Conversations

It occurs to me that I bitch too much about work, and that's really not what my life is about, so I'm going to talk about some very good conversations I had this week instead.

I
On Monday, there was the totally-out-of-the-blue conversation with my old college buddy (there's a phrase I never imagined myself using) Kumiko. Since I didn't have to go to work, it being a public holiday in lieu of Hari Raya Haji which fell on Sunday, I thought it would be prime time to call some friends in the US.

Kumiko and I gabbed for about half an hour --- okay, closer to an hour --- about my work (bleah), her studies (bleah, since she's got a job offer all squared already), her boyfriend (yum), my husband (officially unemployed) and miscellaneous other things. I didn't know this before, but as a Wharton student, she gets to read Wharton applications and give her five cents' worth (more likely fifty thousand dollars' worth) of whether they should get an interview or not. Nice perk, although, like a teacher has to read even the crappy essays from her class, my friend has to read even the most unbelievably lame applications in the pile.

II
On Wednesday evening, my aunt who lives nearby dropped in on us as we were having a late dinner at the coffeeshop downstairs. She was feeling chatty, and one hour later, we had covered her daughter's wedding dinner in Malaysia (that's the same cousin whose wedding dinner I emcee'd on January 4), her recent survey of the local car market, my grandfather's latest exploits and other family miscellany. It may not sound like much, but there's something very relaxing about having that kind of twisty-turny family conversation over a couple of plates of hot food amidst a comfortable, comforting evening breeze.

III
Friday night, I was talking to Sprite, who's trying to lure me to work with her next year. It's highly tempting (and scary), but I've also got something else in mind. Anyhow, the point of it is that though this was work-related, it was also an excellent conversation, which I appreciate because Sprite and I don't actually talk on the phone very much. Most of the time, we either SMS or we're there in person. Talking on the phone made me feel like I was sixteen again. Mmmmmm.

IV
Today, I got to talk to another college buddy (there's that phrase again) Elaine, whom I failed to get on Monday because I'd typo'ed her telephone number into my PDA and hence was in fact calling the wrong number. Today, we played a little phone tag, then she called me successfully and we got all caught up again. She gets to play maid of honour in our friend's wedding on V-day in Hawai'i. I get to probably watch the wedding video when the same friend gets to Singapore the following week for the local wedding dinner. I know Elaine got the better deal, but then I'm not about to cough up the kind of money it would take to get T and me to Hawai'i for a week for a wedding.

Addendum
Which reminds me: I finally got off my procrastinating ass and did all the sums for our Vietnam/Bangkok trip today. The total cost (airfare, accommodation, everything) was just under $2,000 per person. Not bad for 17 days, huh?