Fear the Crab

I’m still sick, though it’s bearable. My nose is less runny, but my chest is more clogged, and I seem to spend more time coughing out phlegm than I do breathing. The good news is that I’m getting it all out; I’m just making myself miserable doing it (and I’ll be the rest of the house loves hearing me hack).

I’m still awake, which is bad at this hour because I need to go to school tomorrow morning. Despite having dropped the class, we’re actually going over important material I will see later on in life. I can’t afford to miss these sessions, at least for the next few weeks.

Speaking of the math class, I discovered yesterday that my latest assignment bumped my score up to 50.97, which is above passing (though just barely). Then the professor announced that the next exam (on Nov 26th) will be open-book open-notes. It galls me to think that I may not have needed to drop the class after all, but at least this way, there’s no risk in me failing any assignment or test, and that means less white hairs from worrying whether or not I’d pass.

I’m still sick, though I was able to go to school. Waking up was not hard, but halfway through the day the phlegm decided to attack from two sides, clogging up both my head and lungs. So I had a sinus headache and couldn’t breathe.

Yay.

This morning I had to kill a 4″ flying cockroach, which would qualify for the Bambucha award in my book. I whacked it 15-20 times with a rolled-up newspaper, shoved its gross carcass between two inserts, took the entire paper outside, and danced a speed-induced Macarena on it, because those suckers just don’t die. I remember the last time I whacked a roach until I saw guts and broke off two of its legs. I dumped it in the trash, and the next morning my dad found it crawling along the kitchen floor.

Yay.

I’m still sick. I’m glad I didn’t go to work today. My nose has been runny all day, and the plugged-up sinuses gave me a major headache. Now I get to look forward to a phlegm-filled day at school tomorrow, since I still have to go in and learn the material.

I feel like shit. I’m not going to work tomorrow.

This morning Maile’s mom gave the grandmother some instructions, because Keoni called and wanted money. The grandmother said no, so Keoni wanted saimin packages, so the grandmother said yes and wanted to make some kind of arrangement to give it to him, because he can’t come to the house. The mom got really upset, and told the grandmother and aunt that Keoni was not to come to the house and not to get any help. Well, he called, and the aunt answered, and told him what was going to happen.

Then he shows up at the house. The aunt answers the door and tells Keoni again that he cannot be there. What does the fucker do? He just smiles at the aunt, runs into the house, into his room, and takes the mail that was there. Now we’re worried that whatever mail was there (under his name), is more credit card fraud. At least Maile has that fraud-alert on her accounts, to notify her of any activity using her name, so it’s safe from that end. Still, it’s a big hassle when it does happen, and we’d like it better if it just didn’t happen at all.

I think I have a cold. My throat is feeling a bit itchy.

I didn’t post yesterday because I fell asleep early. I guess I was just that tired. I woke up 11 hours later and had a nasty cotton-mouth, which is odd because I never drank anything. I think it’s all the vog in the air with the Kona winds blowing in.

Yesterday was a bit eventful, too. On my way in to work I nearly got into a traffic accident as a truck got a flat tire. Unfortunately, the driver decided to slow to a stop as he tried to move to the shoulder, and nearly caused a chain reaction as we all tried desperately to avoid him. Given the heavy rain earlier in the evening, the roads were still slick. It’s a miracle nobody hit anything.

I bought the Kikaida DVD as promised. Not much else to say about that.

Last night Maile and her mom gave Keoni an choice. He could either stay at the house under strict rules (no stealing, lying, or drugs), or he could go out on the street and face whatever consequences there. He chose the street. He explained this choice by saying that since he was eventually going to jail, he might as well do what he likes before then. Unfortunately, his likes involve stealing Maile’s jewelry and trying to swindle the other family members out of money. And he likes crack.

Discovered today that he came back to the house. His excuse was that he wanted to do laundry, and he wanted money. He also gave some sob story about how it’s so hard on the street, but Maile just reminded him that it was his choice. Tonight he’s going to return and the mom is going to have a “chat” with him.

I’ve decided that I will drop my math class, or at the very least, talk to my professor about it. I’m so borderline it’s scary. I’m really worried that the exams will sink me below the level of passing, so I figure I will drop the class now and get a W (for withdrawal), but still attend the rest of the classes so I can get the material. I’m going to ask if I can also continue to turn in the assignments and take the exams, just to get an idea of whether or not I understand this shit. It’s too bad I can’t get my money back, but it’s better than getting a D or F in the class.

Ate dinner at Assagio’s in Mililani. I had a chicken and shrimp special with a spinach garlic wine sauce over a bed of linguine. Maile had the chicken linguine anchovy olio, or something along those lines. Not bad.

Today was an okay day at work, though everyone seemed to be grossed out by my bug-in-the-ear story.

Finished working on the next batch of Maile’s notes, rewording them so they don’t resemble the book too closely. Maile also finished the rest of her book, enabling her to write her summary paper for history. Good progress, I must say.

Woke up this morning because my ear was itchy. I stuck my finger in, scratched little bit, and tried to go back to sleep. It was still itchy. So I got up, got that ear pick thing, and went to work. Everything went fine and good until the pick brought out two of those flying ant-like bugs. Ew.

Christopher’s 1st birthday party was decent enough. There was a lot of food for a lunchtime party, enough to make one believe it was a dinner. Three types of salads, jello, cheeses, fruits, chicken, fish and smoked fish, shrimp, crab legs, and prime rib. In addition, there was a dessert table with mousses, tarts, eclairs, and other goodies. One person at our table filled her plate with nothing but desserts.

Frank DeLima made an appearance. His act was pretty good, though it was very tame compared to his other works. It’s natural, of course, considering that this was a children’s party and he really couldn’t let loose. Maile and I left shortly after Frank’s act, because we were tired and I had to work later in the evening. Actually, we both didn’t want to go, but because it was at the Hale Koa and Henry paid by guest, we would have felt really bad if we didn’t attend. I’d say it was worth it.

At work, however, I began to wish I had taken a nap. It was really slow, and that only made me feel more tired. My feet began to hurt and the rest of my body felt tight, as though I could crack every bone. I barely made it home, and I think I drifted onto the shoulder twice while driving.

Tonight and tomorrow I will help Maile with some of her history notes.

…as is the usual. I was in the duty free section tonight, and made a few sales, but nothing spectacular.

I’m going to sleep over at Maile’s house. Tomorrow we’re going to a birthday party for one of her co-worker’s child.