last days

alexei's off to nicaragua and julian and i are meeting up in seattle this weekend. tomorrow is my last day of work. i feel somewhat sentimental but i know more fun and exciting things are headed my way. it's about time to begin a new chapter anyhow. so tonight had a send-off happy hour with a small group of colleagues and tomorrow during the day will be the proper good-bye party, sometime in the afternoon. i'd like to soak up as much of tomorrow as i can because it is an ending and i think it is worth remembering. everything about the morning routine will be more contemplative and performed with a consciousness i've never given it before.
finally finished the most tedious and lengthy project i've done at work... it was rather anticlimactic, but i am glad it's out of the way. shawna and i have some to prepare yet of course which i'll dedicate next week to when i return from up north.
listening to a song right now called 'tightrope' which shawna introduced to me. the song is making me feel good about where i am now in life and where i may be heading. the lyrics don't really relate, but maybe more the rhythm of it.
i'm excited to see my cousins again in china. i may give it a few months to see the youngest brother since his wife is giving birth to their child in april. i need to get my chinese back up to speed before i go to shenzhen to visit them anyhow. perhaps this time around i'll learn some phrases in the leiyang dialect they use amongst each other. my friend ping ping is also expecting a baby in late summer or early fall. she's still living in nanjing, and although i don't feel strongly about nanjing, i would like to see ping ping, her newly wed hubby, and their newborn at some point. so there are two contacts in china recently married via shotgun wedding.