Thinking about concluding this documention of my daily schedule for the blog, I was struck by the fact that the rest of my day is pretty mundane. Not in a bad way, but in a somewhat predictable way. It doesn’t make for good reading, I guess. So please forgive me if I embellish just a bit…

12:45 p.m. — Climbing the three flights to our apartment, I brace myself for impact. What new wrinkle has the day brought to the Haiguan Duimian Apartment Complex? What appliance broke in my absence? How many workmen have tap-danced across my living room today? What shenanigans have my toddler daughters gotten themselves into in the last 4 hours?

1:00 p.m. — After the debriefing regarding the morning’s events, eat a delicious Chinese meal prepared by our baomu (house-helper). Try not to be too obvious as the rice slips through my chopsticks on occasion. Laugh as Sarah and Anna practice their Chinese numbers or sing songs that sound Chinese (at least).

1:35 – 3:00 p.m. — Check my emails a hundred times or so (just for good measure.) Check my blog neurotically for comments / hits as a means to boost my wavering self esteem. Check friends’ and family’s blogs for the latest gossip and hearsay. Check Skype to see who might be a potential target for a call. Periodically answer the door and escort random locals on a tour of our leaky bathroom. Use my booklight to illuminate the hole in the ceiling where the water is draining from.

3:00 – 5:00 p.m. — Study Chinese…zzzzzzzzz….wake up, memorize Chinese characters, practice pronouncing Chinese words, daydream about starting my own pizza chain in Xining called Baba Zhangs (i.e. the Chinese equivalent of Papa Johns.) Instead of 16 inch monsterous pizzas with every topping, I decide to patent a 4 inch pizza baked on a bagel-like piece of bread with only tomato sauce and cheese (since that’s what my proto-types have consisted of). I coin a typical Chinese-English motto for my new pizza company, "Luxuriant Chease Pizza…making days love like a soft new wind."  It doesn’t make sense to the western mind, but trust me they will love it here in Asia.

5:00-5:30 (or 6) p.m. — Play hide-n-seek with Anna and Sarah or read books with them or pretend to be a patient in their hospital or watch them give one of their renowned dance recitals or take them outside to ride their bicycle/tricycle or work on a craft project with them or ensure that Sarah keeps clothed and doesn’t pee in her pants or take them on an outing to one of the local "hotspots" here in our neighborhood (i.e. the market, 7-11, or the hardware store) or [enter numerous other recreational activities here.]

~6 p.m. — Eat a delicious meal at home or at KFC or at a Chinese restaurant that we only know by it’s location or color (i.e. the restaurant at the hotel, the yellow one down the street, the one we went to with Sam & Liza…those aren’t real names for people but it sounds believable doesn’t it?)

~7:00 – 8:00 — After 30-45 minutes to perform the ritual de la habitual (the tucking in ceremony) with the kids, Christa and I party like it’s 1999…oops, um what’s the benchmark now…2099? I don’t recall 1999 as overly celebratory, do you?

8:00 – later than is prudent — Try very hard to maintain a vegetative state. Currently the drug of choice is Alias, but reading is also a very conducive method of escape. The Internet has its draw too and movies would if they didn’t eat up so much time so quickly, and when we’re really adventurous, we have friends over for a game of Cranium.

Late — Brush my teeth, shut down the electric heaters and laptop, peel off the layers of clothing, and lay down and sleep the sleep of the dead…until Sarah whimpers or whines for water at 2:00 a.m. C’est la vie.

Oh sure, this whole schedule is just a rough sketch..subject to a LOT of deviation from the norm. And yes, we still read the Word and squeeze in the devotions (at some point) and have some family time on occasion, but if I told you that any of this orderly account happened in any consistent way yet, that would be lying. Know-what-a-mean? Things seem to shift and turn at a moments notice.

And this probably isn’t all that different from your day, is it? You know what they say, "S.S.D.C." Same story, different continent. Anyway, sorry to bore you with the details. I didn’t want to do it, but I have this compulsion to finish what I start…(I even force myself to finish reading books I don’t enjoy if I read more than a chapter or so…) especially when I built it up so much yesterday in ALL CAPS.

Tomorrow, just expect a content shift.   Mark it on your daily schedule.