12:00AM my time, in California. I’ve been awake and going since 9:30AM. Which is not too much. Only about 14 hours being aware of life. I’m working on a plan to have only 5 hours of sleep each day, so i can fool myself thinking I have a longer life. Which I really do, come to think of it. I would have 19 hours being awake. You think that would make too long of a day. The days are long but the years are short… Imagine how much more I could do with that extra 5 hours. Time, I want more time!
But the problem is me. I set my alarm to 5AM every morning. And I snooze it every time it buzzes. There are days when I even get smarter than my alarm clock. I wake up 10 minutes before 5AM; so I can hit the Cancel button before it rings.
The trick is to get out of bed, not to just wake up. And I need to master that. Not to let conversations going on in my head, and imagining how warm it is under the blanket, wondering what to do at 5AM, what to have for breakfast…

7AM – Tina has always been a responsible child. She wakes up early every morning to go to school at 7AM. And 98% of the time, her Dad wakes up, prepares breakfast and watches her leave. All I could do is mutter “Bye. I love you”, and went back to my dreams.
9AM – I heard from my dreams someone singing “Đừng xa em đêm nay …”. I realized it was Hưng singing in the shower. Darn … only half an hour to get out of the house. Ran upstairs, brushed my teeth, washed my face, had some hot soup, stepped on the scale. Still 123 lbs. Put on sunblock. Put on something presentable for work, which means jeans and T-shirt and sandals.
9:45AM – out of the house. Carpooling with Hưng today. Stopped by Starbucks. Terry always give me special treatments, ie, discounts. Had my usual White Mocha Triple Shots.
10:15AM – At work!
11:00AM – Ran to the staff meeting. Realized it was Wednesday. Staff meeting is on Thursday.
11:15AM – going to Macy’s shopping mall, but only looking
12:45PM – came back. Walked over to the cafeteria to get some juice. For lunch, all I had was a yam and some juice. Not very healthy!
2:00PM – Ran to the weekly project meeting, only to find out it was cancelled. More time for blogging!
Between 2:00 and 7:00pm, did some work. I do work, I assure you. Even though it doesn’t seem that way.
7:00PM – Hưng picked me up. Going home.
7:15PM – Hưng helped me making dinner. He made rice, while I heated up the Canh cá cà chua và thì-là, and made thịt kho.
8:30PM – Ran over to Dixon Landing to have another Starbucks coffee. Then went to Borders to get Tina her SAT-2 French book.
9:30PM – Hưng went jogging. I finished cleaning up the dishes, then sat down to read more about blogging. Tina is downstairs studying.
11:00PM – Tina went to bed. Hưng is watching some viet DVD, with Vũ Khanh and “Anh biết em đi chẳng trở về”. Diệu-Hương is singing “Không cần biết anh là ai”.

Eric just called. I guess he finally read my blog.
A day like any other day (Một ngày như mọi ngày) …
But I’m grateful and happy to have just spent a day with my family.

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette