聖誕旅程

這趟旅程是在忙碌生活中的小小抽離，休息、遠走是為了走更長遠的路。

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難忘的聖誕夜，在冷的半死亞利桑納州小鎮 Flagstaff 的商務小旅館上網上得很開心，我想以後想起來還是會會心一笑吧，儘管後來發生一些不愉快。

焦頭爛額在美第六年，一個冬夜，與一起在西雅圖活過第一年的伙伴，以及兩位萍水相逢的朋友，一起走在手腳差點凍僵零下十幾度的大峽谷，待到太陽完全下山見不到半點光才離開，在又黑又冷的雪地上開兩個多小時車程到附近的小鎮投宿，這小鎮有異常多的中國餐廳，路上吃了我在GPS上看店名亂選的四川菜，沒想到經過前兩天在LV暴飲暴食吃buffet後，這家川菜店居然又是個buffet，當看到門上貼著說聖誕夜有提供蟹腳，前兩天已經吃了一堆蟹腳的我們，笑地合不攏嘴的地說，這真是destiny。吃到熱食的我們總算在冷了一下午之後得到些許溫暖，最後的幸運餅乾我居然抽到了一個爛籤，說錯事犯第二次就別怪別人了，雖然盡量覺得只是玩笑，但仍心有餘悸，H好心把她的好籤給我，讓我沾點好運。這天晚上住了一個不錯的小旅館，外面零下快二十度（攝氏），我們在房裡把暖氣開到最強，盡情享用闊別已久的網際網路，X狂發電子郵件跟我們分享一些文章，我們女生則是看在大峽谷拍的搞笑video，C自言自語胡亂說著一些話，小感嘆地說下次見面又不知是何時了，電視則放著聖誕夜音樂晚會，一直到凌晨兩點也沒人去洗澡，大家都捨不得放下這寒冬中一點點的溫暖。（最後大家都很晚睡，隔天睡過頭，在快九點旅館提供免費早餐結束前趕去吃最後剩下的食物。）

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy

Howie Day's 【Collide】 is such a great song. It reminds me of a clip in 【Scrubs】.



[Excerpt]

Dr. Kelso: Life is scary. Get used to it.

Dr. Kelso: There are no magical fixes. It's all up to you. So get up off your keister, get out of here, and go start doing the work.

Q: What if it's too hard?

Dr. Kelso: Nothing in this world that's worth having comes easy.

Narration: You can never truly capture the past.

Narration: You still have to try, though. Because as a recently incarcerated doctor once said, "Nothing worth having comes easy."

Petite

剛看到 Ann Taylor - Loft 對 petite 的定義，不知道為什麼覺得很好笑。

Anyone under 5'4'' or anyone over 5'4'' who finds that a regular size top or bottom is too long in the sleeve, torso, rise, hem or log is petite. Being petite is all about height and proportion -- not weight.

所以每次在美國買衣服自以為開心可以買 petite，其實完全只是自己騙自己。只要夠矮就可以當 petite，和胖瘦並無關。
話說我又違背誓言開始逛起購物網站。雖然下定決心不要再亂開購物網站，但每次一打開 gmail 信箱就一堆折扣的 newsletters，或是上個紐約時報看新聞，旁邊卻有 Banana Republic 或是 Loft 在打廣告，真是無孔不入。每次都騙自己說進去看看最近有什麼新貨，一定要把持住不要買東西，但每次只要一進去就會自動開始搜尋有什麼好看價格又不錯的東西，偏偏我搜尋能力似乎很強、慾望更是無窮，每次都會 end up wanting something，這時就會想說趕快把瀏覽器關掉應該就沒事了，偏偏這時還會自己扮起台灣百貨公司專櫃小姐催眠自己「這件真是太適合你了.....」。

Romantic-Comedy Marathon

算了算發現這學期看了好多電影，且全部都是 Romantic Comedy，以前只會偶爾看一兩部這種浪漫喜劇，最近把平常一年的量都看完了。主要原因是現在完全無法看需要花腦筋的劇情片，這種浪漫喜劇 no-brainer 實為最佳娛樂消遣。

八月看了【Adam】【The Time Traveler's Wife】【500 Days of Summer】
九月看了【The Proposal】
十月看了【Before Sunrise】【Before Sunset】【Bribe Wars】【Ugly Truth】
十一月看了【Made of Honor】【Four Christmases】【27 Dresses】【13 Going On 30】

就我最近的 mood，其實【The Time Traveler's Wife】都稍嫌嚴肅（這部應該算劇情片，不算喜劇），最好就是像【Ugly Truth】這種好笑的，或是像【500 Days of Summer】這種輕鬆小品， more cheerful。比起去年同時期熱衷的政治片（見舊戲新癮），今年整個腦力嚴重退化(*1)。

近期出的浪漫喜劇都看完了，就開始看一些舊片，剛剛重新看了 【Serendipity】，明明記得大二在清大禮堂看過，但對劇情完全沒有半點印象，只記得男主角是約翰庫薩克，還有那位怪怪的百貨公司店員。不知道為什麼當初看時並沒有留下很深刻的感受。


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想想自己也挺誇張，明明有做不完的事，一學期十週還沒過完，就看了超過十部電影，再加上第五季【Grey's Anatomy】也被我全部補完至第六季最新一集，【How I Met Your Mother】、【The Big Bang Theory】也全部趕上。

【Grey's Anatomy】第六季不知道是不是順應時事，反應西雅圖近況，每集都是打雷下大雨的。星期四才從雨中走回家，一打開電視又開始閃電打雷的。抱怨歸抱怨，我還是看得相當開心，很喜歡一個新角色小兒科醫生 Arizona。


