Sunday, April 29, 2012

Going Home part 1

Ryan & I are going home. Temporarily, at least. We’re taking our first trip back to Minneapolis since we came to Hong Kong. I can’t believe we waited so long. I thought we’d go back to visit all the time, but it just didn’t work out that way.

His parents have invited us to stay at their house, so we’ll save a small fortune on hotels. Not that hotels in Minneapolis are at all expensive compared to Hong Kong. Now we just have to find a good deal on plane tickets. You can go everywhere from Hong Kong airport – everywhere except wherever we want to go. We had the same problem when we went to Rome last year. The closest flights to Minneapolis go to Chicago and Detroit. When we came here over a year ago we went through Detroit. The whole trip took over 20 hours.

I’m looking forward to all the things I’ve missed since I’ve been in Hong Kong – mostly the people and food. I can’t wait to see old friends and eat fresh produce. The fruit in Hong Kong is really not the best. It will be strange to walk down a sidewalk without a thousand other people or go into a grocery store larger than a closet. I think the strangest part will be no Chinese signs anywhere and not a single duck hanging in a window. Or maybe the weather. Summer in Minneapolis is nothing like summer in Hong Kong.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

First Audition part 8

I didn’t get the part in the Jeffrey Lau movie. Oh, well. I didn’t lose anything. I just didn’t gain anything. I still have Disneyland. I’m dancing & singing my butt off. That’s never a bad thing.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Blog Bugs

I’m not so sure about this new blog layout. Either it’s not working properly or I’m just not adapting to it very well. I’m hoping they’ll work the bugs out soon or at least I get used to it

Thursday, April 19, 2012

First Audition part 7

I’ve been talking to everybody about this Jeffrey Lau movie. I was originally up for a very small singing part. I would have spent maybe a few hours on the set, one day at most. Now I’m up for a small speaking part. The good news is they don’t expect me to speak Chinese. They specifically want a foreigner who speaks English. The bad news is I don’t know how long it would take to film the part. No one can tell me.

The problem is that I have a job. Disney doesn’t like it when I take too many days off. They didn’t care when I started working there. I could take off as many days as I wanted whenever I wanted, but now they want me to work more. That’s good in the sense that they want me around, but bad when I want to take time off.

There’s a slight possibility I might have to choose between Disney and the movie. Ryan thinks I should leave Disney if it interferes with the movie. He says the movie will do more for my career than working at Disneyland, even such a small part, and he’s probably right. How many people hit the big time working at Disneyland? Steve Martin is the only one I can think of and working at Disneyland had nothing to do with his success. No one ever made it working at Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney makes lots of movies and TV and they’ve started lots of careers, but they don’t cast their movies from their theme parks.

Lily thinks I should choose Disney. My Hong Kong ID and visa are all because I work at Disneyland. If I stop working there, I can’t legally live in Hong Kong, unless I get a visa from somewhere else. A small part in a movie isn’t going to get me a visa. The fact that I don’t need a visa is probably a big plus in the eyes of the producers. Disney is also very helpful when it comes to all the government paperwork. They know how to get through it and the government knows Disney. Even if I had a steady stream of acting jobs, the government wouldn’t recognize my employers the way they recognize Disney.

I think it’s too soon to worry about it. I haven’t heard back from anyone after my callback. If I don’t get the part, none of this will matter. Even if I do get it, I might only be on the set for such a small enough time that it won’t hurt my job. I like to be prepared, but in this case I’ll ignore the problem until it actually becomes a problem.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Tax Day 2012

It’s tax time in America. Even though we live, work and do everything in Hong Kong, Ryan & I are supposed to file tax returns with the IRS. We came to Hong Kong at the beginning of 2011, so most of our income is from Hong Kong, but I still worked in America at the beginning of the year. Next year it will be all Hong Kong, but we’ll still have to file with the IRS.

The good news is we don’t have to pay any taxes to Uncle Sam, but we still have to file. All of our taxes go to Uncle Don – I guess now it’s the new guy. We’re also poor enough that we can file online – their website says you have to mail in your returns if you make over $57,000. Now that Ryan’s worked in China it will probably get more complicated next year.

More good news is since we live outside of the US we automatically have a 2 month extension – so we’re not due until June 15th.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Friday the 13th 2012

Today is Friday the 13th. Nothing bad happened. In fact, it was a pretty good day.

Didn’t we just have a Friday the 13th a few months ago? I don’t remember anything bad happening that day either. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing unlucky about Friday the 13th in Hong Kong. Or maybe it’s all a load of hooey.

When you believe in things that you don’t understand then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ryan in China part 5

Ryan’s back in Hong Kong. He came back Monday. I made sure I had the day off so we could spend time together. I thought we were going to go out and do things, but we spent the whole day in bed – in bed, on the sofa, bent over the tiny kitchen counter, on the bathroom floor. Ryan even got to third base on the laundry balcony. It’s not the most private of balconies. The neighbors can see our laundry and we can see theirs. But I was just as horny as he was. We were ready to do it on the airport express between the airport and downtown, but self-control won the day. It’s never taken so long to get back to the apartment.

