Friday, April 28th, 2005, 8:33 p.m.
So I learned an important lesson yesterday: never, ever, ever, choose money over health. I went to work yesterday, which was a *HUGE* mistake. I had told my boss I would go, but when I woke up at 6, my body was telling me in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS not to get out of bed. NOT to get out of bed, catch crowded public transportation to spend my energy teaching classes that the students politely take but don't really want to go to anyway. Not only that, but when I showed up at Cafosa (my company), after running to catch trains and buses for an hour and a half to arrive at 8am, nobody came to my morning class. Now - to be fair, yesterday and the day before were very stressful days in the company, because the lists came out of who they're going to fire. But, it was a slap in the face to have woken up at 6 in the morning when I'm very sick, for a class that was cancelled anyway. AAAGHHH. So what did I do then? Well, what I should have done was turned around and gone home and cancelled my classes (btw Nicole check out my impressive mastery of the conditional: deberia haber quedado en la puta cama. JODER! God, I'm clever.) Instead, I taught my private class from 10:30-4 and then took a bus and a train to GO BACK to Cafosa for my afternoon class, which was - you guessed it - also cancelled. ARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH. And now I have *completely* relapsed. I started taking the antibiotics on Sunday; on Monday I felt ok; Tuesday I felt better; Wednesday I felt good; yesterday, I felt horrible all day, and my body was screaming to go back to bed. I barely - and I mean, barely - made it through the day, went to sleep at 8pm when I got home and slept 12 hours, and today I have spent mostly in bed, reading and staying prone. I was feeling good on Wednesday and now I am sick again, and I'm going to have to rest all weekend just to gather enough strength to make it through work next week. I have ruined one of my last weekends in Barcelona because I thought I needed the money, but the truth is I would pay right now the money I earned just not to be sick anymore. I feel really, really, REALLY stupid.
Also - I'm taking antibiotics, and have thus had my first experience with side effects. I have literally had ALL of the following in
response to the drugs:
Loss of appetite
Diarrhea
Bile (really bad taste in your mouth)
Drymouth
Extreme physical exhaustion
Sensitivity to light
Nausea
Also - and here's the really bizarre part - my tailbone really hurts. I know it sounds silly, but it's really really sore, and it's keeping me from sleeping sometimes because it hurts so much. Has this ever happened to anyone else?? Is it because I slept for 12 hours last night? Is it because of the antibiotics? If anyone has a clue, please let me know because I'm starting to think there's something wrong with me.
OK, on to other things besides my illness. So how's this for a little bizarre part of Spanish TV culture? Besides having two entire channels dedicated to live tarot card readings, they have a channel that plays music videos with messages on the bottom like (these are all real, and I'm quoting, not making any of this up):
"There doesn't happen to be a woman interested in a masochistic relationship in Badalona? I'm 46"
"Two blonde twins looking for a friendly relationship, and whatever happens. We're 15"
"I'm married and bored. Text me at 656 098 768"
Also, just had to mention that the current music video's chorus goes, "Why do you love me? Fuck me crazy."
Language spot:
Cheatsheet: "una chuleta" (literally, a chop - as in, porkchop) Bizarre, huh?
From "Blunders":
In 1957 the winning entry in a contest to name a club for Great Northern Railway employees was The Great Northern Railway Employees Club.
In East Hampton, Connecticut, a group of volunteers dragging a lake were able to cease when a man helping them realized the presumed drowning victim they were looking for was himself.
