It is Wednesday morning....Abi is getting ready for school...Tim is getting ready for work. Tim has meetings all week in Puxi so he takes the car in the opposite direction from Abi's school. She is feeling slightly abused because she has to ride the bus this week. Remember the "bus" looks like a fancy motor home....it is a very nice "tour bus". Poor thing!

We have a new "temporary" driver....Mr. Zheng....not be be confused with one of our other drivers Mr. Zhang. Mr. Zheng does not speak English. So....I am brushing up on my Chinese once again....just when I thought I could live here for the rest of our stay without opening another Chinese language book. Mr. Zheng delivered Tim to the Hyatt and returned for me. So far so good!! I had a long list of errands to run in Puxi and we accomplished all of them without incident. Mr. Zheng is very helpful and we seemed to get along fine. Our last stop was close to the Bund....I purchased some fabric....(side note: I bet you are wondering why I am buying more fabric! Well....I needed a special type of fabric (specific to China) to back my Tibet quilt. It is hand woven and was used during the cultural revolution for clothing.) Okay....back to.....I purchased some fabric and Tim called to say he was finished. So....we went to pick him up. He was at most 15 minutes away. I told him we would be right there. Well...let me just say that we never made it to the Hyatt. Our driver got very confused, drove all over the city....and..... 1 hour and 45 minutes later we were stuck in traffic going the opposite direction of the Hyatt with about another 30 minutes (at best with rush hour traffic ) of arriving at the Hyatt. We were back where we started....aaaahhhhhhh!!!!! It is rainy, dark, and traffic is barely crawling. I know generally where the Hyatt is located but not enough to give directions.....I was counting on Mr. Zheng because....well...he took Tim there that morning!!! While we are lost and driving in circles....I was reading a "self-help" book to keep me from pushing Mr. Zheng out of the drivers seat and taking over the wheel. (not really but my blood pressure was starting to rise so I needed a diversion) The book said I had to take 100% responsibility for my life and I had total control over every event in my life. Hmmmmm.... I picked up the book again this morning and guess what the title of the book is..... "How to Get from Where you Are to Where you Want to Be" (by Jack Canfield) I had to laugh out loud!!!! Maybe by Chapter 7 I will be able to find the Hyatt!

BTW: Tim took a taxi from the Hyatt (he was very lucky to find one on a rainy day) and arrived home 5 minutes after I got there. It had been two hours since I left the fabric shop.