I am like a horse that needs to be put down, for her own good and the good of the others. I have impressed myself. I lost bike number 5 in less than a week. How can I even show my face at the bike shop? I swear they should just give me one out of pity. Speaking of horses, maybe I should just buy a horse instead. A horse would be a lot harder to lose than a bike......maybe....i guess horses can run away.

On the way to work, I lost one glove on the bus. (I bought them Sat.)

On the way home from work I tripped with my hands full of 90 Christmas boxes that my students made in front of a guy I am actually working to impress not earn his scorn.

On the upside, however, I have a new cell phone. Same number. Fiasco of course. The phone was registered in Ann's name and passport number because last fall my office took my passport to work on my visa. I hoped they wouldn't realize that my passport and my phone papers were different.....I mean, all foreigners look alike, right? Ann was just in Hangzhou with her passport until the day I lost the phone. A few days later she had the chance to send me an email attachment of the passport. I took it to China mobile. The girl pondered the paper for awhile and announced "Its too big". "Excuse me?" "The copy isn't the right size, it needs to be the size of a passport." "But look, here is Ann's name, her picture, her number the United States seal.....its all here." "It's the wrong size." "Why?" "It's the rules." "Can't you just skip the rules this time?" I asked getting close to tears of frustration. "No." "So, if I walk down the street to a copy place and get it resized, I can bring it back and it will be fine." "Yes." I leave and walk 4 blocks to the copy place, accomplish the goal and then return. Upon my return, the lady finds my copy satisfactory; she gets up and proceeds to make a copy of the copy at the machine behind her desk. My mouth just dropped open. Now why couldn't she have just resized it herself! i put my head on the table and answered in monosyllables until i got my phone reactivated. Honestly, I think sometimes the Chinese think of THE MOST DIFFICULT way to do something and then proceed accordingly.....mainly to keep everyone employed. Someone shoot me.