I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but the last week I’ve been getting up before 7 am (after going to bed around 1 am). Yesterday, I started feeling muscle spasms around my left eye. John insists my unchanging, cheapie vegetarian diet is deteriorating my health. Generally, I feel fine– a bit tired but ok I think. Ahh, nothing a Centrum can’t fix. Hehe. Yes, vitamnins will cure all. Just ask the expert, Tom Cruise.

So the days continue to zip by. Danielle and I had a phone chat with Animals Asia on Thursday. Looks like the visa paperwork is going to take a long, long time; now we’re aiming for a late October/early November start date. Given how fast time’s been passing, we’ll launch in no time. In the interim, I’m keeping myself very busy, getting sucked into more unpaid/volunteer work. I’m a sucker. Just can’t help it.

For example, last week I got an email about a man who gave his Great Pyrenees dog to the Shanghai Wild Animal Park. He had purchased the dog as a puppy, but then his wife got pregnant and the dog started becoming aggressive (not exactly clear on the timeline). Long story short, no one wanted Yuki, so the owner handed him over to the Park, which had show dog plans for him. Well, months later, Yuki was deemed untrainable. Today I’m going to the Park to observe their overall operations (not sure if I’m up for the safari ride) and to also see Yuki. I do hope he can be rehabilitated. Where’s Caesar Milan when you need him?

In other news, LifeLine has been very busy. We’re under a new executive director, and she’s got big plans for fundraising and changing things up. I just spend two days updating the site and putting everything into templates. I know, sounds like I know what I’m doing, but actually, I’m the queen of trial and error. No wonder, all my time disappears! My biggest news of the last few days? I found a new calendar for my websites. Check out Localendar. Free and most importantly, not blocked in China (keep your fingers crossed!). Very straightforward. This morning I went calendar-crazy and added a crapload of new events. Soon you’ll start seeing entries like “cut hair” or “bought a book.” Sadly, I actually log stuff like that in my personal Outlook calendar… I know, it’s very scary.

I’m going to a party tonight. I actually considered attending the Shanghaiist party last night, but after reading the invitation urging me to bring all my “rowdy friends,” I decided it wasn’t for me. So I OD’d on Andy Lau movies instead. Silly, Chinese romantic comedies in Mandarin and Cantonese. Very cheesy. But I enjoyed listening (though not fully grasping) to the Mandarin dialog. And of course, Andy is easy on the eyes. 🙂