The Longest Day

Friday night was the final hurrah for Mike and Melinda. We had a odd dinner party of kim-chee pacheeng-ge, pasta, pizza, wine, and soju. Brandon played guitar and Mike played ukelele. I finally shared with everyone the “flying wish paper” I brought from home. Unluckily, the first few fizzled out wrong and everyone teased that it meant our wishes were doomed. But we tried it again with improved rolling diameter and it worked just fine. People trickled out until about 3 AM when the remaining three of us—Mike, Sarah, and I—took a short nap. I woke back up at 5:30 and to say “good bye” to Mike and Melinda.

I tried not to cry, but I couldn't help it.

Sarah stayed with me, enjoying scrambled eggs and oranges for breakfast. It was really fun. We walked in the park, had coffee at Hollys, went to E-mart for bedding for Sarah, went to three different stationary stores and found cashbook/planners for $2.50.

When Sarah went home I showered and slept for 2.5 hours, only to be woken up by Grace's phone call.

Grace wanted Melinda's key. She thought I lived in Mike's building--Dummy--so I walked it over there. Brittany offered coffee and I felt obligated to accept.

Coffee turned into lunch at a nice bakery with ponn su. Ponnsu looks kind of like a parfait, but it has icemilk (not yogurt) and it has some weird extras beyond fuit and cereal. It has red beans on top, and gelatinous candy at the very bottom. It was actually very good. The bakery had the FIRST AMAZING BAKED GOODS, I've tried in Korea. It was a cream cheese danish with brined plums on top. I was so happy. It made me think of home.

That is until I was obliged to listen to Grace talk incessantly for two hours straight. Trying to look at her temples—it's rude and aggressive to maintain extended eye contact. Trying not to wiggle in anger when she said Mike's apartment was too messy and that she had to pay a lot of money to fix it up. Mike is the cleanest person I know, and when I went in to give Melinda's key, it was just fine. She also said he didn't return her TV, but he never had a TV. I tried to argue with her on that one, but eventually said she needed to e-mail him to know.

I wiggled even worse when I lied about who took his cat. Grace thought that Mike took Parker when Sarah left. She doesn't know there was a second cat (Bella) and that I own her now. Grace is pretty clueless but if she finds out I'm f*cked. I figure, if she doesn't even know where I live, or that Mike never had a TV she is not attentive enough to notice Bella. She didn't know he had a cat until now anyway.

I won't torture you with the rest of Grace's hopes dreams and fears. I'm too angry to relate all of it.

I made it home and immediately felt violently ill. Not just from stress or anger, I realized it was my own fault sleeping 4 hours over two days was not enough. I tried to sleep right away. I had air con on P/o (It's basically as powerful as you can go). I woke up in the night to see my entire bed and blanket soaked with my sweat. Everything from the hair on my head to the backs of my knees were sweating. I took two fever reducing Advil and slept fitfully all night. I had a dream that my teeth were falling out, crumbling and rotting out. I know what that means. Change.