Life is a Highway

Ikea, who is probably my most loyal reader (second to my Mom), publicly accused me of abandoning my blog recently. I have to admit that Miffy's Adventures has suffered a bit in content since I left New York. >_< Here are my lame excuses:

1. The Great Firewall of China. It makes it slower to blog, although I've now shelled out for a better VPN (used to be Witopia aka craptopia, now I use VyprVPN... expensive at $20/month).
2. Busy with work and settling in.... there's not much for me to take pictures of without being one of those people who talk about work all the time. BORING!
3. I've left my Canon at home because my new iPhone's camera is good enough for everyday use, whereas my G11 is pretty damn heavy to haul around. I've realized that I still greatly prefer my real digital camera for blogging purposes though. 
4. Because of Reason #3, most of my picture-taking have been stored on Instagram. :)
5. I have very little friends/family here. So less occasions to write about. God that sounds so damn sad!

My professional life has been hectic -- it's essentially a start-up company so efficiency is low but the learning curve is high. Recently we've made some major headway in our projects, which is great news... otherwise I'd be on the next flight back to New York! Roles and responsibilities are still vague, but it'll all materialize soon with time. I can't speak too much about it right now since the planning is quite sensitive, but I'll leak more details once the terms are set! Generally I've been lackadaisical about interacting with Shanghai since I've gotten here... I usually pore over Cityweekend/Timeout for my next adventure. These days I'm just not in the mood. I'm still crashing at boss lady's apartment even though I found a small studio already, but it'll 2 weeks to repaint the place, buy furniture, install the internet, etc... I promise to give you a tour once it's all done. :D

Yan An Highway.

On the ground during night and in the air during day. Yes, Instagram!!!

So far I have no regrets about coming to Shanghai, except for leaving people behind. But I know that those who love you will always be there (and importantly WANT to be there) regardless of time and location. And if you can't meet that standard, then you'll eventually be culled. It's not cold but it is calculated. More than ever I only have a limited amount of resources at hand, and I want to give my best to those who deserve it most. :)

I feel like I'm back on track and that everything that I've worked on since early 2009 is finally converging on this point. This year when I went with my dad to the temple during Chinese New Year, I had prayed to the god[s] above to show me the way. It wasn't like throwing a penny into a fountain and making a wish, I was begging, with tears streaming down my face. It was quite embarrassing since I think my dad saw, but he was nice enough to not say a thing. Life didn't give me an answer right away, but with continual experimentation and help from above I'm hugely hopeful that I'm sitting at the cusp of something awesome. It's amazing how quickly things can change, which is why life can certainly feel like a highway.

GAH I can't help writing introspective shit when I'm sedentary!!! I am so boring. Blah.