Falling ... into Place

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Now writing is the proud girlfriend of a boy who works 14 hours a day. The concept of working that much in one day seems pretty crazy to me right now but then again I just got out of college where I was studying for at least that many hours a day and working that much seems to not be that uncommon around here.

Yesterday I had a bit of an emotional rollercoaster morning but after that it seemed to make everything better - which is always good. I slept through the time when I was supposed to meet Merry and the boys at L Salon so when I did get to the Salon I was a bit upset with myself and a bit loud in general. Camillo basically told me to sit down and shut up and I just lost it. I was sitting in the Salon feeling really depressed and not saying much of anything at all and had to leave the Salon three times to cry a bit and compose myself. By the second time the boys knew that something wasn't right and I got a bunch of comments like "hey, look at Darbs, what's up with her? She okay? Smile girl! You're spirit's a bit down, isn't it?" Merry finally calmed me down and the boys got me to make faces at her while they took pictures of her lovely new haircut. In the end my falling apart made it a lot easier for me to finally get through my little head how they wanted me to act at the Salon (which for whatever reason has taken a little while for me to do). I came back to the Salon at night after going to HaoSha and Camillo's face literally lit up like a Christmas tree that I was there. I told him I was leaving soon and he said "so fast?" Then I pulled him aside and he basically told me that since he works so many hours in a day he'd do his best to see me outside of work when he could but he couldn't promise anything and that he wanted me to be a part of his life so I should come to the Salon to see him more often. Then he told me "take this and go" and opened his arms for me to hug him. That was the most public place he's ever given me a hug and one of the best talks we've had in a while. So it was very relaxing for me to finally understand a lot of this and I went downstairs to sit and happily enjoy reading the third Harry Potter while I ate a dinner of spaghetti with bok choy surrounding it on the plate before I went home to chill with Craig and study for a little bit.

After Merry got her haircut she went to lunch with Alex and I. She and I then went over to the library where she studies. I read Harry Potter for a little and then had to go tutor Sally. I came back to help Merry study after I tutored Sally to realize just how stupid many of the things she has to learn are. In my opinion if a native speaker doesn't know something there's no reason for Chinese to study it (unless it's something specific to their field of work) because they'll never use it but obviously that's not the understanding of those giving the test. Merry has to know things like "tinker ticket" and "Now, let's get the partisan act on." Obviously the second means something like "Let's get the band rollin'." But to know those exact words is just stupid and "Let's get the band rollin" is just a slang phrase.

Around here girls are supposed to act like girls - be knowledgeable of fashion, keep a tiny personal space around them so their movements aren't too big, keep their voices down so that they don't laugh or speak too loudly. My problem is that until I fell apart yesterday I've been fighting these girly girl actions off. I am not and never will be a girly girl. What I finally understood yesterday was that I don't have to be a girly girl all the time as long as I am when the time's right which is fine with me. I'm going to do my best to teach myself but in the meantime it's going to take a lot of "hush!" "shhh!" and teaching me what to wear from the boys to get me to that point.

Today I just had a little miracle happen. I went to eat lunch by myself (which is nice to do sometimes) and afterwards I was walking back to the school and ran into Merry's friend who I met yester

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