Laid Off

The past week went particularly fast, especially since Wednesday.

That morning on my way to the metro, I saw a big crow eating bread crumbles in the middle of the street. Seeing crows as often as squirrels, I've long stopped see them as signs of bad luck. Apparently they still are.

The moment I stepped into office, 10 minutes late (because I missed one train), my boss came to my desk asking me to come to his office. A 40ish white guy in a blue button-down shirt sat across the table playing with his blackberry whom my boss introduced to me as the HR guy. For the four years I've been working here, I've never seen anyone from the HR coming down to DC from the New York headquarters. Not a good sign, they are like the crows.

"The company is shutting down the office. Everyone is let go." My boss said in a dry voice. He said he's moving to New York himself and offered me a position in the New York office, but I had to make a decision, like right now.

Apparently I was the last one in the office who got notice. My boss called everyone last night and couldn't reach me because I recently changed my cell phone number. Thank god for that so I could still enjoy last night's "Dancing with the stars" in an undisturbed good mood, well, relatively good mood, because my favorite cowboy was eliminated.

Returned to my desk, logged on to my computer, emailed hubby. The office was abnormally quiet. No one was talking. Everybody was busy in front of their computers, like they were working on some stories on deadline. It almost made you feel like the whole thing was not real.

Fifteen minutes later, we were all called into the big conference room to have a conference call with our big boss in New York, who "sincerely" thanked everyone for their hard work and "apologizingly" explained how hard the company was trying but failed to keep the jobs.

Back to my desk, I saw an email from an editor who comes up with this daily timeoff that shows which headlines of ours beat or lost to our competitors by how many seconds. It has became a routine for me, and probably for everyone, to check the email just in case I may be scrutinized by the editor on why my headline is 1 minute later than our rivals. This time, for the first time in four years, I deleted the email without opening it. Together with that email, I dumped my eight years being a proud member of the company into the trash bin.

I declined the New York offer and two hours later, I sent out my resume looking for another job.

馒头?muffin?

忽然想念老北京烤肉那家的疙瘩汤了，连天的阴雨，这时候热腾腾喝上一碗，嗯，爽！自己动手，丰衣足食。

今天还蒸了有史以来最成功的豆渣两面馒头，以前蒸的都有点太宣，不象今天的够韧性。赶紧拿相机记录下这来之不易的历史时刻，给MIKE看，他说这个muffin不错，这是一回事儿嘛？！

文澜阁

若得雨盖能相护，只羡鸳鸯不羡仙

中山公园 西湖天下景

修护中的文澜阁和生气的我

Mike望澜兴叹

西泠桥

西湖之行，MIKE最大的心愿就是参观文澜阁。位于西湖孤山南麓的文澜阁是乾隆为珍藏《四库全书》而建的七大藏书阁之一，也是江南三阁中唯一幸存的一阁。但我们到那才得知文澜阁正在进行修复，我们只好去了旁边的中山公园游玩，在写有“西湖天下景”匾额的亭子对面拾阶而上，发现隔墙正好可以看到文澜阁的背面，MIKE于是望阁兴叹，拍了无数破败的文澜阁背面的照片，仍流连忘返，其中一张照片的角落里就将我已经很不奈烦的表情拍了进去，通常我对这种有损我美女形象的照片一概删掉，但看在MIKE不远万里而来只能看个背影的份上就牺牲一回吧。

骑车游湖

游西湖最好的方式就是骑自行车。西湖景区随处都可以看到这种桔红色的“政府公车”。交300元押金办个卡，就在可以在任何一个景点租车还车，第一个小时免费，第二个小时一元。所以如果你在一个景点租了车，一个小时之内到下一个租车点还车，然后再换一辆车，你就可以无限免费租下去，这个卡还可以用来乘公交，最后我们退卡时，两天中，我们两个人只花了12元，这其中还包括乘公交的钱。唯一不方便的是办卡和退卡只能在有限的几个租车点，而且时间也有限制。

白堤

宝石上看杭州

断桥

之前看别人的游记都说白堤要从断桥往孤山的方向走，不明所以，既然大家都这么说，那就这么走吧。走后才发现原来从断桥方向走满眼看到的是青山碧水，而如果从对面走来，看到的就是杭州城的高楼大厦了。

宝俶塔

从我们住的酒店步行5分钟就到了曲院风荷。可惜尚未到赏荷的季节，但是在园中见到了这一树繁花。

我们到时正下着蒙蒙细雨，游客不多。一时雨急，我们便到茶室躲雨，里面有许多老大爷大妈围座喝茶，吃着自带的瓜子零食，操着杭州话谈笑，好不热闹。看着细细的雨丝银线一般没入湖水，心里盼着早点雨停好前往“西湖八景”下个景点，其实这种游客的心态已经让我们错过了欣赏真正的美景。

四月芳菲苏杭行

从苏杭回来半个多月了，迟迟不愿整理照片，因为不想从天堂回到现实中来。趁着记忆尚新鲜，记录下路途中的点点滴滴。

古人咏西湖的佳句无数，亲眼看到如此美景时只觉所有的赞誉都不为过，而这些诗词更为今人游览西湖增添了许多诗情画意。

西湖诗词中最著名的要属苏东坡的“水光潋滟晴方好，山色空濛雨亦奇。欲把西湖比西子，淡妆浓抹总相宜。”天公做美，我们在三天中历经细雨蒙蒙，雨后初晴和艳阳当空，有幸领略到“晴方好”和“雨亦奇”的西湖。如果苏公看到张艺谋在“印象西湖”中用现代灯光装点下的西湖，不知会不会惊叹盛妆西子更相宜呢。