what does this mean for me?
what does this mean for you?

faith without deeds is dead

do you think you have faith?  what are your deeds?

Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest (depersonalization or cynicism), usually in the work context. It is also used as an English slang term to mean exhaustion. Burnout is often construed as the result of a period of expending too much effort at work while having too little recovery, but it is sometimes argued that workers with particular personality traits (especially neuroticism) are more prone to experiencing burnout.

i am home sick.  on the next to last day of my vacation week.  :(  i ignored my body's coughing, sneezing, sinus congestion cries for help and kept going out.  now i have laryngitis.  :( !

an update on my week:



ray and i had not planned anything for our week off.  we were on the verge of buying tickets to accompany tinx in new orleans but i gave up on that idea because of rabbit responsibilities.  i did not want to spend all week lying around at home (an incredibly likely scenario) so i rented us a car!  sam was an amazing friend who took us to the rental location and helped us on our first "practice" day, as i called it.  sure i broke the blinker on our ford focus trying to park but i have gotten much better!  sure ray and i tested the other's patience (extremely) but we gained so much experience!

places we drove to:

mon: all around qns - flushing, jackson heights, and jamaica (sam's house!)
tues: downtown brooklyn - metrotech and atlantic ave. areas
wed: chinatown (nycac), home depot and white castle drive-thru
thurs: manhattan - financial district (NO parking) and seaport
fri: long distance - woodbury commons, soho for dinner

things learned:

- marian was right - compact cars are best for beginners
- sam is an awesome friend and cashmere li is super, super adorable
- gps-es are the best things ever and totally worth their cost
- parking in the city does exist but varies by neighborhood
- talking too much and critiquing the driver's driving is not helpful :(
- parallel parking almost always sucks
- there is not as limited parking in my neighborhood as we had expected.  we found parking near my place within 15 minutes every time, within 5 minutes most of the time!
- having a car is extremely convenient and comfortable for traveling.  beats riding the subway 10x over.

i guess we experienced nearly all that is part of owning a car this week.  the only thing i did not experience was the constant cost and maintenance.  it hurt to pay $32 just to fill up the tank in jersey.  i can't imagine having to pay monthly insurance, etc.  this week gave me a bit more reasons for temptation but also brought me a bit more down to earth.  i suppose more reality will hit when i go back to the subway commute on monday.  :(

Today, Gabe and I went to the LONG ISLAND RABBIT SHOW, sponsored by the Long Island Rabbit Breeders Association.  Why are we, loyal friends of house rabbits, going to an evil breeders show?  Just out of curiosity, I guess.  How often, after all, is any event so dedicated to bunnies?  Thus, we drove up to Old Bethpage Village Restoration, a place neither of us knew anything about, to check it out.

We paid the $10 admission fees for the area and found the exhibit hall fairly easily.  Gabe's prediction rang true: we were the only two Asians in the entire place.  The barn-like hall was filled with small cages, many of which were barely big enough to hold the rabbits within them.  There were breeds of all kind.  We saw Jlo's breed, the Silver Martens, but full-sized (Jlo is a dwarf).  We saw Ginger's breed, the Flemish Giants, and Juju's breed, the Dutches.  I did not notice any of Appa's breed present, the English Spots; maybe they are not a breed for show.   There were also Angoras, Jersey Woolies, Mini-Rexes, Mini-Lops, Netherland Dwarfs, and even a few unattractive hares.  We watched as a judge manhandled a Flemish Giant and rattled off some quick observations, which we assumed were being jotted down by the record keepers sitting nearby.  We also cringed as a woman pulled another bunny by his ears in order to get him into judging position.


It was an entirely different rabbit culture than the one Gabe and I were used to.  Though these breeders supported having rabbits as pets (and were selling many of them for that purpose), their handling and care of the bunnies seemed to tell us otherwise.  While Gabe and I treat our bunny companions with respect, this crowd treated them as.. just animals.  The rabbits' feet were urine-stained; their water cups were dirty, and they laid squished on wire-bottomed floors in cramped cages.  They did not seem as though they minded particularly though and this made me question if all the spoiling Jlo and Appa got was pointless.  Gabe reminded me however that these bunnies probably never knew a life other than what they had always had, and that acceptance was not the same as happiness.  I did not really have any emotions towards the entire event and I did not relate with these animal-rabbits as I do with my bunnies.  I did not feel that the breeders' attitudes towards rabbits were necessarily wrong, just.. different.  Devoted members of the House Rabbit Society though would probably strongly feel otherwise.  We took a sad photo just to save Gabe's face in his rabbit network in MA.


After we had completed traversing through all the aisles of the show, we decided to explore the rest of the area.  We went into a store looking for some food and instead found an old-style general store, complete with an actor playing the general store manager and all sorts of random knickknacks.  It turned out that Old Bethpage Village Restoration was a complete recreation of a genuine American village existing in the 1800's.  I was pretty pleased with this discovery as I had not visited one of these sites since perhaps my junior high school years.  We explored the different houses and buildings, played a few of the games that children played in those days, and talked to the actors.  We also had some Birch Beer (yum) and Ginger Ale.


Two things stand out for me as far as what I learned from this trip: 1) everything and everyone in the 19th century must have been very dirty and smelly, 2) everything required so much work.  I asked one actress if people read a lot (as they had no electricity back then).  She confirmed that to be true and said that people mostly read the Bible.  Despite my admiration of the Word, knowing that fact only made their lives seem even more dull.  I realized that unless I forced myself into a complete change of mindset, I probably would not enjoy living without the benefits of modern city living at all.   Mud and cows, outhouses and hard labor hold no romantic appeal for me.  I was thankful for the day of exploration but even more thankful that Gabe and I could retreat to a diner and have someone serve us lunch.