Mid-Summer

I got out of the house today for the first time in six days. I was out of Kleenex's, so I had to go to the store to get some more. I have had a bad cold since last weekend. (Uh, well, I did take my dog downstairs to the grass twice a day even when I was sick, which is technically being out of the house since I live on the 5th floor, but that's as far as I got all week.) Even though my voice doesn't work well, I was glad to get out this morning and go into the town. It feels like I just wasted a week of my life.

Prior to getting sick, some friends and I went to visit the Venice of China, Suzhou, for about five days. It is just beautiful and quaint there. Suzhou is about an hour from Shanghai. Suzhou also has a couple of Starbucks Coffee shops and TGIFriday's restaurant, so that makes it an even more attractive destination! It is one of my favorite places to visit. The bad news is that we went during monsoon season, and most of our planned activities got washed out. We can go weeks at a time without seeing the sun around here during the summer monsoon season. It is usually really unbearably humid, but today there is a cool breeze blowing and it almost feels like fall. The apartment complex mowed down the foot-long grass blades and my dog enjoyed romping on it for a change. I don't want to get a relapse with my sickness, so I'll probably lay low for a few more days and watch a few more American TV shows on DVD. Hopefully next week I'll have something more meaningful I can do.