So Chinese New Year has come and gone. So has the Lantern festival. It is time to move on and work seriously. I have the tendency to overcommit to social events as well as work too much. Let us see. I work from Monday to Friday (sometimes feel guilty if I take the morning off to work on projects at home). Of course, between the time I leave the office and going to Toastmasters, I have to go to Weight Watchers to listen to those like me who are trying to lose weight. I did not do too good yesterday because I went to the China 1 Buffet at lunch and had more than two pounds of food. Portion, portion, portion, my dears. Watch your portions if you want to lose weight. Luckily, yesterday was a freebie for me in the month of February since I already weighed in last week! Then I have Toastmasters on the first and third Mondays of each month to improve my public speaking.

This February I signed up for ceramic lessons, something I have wanted to do for a long time. So that is on Wednesday evening, after work. It is fun because I am trying to increase my creativity juice, which is difficult to do at my age--too many constraints. Society does not allow a Malaysian female baby bloomer to break out of her environment. I have been trying to for ages. I tried singing lessons one year but could not carry a tune, and besides the singing lessons became too much of a burden. Too many rules to abide by; practice, practice, practice.

Sunday, Feb 8 2004 was a traumatic day for me. I wanted to attend a book club meeting because I had not been able to go for a long time. The members would have forgotten me by now! Usually my neighbor, Jane, gives me a ride but this time she could not. So, I went to the office for a while, thinking I would work first in order to make things easier for me on Monday. Instead, I spent too much time on the Internet! I spilled orange juice on my keyboard and my t-shirt! Luckily I had gone to WalMart and bought a couple of cheap t-shirts and so I changed into one of them. I left early for the book club meeting because I had to find the house. As I found the house, I learnt that I had left my purse at the office. GRR....RRR... I had to go back to the office to get my purse. At this point, I should have gone home. Instead, I stayed and had a good time. On the way home, the road was clear although some spots had snow blown onto it and probably some icy patches. Just west of the intersection of Lincoln and Weidman, my wheels suddenly flew off the road and my pick up truck went ploughing through the snow on the south side of Weidman road. It all happened too quickly for me to be frightened. This is the first time this has happened to me. I was so very lucky that there were no other cars coming in either direction. A man who lived a little down the road came out to help me and let me use his cell phone to call AAA, the automobile club to which I belong. The towing truck came in 20 minutes to pull my truck out. The snow was up to my knees and the doors of the truck; there was no way I could get myself out.

On Monday, life seemed so sweet but I was irritable and short-tempered. Funny, .... one would have thought that I would be sweeter to everyone.