![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I began my day with a conversation that went approximately like this.
Romie (on phone): How light do I need to pack? Are we talking "throw some books and makeup in a backpack and borrow clothes all week"? I know there's not much room in the car.
Val (through phone): Oh, no. Gosh. Bring whatever you want. By "pack light," I just meant that you don't need to bring shampoo and stuff because I have it. Bring everything. There is only room in the car for a small backpack. Don't worry about it.
It's another several hours before I start packing, so it remains to be seen whether I interpret this directive to mean "feel free to throw our stuff by the side of the road so there's room for whatever you want to bring." I say this affectionately but with malice, because I too can simultaneously espouse opposite concepts.
I spent a few hours yesterday paring down text for a company that makes ESL texbooks for China; it seems to have been lifted from a few "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books (because China and copyright law are rarely in the same room). This meant removing all of the regional dialect and references to God and America. It also meant untangling the more convoluted sentences and tortured verb conjugations. I feel without these things the text is much stronger, although still very hokey. Oh China. Oh Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Romie (on phone): How light do I need to pack? Are we talking "throw some books and makeup in a backpack and borrow clothes all week"? I know there's not much room in the car.
Val (through phone): Oh, no. Gosh. Bring whatever you want. By "pack light," I just meant that you don't need to bring shampoo and stuff because I have it. Bring everything. There is only room in the car for a small backpack. Don't worry about it.
It's another several hours before I start packing, so it remains to be seen whether I interpret this directive to mean "feel free to throw our stuff by the side of the road so there's room for whatever you want to bring." I say this affectionately but with malice, because I too can simultaneously espouse opposite concepts.
I spent a few hours yesterday paring down text for a company that makes ESL texbooks for China; it seems to have been lifted from a few "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books (because China and copyright law are rarely in the same room). This meant removing all of the regional dialect and references to God and America. It also meant untangling the more convoluted sentences and tortured verb conjugations. I feel without these things the text is much stronger, although still very hokey. Oh China. Oh Chicken Soup for the Soul.
