2002-11-21 - 8:06 p.m.

Once again I have only a couple minutes to update.

Here I am in Shanghai. Due to an amazing fluke, the hotel Lily and I are staying at is right next door to the Shanghai Public Library, a magnificent edifice with a very nice, and very cheap, Internet Room. All I had to do was fill out a form, give them my passport number and here I am!

Most of today, however, I have been blackly depressed, and it's for the usual reason: I think I am losing my mind. But this time it's more than my mind, I seem to be losing EVERYTHING! I'm leaving my possessions all over the People's Republic of China.

First there was the Traveler's Checks, then I lost a glove in Beijing, now the process has accellerated: I left my entire shaving kit in Xi'an, I can't find the folder I got from my travel agent that may (or may not) have my return ticket, and just a couple of hours ago I left the chess book I was reading on the bus that I rode from Nanjing to Shanghai.

All of these losses can be made up without too much trouble: the items in the shaving kit can be bought at a supermarket, I can have a new ticket issued (if it is really gone) and I have another copy of the chess book at home. However, the total of these losses has me very upset. I feel like I am too stupid to be allowed to leave the house, much less the country. You had better believe that when I get back to the hotel I am going to take a needle and thread and SEW my passport on to my body somewhere. That, I cannot afford to lose.

All that being said, I think most of my funk stems from the fact I got almost no sleep last night. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Lily has been very nice to me, putting up with my mopey recriminations while trying to charm me out of my bad mood.

Now, however, it's time for some Brazillian Barbecue!