Today (technically yesterday) was a good day. Although it got off to a tenuous start running behind schedule by, oh, an hour and a half, things eventually smoothed out and we headed straight for a Chinatown meal. It was really good to have dim sum. Not having had some of my favourite foods (like 奶黃包, 牛仔骨 and 叉燒腸粉) in such a long time, it felt very good to indulge in the savoury delights of Cantonese cooking. But after lunch, we were on the road again.

And it seemed like all the hardest parts of the days had to do with being on the road. First there was the half-hour detour erroneously southbound on I-90 (what were we thinking?) then the horrendously excruciating stop-and-go traffic through downtown. Can't forget the many wrong turns and U-turns made to find some Japanese supermarket. I suppose it was all worth it though when the cool mochi slid down my throat, followed by a Japanese cracker chaser. The drive into the city was no better than the drive out and we were again held still by the torrents of traffic, pushing us late in our "schedule" by over an hour. Dinner was odd. The waiter seemed to be a weird cross between condescending and obsequious and I didn't know what to make of him. The food was so-so; however, the company was great and more than made up for it.

During the trip back, I thought about the days events and concluded this: Life can be so stressful, if you let it. And apparently, I've let it grow into an ordeal to struggle through. I stress myself out finding roads to take even though I'm not the driver; it bugs me when time just flies and seemingly nothing is accomplished. I remember I didn't used to be like this. I wouldn't care what I was doing, just so long as I was enjoying myself and others around me were too. At times I long for the simplicity of that mentality, even though I acknowledge there are limits to its practicality. I suppose finding a balance between the two would be most ideal--of course that's the hardest thing to do.