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(*1) 目前處於不問世事的政治乾枯期，連新聞都只一星期看一次。

Thanksgiving 2009

今年感恩節嘗試了很多第一次。

第一次自己作了我最愛的食物之一 -- 紅燒牛肉麵。煮了一整天，雖然賣相不佳，不過還滿有我期待的紅燒牛肉味。這樣以後不能回台灣的時候也能解解饞了。

第一次加入黑色星期五午夜的採購人潮。原以為採購力與日遽增的我即使再有睡意看到折扣應該也會清醒，沒想到因為不論進店裡、試穿還是結帳都大排長龍，因而沒什麼購買慾。在寒冷的冬夜和一群瘋狂的人擠隊比購物本身更有趣。

Drama & Life

我常抱怨Grey's Anatomy越來越煽情肥皂，不過還是每天都看得很開心。

剛開始看時還覺得這堆人真愛無病呻吟，不過看久了也頗習慣這調調，其實我的生活也都是在whining啊。

It doesn't matter how tough we are. Trauma always leaves a scar. It follows us home, it changes our lives. Trauma messes everybody up. But maybe that's the point. All the pain and the fear and the crap. Maybe going through all that is what keeps us moving forward. It's what pushes us. Maybe we have to get a little messed up. Before we can step up.

Taiwan Picture of the Day

"Taiwan HSR at Night", from http://fotozon.com/daily/taiwan/

剛發現了台灣每日一照的網站，這個網站每天都會刊登一張跟台灣有關的照片。很喜歡上面2009/10/18這天刊登的夜晚高鐵站照片，剛剛就是被這張照片吸引到這網站。這張照片一整個很有氣氛，表現出一種遊子的心境(*1)(*2)。

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(*1) 雖然我返鄉的交通工具根本是飛機，以前也沒有坐火車返鄉的經驗，生活和鐵路根本扯不上邊。不過可能這幾次回台灣常常晚上坐高鐵回新竹，和台灣這塊土地若即若離的情感，在深夜的列車上尤其明顯，所以一看到這張照片時，有種「你怎麼把我的心情照出來了」的驚奇。

(*2) 剛剛很認真地想看出這是哪一站，後來連到原作者的相簿，這是新竹站耶！難怪我會有莫名的connection，哈哈。

Old Diary and New Memory

When cleaning my apartment last night, I found a diary I kept from junior high to college. It has been stored in a box covered by dust under my bed. It was surprising that my memory has gone so bad that I forgot a lot of things. I couldn't remember what some pronouns I used referred to. I couldn't even feel anything for some of the things I felt so strongly before.(*1) Time flies and things change. Sometimes things go so differently than we expect. But sometimes things go back to the origin after detours. I can't believe in my first year in senior high school (oh, sweet 16~) I said in my diary that "I am gonna major in economics in college"; "Because Nobel has a prize in economics" (Not that I ever thought I would ever win one. It was just that I thought awarding accomplishments in economics by Nobel prize implied that this discipline had real contributions to human beings. And I was gonna study something meaningful.) Looking back to it from now, I am not sure whether it was a teenager's audacity or it was simply naiveness. I feel a bit shame on my current passionless self. It did make me burst into laughter though. More than ten years later, I am indeed in this field and have been the field for many years, but nowhere close to making a contribution and at most a mediocre.

My conclusion is that, bad memory could be good sometimes. You can see old things coming out in a novel and interesting way, like reading somebody else's life.

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(*1) For example, in one log I said I was so touched by 「用君之心，行君之意」in 屈原《卜居》. I don't remember what was going on on that day. I have no clue about the circumstance under which I felt in that way.

Post Vacation Syndrome

This summer was unusually hot. And the winter came so early that I couldn't even be aware of it.

According to Wikipedia, post vacation blues include symptoms such as tiredness, loss of appetite, strong feeling of nostalgia and in some cases depression; jet lag may intensify those symptoms. It might take up to 1.5 times the length of the trip. 1.5 times? If I do adjust for 1.5 times of my trip length, the quarter will be gone half. I can't let this happen!!

I overestimated myself. I came back just a few days before school started because I thought I had the ability of falling asleep whenever I wanted and I thought I could switch back to a work mode when I had to. It turned out that I wasn't that flexible. I am still lagged in the summer time.

I am desperately in need of a sharp mind. Right now.

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It's so easy to become lazy. But it's thousand times harder to get the momentum back.

Messages in A Bottle

Mary, Lily, SY and I were Gossip 4 back in high school. We were in the same class for only one year, but the converstaions we ever had were like lifetime long.

In high school, especially in the first year, coursework was never our focus. We talked a lot. We talked in class, after class and any time in between. We talked about what we knew and what we didn't; whom we knew and whom we didn't. We were never tired of talking and laughing. We never thought this world should have any limit.

On my 17th birthday, we made our wishes together. We wrote the kind of future we wanted and deposited them into a bottle. The bottle has been stored in my drawer and we were hoping someday we could cash them.

No one believes their life will turn out just kind of okay. Many years later, we are still not so sure of ourselves. We don't like what we are doing that much.

Every year during this time when I am in Taiwan for a vacation, I feel especially deeply for the meaning of life and the value of existence. Everytime on the way back to Hsinchu after gathering with friends, I feel myself like a ghost. I can see everything but can't touch it. I can smell everything but can't catch it. I can like everything but can't keep it. Everything is so real and surreal at the same time. You live in a place where what you have seems so trivial; meanwhile you are just a passenger to the place you call home. You belong to nowhere.

Once upon a time we laughed so hard that we didn't perceive life had a length and didn't think anything could be impossible. Eleven years later, here again we redeposit our wishes. This time we are all very serious. No kidding.