What a long week, especially considering it's only Wednesday. I guess because this is the first week where I've not skipped out on stuff post-second-surgery. Stitches came out yesterday. My surgeon confirmed what the PT (not my normal one) said, that I am about 10 degrees off on the straightening of said knee, and waaaaay off on bending. He said it seemed stable and that there wasn't too much swelling. I saw my PT this morning. She ripped the bandages off my stitches and said they were good to go. She also put a weight on my leg to press my knee to the bed. *sigh* I really like my surgeon and PT...they feel almost like family, even though my interactions with them are infrequent and short (my doctor) or punctuated by their trying to hurt me and vehemently insisting that I can do better (my PT). I mean, where else in HK am I going to get someone to tell me "Off! All four limbs!" or "If it hurts too much you stop. But if it only hurts some or little bit, you push more until it really hurts"? Also, I really appreciate (in that I think it's funny and will laugh about it years from now but right now it just makes me sad) that the last two times I've gone to the hospital, the PTs take my crutches away and hide them and won't give them back until I leave.

So I started a new activity this week...reading to the kindergarten children. So adorable. I read "The Sneetches" and "What was I scared of?" by Dr. Seuss. And next week I get to read "The Hungry Caterpillar" (an old friend of sorts) and then they're going to make their own caterpillars. They were all kinds of shy/energetic/bouncy/adorable. And some of them look eerily like pictures of me when I was little and had a short haircut and chubby cheeks.

Let's see...oh. Last night I got an email from another ETA with a request to help a professor with some French Christmas carol that she was teaching her choir. So I went and read very slowly the French while she recorded it/repeated after me. Thank goodness she didn't make me sing it. *shudders* It amazes me, sometimes, that I've been in musicals considering my incredible inability to sing. So it was good times. And on the note of foreign languages, my HP Spanish came in! And yes, there are many many words I don't know or verb tenses I struggle with, BUT! I understand most of it. I suppose it helps that I read it once, a couple years ago, in English....

We started teaching the last dance to our dancers on Monday. They have expressed the sentiment that they like this one and that it's cute. *yay* It's to "Friend Like Me" which is a great song, although this version, being's as it's in Aladdin, Jr., is cheesetastic.

PS is still alive, although I am somewhat worried about him. He's starting to look not quite like he did when he arrived. I may have to take the pink bow off...

Thanksgiving is next week. How weird is that? This won't be the first time I haven't had Thanksgiving dinner...actually, it'll be the third year in a row. But it still feels weird. Especially as I have to work on Thursday. *gasp*

Ummmmm, what else? Ohhh, I got "Black Skin White Masks" by Fanon from one of the other ETAs...I've been meaning to read it since I was introduced to Fanon with "The Wretched of the Earth," so I'm interested to see what this much lauded book will say. Speaking of books, when I was in the little kids' section of our library picking out stories to read to the kindergarten, I came across "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Wind in the Willows." I haven't read either of them in so long. I checked both of them out...I read most of TWitW (wow that pretty much spells twit) in the forty-five minutes while I was waiting for the surgeon to see me on Tuesday. I love finding old books that I read back in the day and that are buried somewhere in my collection of novels back home. A few weeks ago, I came across "Island of the Blue Dolphins" in the LLC, and read that while I sat at help desk (which only one person came to in two hours...oh Saturday work shifts). Good times.

I had ramen and deep-fried-boneless-chicken for dinner. Serious yum. And then I bought a lip gloss and a small bottle of eau de parfum...Bulgari (spelling?). I love that store...they have a whole bin of samples of parfums, and they cost anywhere between 30 and 40 HKD. So far, I have treated myself to Escada, Estee Lauder, Marc Jacobs, and the one I got tonight.

Anyway, now that I'm talking nonsense, I should go to bed. I've been having bad dreams again and then my knee will wake me up if I stretch inadvertently in my sleep. I'd like to end with something inspiring, but unfortunately the only thing that comes to mind is: *cough cough*

Jasmine: Where are we going?
Aladdin: Where would you like?
Jasmine: Anywhere. Everywhere.
Aladdin: Funny, that's just what I had in mind.

(please read that in the most exaggerated and ridiculous middle-school-drama fashion possible)