In Tim’s shoes, Day 7

In Tim’s shoes is a little experiment I’m doing for one week, focusing on my experiences rather than my opinions.

There’s only one pair of footwear left for me to talk about. My marriage slippers. What is that, you ask. There’s a very important Chinese symbol known as shuangxi (Pronounced: “sh-wong shee”). In English, this symbol is known as “Double Happiness,” and it’s usually found at Chinese weddings.

Part of the marriage tradition in China is shuangxi on the door, shuangxi on the blanket, and yes, shuangxi on the slippers. So I have a pair of silk slipper embroidered with Double Happiness. It’s really quite “pimpin’” in a very traditional Chinese way.

Ning and I spent this afternoon at Starbucks researching. She researching her thesis, I researching my novel. We had one frappuccino mocha, one macchiato and one Earl Grey tea. I went to the restroom 26 times.

Planning this novel has given me a new appreciation for writers. Trying to come up with a premise, setting, plot and characters that are not silly and see-through — not to mention believable and even compelling — is a task that you have to try for yourself to understand just how difficult it is. Luckily for me I happen to have an English literature major sitting across from me in Starbucks to bounce things off of.

This is the last day of my experiment. Writing about my daily experiences rather than my opinions was mildly risky. If nothing interesting happens I have to make mundane things interesting. That’s kind of the way I understand existentialist literature: those first-person fictions characteristic of Hemingway in which the main characters muddle through life looking for a point — or not looking for any point. Just knowing that I would need to write a brief account of each day, each day, caused me to be just a little more aware of the day unfolding around me.

Even if no one else enjoyed my little experiment, I think I enjoyed writing about my experience more than my opinions.

Click here to read In Tim’s shoes, Day 6