Always ask "What time?"

I stayed up too late last night. It was nearly 1am before I went to bed. Then, I had trouble sleeping. One of my last thoughts before finally drifting off to sleep is that I didn’t know what time “morning” meant in the last message I received about a trip to the art museum the next day. Asking the simple question “what time” would have made my transition to daytime a little better this morning.

At 9:10am, I rolled over and picked up my phone to check the time. I had two WeChat messages. One at 8:48am read, “Let’s leave at 9am” and another at 9:03am that read, “We’re in the lobby. Are you coming down soon?” EEEEEEEEK! There were two people waiting in the lobby for me, and I just rolled out of bed. Oh, dear.

After deciding that I needed deodorant but could pass on clean underwear, I put on clothes, brushed my teeth, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, jammed my feet into my shoes, and rushed downstairs to emerge from the elevator with apologies streaming. Surprise! There were seven people in the lobby, all waiting for me, three of them bearing video cameras. Oh, boy. So, there I was, dirty, rushing, and looking like someone who just woke up facing a full day of traipsing around Beijing with video cameras trained on my every move.

The short version is that I made it through the next nine hours with the video cameras and the subway and the bus and had a wonderful time. No one noticed or cared that I didn’t look (or smell) my best. We have plans to go to the Beijing Ghost Market on Tuesday at midnight. For this next adventure, I’ll be wearing clean underwear and ready to go on time.