It’s an obligation for everyone in the company to take a week off of work in August. I’m not sure who made the rules and why, but I’m suspecting it’s to force the employees to use their paid leave instead of letting it expire by the end of the year. Apparently there are a lot of people who end up not using their own paid leaves because it’s almost impossible to leave their work alone, so I guess this rule was established to prevent that. I’m not sure how it is with other companies in Japan, but my two friends does not seem to have it.
I secretly wished we did not have to take the paid leave since it’s corona and we can’t even do anything. Instead of going out and having fun, I spent my days sleeping and napping (it’s the same thing, I know). I did not turn off my weekday alarm because I don’t want to screw up my sleeping habit, so I end up always waking up at 7 AM every day. I would eat some breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, and dinner at 6. And I always nap between 1 PM to 5 PM. Sometimes I wake up in the middle and got the days mixed up, thinking it’s the next day already.
One of the days, I woke up to my phone reminder telling me to go to the airport to take the airplane to Fukuoka. I had completely forgotten to erase the reminder after I cancelled the trip. So I swiped the reminder away and went back to sleep.
When I’m not sleeping, I just sit and space out. It’s not like I don’t have anything to do. In fact, I listed up some things I could do during the holidays. But it turns out that 90% of it is work related — reviewing notes, reading contracts, taking online lectures, making presentation materials. The remaining 10% was housework. I checked most of the chores off already, except for cleaning the bath tub. That item will probably remain in my to-do list until winter where I can’t live without submerging myself in a tub of hot water.
I told myself I’d go out to window-shop. But then 3 typhoons hit Japan (only 1 actually hit my city), and the remaining week was drenched with non-stop rain and strong winds. Today, it took my whole strength to get dressed and go to the supermarket (2 minutes from the apartment). I’m even surprised I managed to step out of the building in the rain.
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This week, one of my friends sent me a package full of noodles: chicken noodle soup which you can only get abroad, some Korean noodles, and my all time favorite Taiwan instant noodles. The color-changing blue Starbucks cup was also one of the items included in the package. With it also came a heartfelt letter, congratulating me happy birthday. Another friend also sent me a message with a $20 Amazon gift card which I used to buy pancake molds. To celebrate the day, I was tempted to order a 18 cm cheesecake soufflé but backed off when I saw the $30 price tag. I decided to eat one of the Taiwan noodles instead. Classic Chinese way for birthday celebration.
This alone was enough to make my entire holiday seem more eventful.
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