Meyers' film. The rough working days before and after that, the chaotic transportation, the long and tortuous way home, the annual holiday routines…

The good thing is I can finally see some old friends.

Dating a client? No!

A prequel to my last post

There were eyes on me. I could feel it. I hate people staring at me that way, rude and overbearing, like a predator.

It was a ski trip with clients. The pair of eyes followed me from the ski field to the cafeteria…

“Are you a fresh grad?”
“No, I’ve been working for almost four years.” I may look like a teenage girl wearing two pigtails. But don’t judge a book by its cover.

“Are you married?” He asked, no, interrogated.
“No.” Huh, straight to the point.

“What’s your msn?”
…
The next Monday on msn

“Today is my birthday.”
“Oh, happy birthday!” What a coincidence and how dramatic!
“Why not have dinner with me and say that in person?”
“Hmm, I don’t think it’s necessary.”

“What do you do for fun at weekends?”
“Stay home.”
“Do you like bowling?”
“I’m not interested in sports.”
“Do you like karaoke?”
“No.”
“You are so introvert?!”
Ha, I see the connotation here: what a freak you are!

I am who I am. I won’t love something just because the majority loves it. Sorry, you are not my type. Our company will organize other trainings in the future. We may meet again. But it’s just business.

One night in Beijing

All fancy restaurants were fully booked at Friday night. Never would I know the night in Beijing had I stayed in my apartment.

Loft reminded me of Eight over Eight in Sanlitun, the guests who came all the way from France in the early winter of 2004, Catherine who said the place was for lovers to break up, Betty haggling with the Italian restaurant manager with her broken English…Shining wine glasses on polished mahogany tables under pale yellow lights didn’t appeal to me; they felt lofty.

I don’t like business socializing. I’m always a quiet listener, an attentive observer. Having met more and more people, I gradually have the eye to judge. The sophistication of our clients from CITVC astonished me. How can environment shape a person? Change a person? We were the same back at school, but those years in society can make a person unrecognizable. My cousins and old classmates whom I haven’t heard of for years must be like strangers to me today.

Movies, pictures, memories

Gladiator, on HBO last night. This is the first film I watched in university, in Beijing, 7 1/2 years ago. The same movie, a different me. The scene I walked into the screen room on the 4th floor of the library with my roommates was still etched in my mind. It’s weird. I have bad memory, but some ordinary moments in the past just linger there…

The past three years with a diary seems alive; is it the diary that makes it so, or it really is? But the 18 years in my hometown is dim, as if I had slept them away. All I can remember is the dingy classroom, mountains of books on the desks, clouds of chalk dust dancing in front of my eyes… Maybe I just don’t want to leave any space for that period – it was locked deep in my subconscious.

Then the four years in Beiwai is something I’d like to keep forever… Those memories are like pebbles on the beach, waiting to be collected. I’m so afraid they would be washed away by the tide of time.

Last month I found an album with pictures of me at school. Alas, I can barely remember my classmates’ names. Shattered memories…

No title

The most comfy way of writing is lying inclined to a pillow with the laptop on my thighs on a cold winter day. A fireplace in the room would be nicer. Then my thoughts begin to wander around. It’s all but a temporary escape from reality. I treasure every moment I can calm down and do some writing, with the sunlight casting in…

Don’t know how to start this new page because nothing new has ever happened yet. Don’t wanna go out; nothing is more pleasant than snuggle into bed and enjoy the sunshine of winter.

I spent the whole weekend huddling in the sofa watching dvds, dazzled by different stories and styles. Movie is a healer to loners.