3 Days B4

This is the burdensome aspect of travel. Packing. Did a bunch of laundry this morning, and much is hanging around my pad, as in apartment. Will probably blow off any ironing because, well, yuck. Took care of holding the mail and the paper, paid some bills, started organizing the toiletries and clothes. The foot problem makes shoe decisions easy. Not many options. So I am getting there. Not where I wanted to be, but doin' ok. Gotta download some video for the plane ride. Shanghai something, a silly movie with Jackie Chan and that annoying blond guy, help me here, Ken, was on this afternoon. So got to see a little of the Forbidden City, possibly fake, and listen to some Mandarin. I know enough to know it was at least sort of real. In a few days, I will be at the real Forbidden City, in my big sneakers, listening to real Mandarin. Then some other day, somewhere in the future, maybe I'll be there speaking real Chinese.