Mom mentioned in passing today that she's going to book the tickets back to Taiwan for 1/7.

I thought: "Shit, how am I going to get out of this one?"

My initial reaction did not surprise me in the least, considering how conscious I am about myself being a unemployed, live-at-home nobody. Being an unemployed live-at-home nobody in Taipei and facing inquiries from families and friends about it do not sound like the best ways to spend my Chinese New Year. The prospect of receiving red envelope money at an age when I ought to give out red envelopes doesn't sound like fun either.

So, I enrolled in 12 units of Saddleback classes, which will give me something to do until I hopefully fly to Japan in June.

Tentative plan for now: Vapassana retreat, Saddleback, meanwhile study for GRE and take it sometime in January. Get in touch with Agnieszka and Krista (am I still allowed to mention ex-profs by their first names?) and discuss grad school. Hopefully I will be able to put together an application in time for September. Hopefully.