That was the longest week of our lives.

The club in China wants Ryan’s band to come back. I guess everyone liked having a band of foreigners there. I don’t want him to go. I don’t know if I can handle another celibate week, and they’re talking about staying even longer next time. The club pays significantly more than Disney, so everyone is thinking about it.

We need the money and I don’t want to be selfish, but I don’t think it’s fair that he has to go to basically another country just to make more money. We’re in Hong Kong. There are places for bands to play all over the place, and that’s the problem. There is far more competition in Hong Kong than in Fuzhou. Songs in English are nothing special here. Apparently, they go crazy for English-speaking bands that can actually speak English in Fuzhou.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Ryan in China part 4

It might seem like I’m getting used to living alone, but I really don’t like it. I want Ryan to come back immediately. I know it’s only been a week, but it feels like forever.

We talk every day on the phone – usually 2 times a day, but it’s just not the same. I can’t feel him or see him. I miss the warmth of his body against mine. I miss feeling his arms around me. I miss feeling him on top of me – or under me, or behind me – I’ll take anything at this point.

Did I mention I’m really horny? It seems like I haven’t gotten laid in ages. I need a man inside me. Specifically, my boyfriend. That’s what they’re for.

There’s a sex toy store in Minneapolis that has this kit where you can make your own rubber dildo. The guy puts his dick in this goo and it gets hard – the goo, not the dick. He should already be hard when he puts it in. It makes a mold of his erection which you then fill with another goo and, after a while, you’ve got a dildo just like your man. We joked about buying it, but we didn’t. I don’t use toys anyway and why play with a toy when I can play with the real thing anytime I want. It’s not like he ever says no. Now I wish we had bought it. At least then I’d have a replica of what I’m not getting.

Lily says I should just buy a run of the mill, non-custom dildo, but it’s not the same. I like the real thing. I also have absolutely no idea if there are any of those kinds of stores anywhere in Hong Kong. This is not the most sexually liberated place in the world. I read somewhere that Chinese men think about work 100 times as much as they think about sex. I think American men are the exact opposite.

I could always order something online, but by the time it got here Ryan would be back anyway.

I need my man to come home.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

First Audition part 6

I had an audition last month and went to the callback today. I did the monologue I had prepared. They had me read a few lines and that was it. The whole thing was over pretty quick. My first audition lasted longer. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

It’s all out of my hands now. Wait and see.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Ryan in China part 3

Ryan called yesterday and we talked like we hadn’t seen each other in weeks. His phone works in China and there are plenty of internet cafes, but he can’t get into his e-mail. The hotel has internet access downstairs, but he can’t get to any of the websites he knows. They have Chinese versions of Google, Youtube and Twitter, but they’re not the same.

Ryan says the hotel rooms are really small and they’re all sharing rooms, but he should be used to living in tiny places by now. Our apartment isn’t exactly the Taj Mahal. He said it would be hard to adjust to how different Chinese hotels are if he wasn’t already living in Hong Kong.

One of our concerns was what it would be like in communist China. Hong Kong is part of China, but it’s separate from everything else. There’s nothing communist about Hong Kong. Ryan says I wouldn’t even notice the difference between communist China and capitalist Hong Kong. It’s all pretty much the same. The main difference is that no one speaks any English and all the signs are only in Chinese. That doesn’t surprise me at all. He’s in a city of 3 million. That’s small by Chinese standards, while Hong Kong has 7 million and is influenced by people from all over the world.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Ryan in China part 2

Ryan went to China. Regular China, not Hong Kong China. When we went to the airport, I went straight to the check-in counter. Ryan wanted to look around for signs. We’ve been to Hong Kong airport several times. Ryan says I’m an expert on the airport. It’s a pretty big airport. I read somewhere that it was the largest airport in the world when it first opened, but it’s simple when you’ve been there a million times. The best part is the airport express that goes straight into the city in half an hour, and even if you don’t have an Octopus card you can still pay to go there and come back for free as long as it’s on the same day. That’s very convenient when you’re picking up or dropping off people.

On the express back to Kowloon, I was wondering what it would be like to live alone for a week. It’s only a week, but I’m not used to living alone. I like having people around. Hong Kong is a very big, very crowded, very noisy city, but I’m worried that it will be too quiet at home.

When I got back to the apartment it was weird knowing that he wasn’t there and would not be coming home that night.

He doesn’t know if there are any internet cafes at the hotel, so we don’t know if we’ll be able to talk to each other online or e-mail, but his phone is supposed to be able to make calls in Mainland China, so at least we should be able to talk on the phone. He hasn’t called, but he probably just got there. I’m not worried. Yet.