I haven't blogged for 48 hours and people are sending out rescue teams! No, I did not die in the earth quake, or a tsunami caused by the earth quake. In fact, I didn't even feel it -- its epicenter was in Central Cal, which would be about 300 miles away! And no, I am not one of the people missing from the massive landslides that happened due to the recent Christmas rain. Thank goodness. But I really feel for those people out there. The landslides were more devastating because the recent fires in October have burnt everything down, and the wimpy rain we had (no hail or anything) caused landslides and flooding!

Having said that, I do have to say that I may as well be on my death bed. I went into work today, but like the last couple of days, I felt like crap, in the quite literal sense. It's been a bad final quarter for me -- the latter portion of 2003 has been like a cascading tidal wave. It pounds me down, and just when I come up to surface to take in a deep breath, I'm hit with another one. I'm actually getting a chance to truly bond with my toilet.

Love actually is all around. I saw the movie Love Actually, a.k.a. "chick flick." I don't normally like chick flicks, because I'm no ordinary chick, but the Access Hollywood host has said that if there is "no theatre playing this film near you, I will personally drive you to see this movie!" Or something to that extent, anyways. At the beginning my stomach was feeling queasy from the White Russian that I had before the movie. But soon I forgot all things painful, because this movie was really touching. With most chick flicks, I can always sense the makers of the movies, trying to manipulate the little strings to our hearts so that we'd be touched and moved by the end of the film. Manipulative bastards! However, in this movie, I didn't feel that. It felt genuinely good, which is more than I can say for all other chick flicks that exist. I actually had tears in my eyes (although I've been known to tear up during various AT&T Long Distance commercials).

There was one part that really moved me. There's this man, who is a writer. He is English, and speaks nothing but. This woman, who comes to clean his house, is Portuguese, and speaks nothing but Portuguese also. When the woman talks, what she says is translated to English in a subtitle -- we can see that they can't understand what each other is saying, but is always saying the same thing. Except for this one line. The man always drives the lady home after work. He says to her, this is my favorite time of the day -- driving you. She doesn't understand him, but she says in Portuguese -- this is my saddest time of the day -- leaving you. Maybe I haven't quite captured the essense of romance there (not much of a romanticist anyways!) but then I guess it's something that "you had to be there" to get it. Watch it. It's a pretty good excuse to let your brain rest for two hours.

Well, I've done my job for today. I am alive, still, however fragile my foothold is on life.