Ick & whew!

Fun Fact 13: Ahorita is not the same as ahora. The word "ahora" in Spanish means now. The diminuitive of ahora is ahorita, like little now. So when someone says they'll be over "ahorita," you would think that that would mean right now - like immediately. Nope. It means in a little while, in an unspecified amount of time, probably within the next half hour or so.

Well, there have been a few recent turn of events that dictated my past weekend and my belated return to my beloved internet cafe. Mostly I got sick. Pretty simple, I guess, but I rarely get a cold, let alone an extremely painful stomach infection that gives me nothing but cramps and fever. Starting from the beginning, though.

Last Friday the 13th (ooooohhhhhh!!!!), I went with Mario to watch him and some friends play soccer at night on a concrete (!) field. I had called his friend Zeudy to meet me there, because I knew there would be few (if any) women, and as much fun as it can be as the Super Tall Super White girl at a soccer game that does involve beer, so I thought it would be nice to have some female company. In fact, both Zeudy and Kari showed up, and we had a ball. I feel a little badly mooching Mario's friends, but they're terrific girls, and we get along really well. So anyway, after the game we sat outside in front of the Gran Complejo (The Big Complex) where there are regular dance concerts, and drank beer for a few hours and shot the bull. Mario is always connected with just about this whole city and he scored all 11 of us free tickets to the concert. So that was how I ended up dancing with a bunch of sweaty soccer players until about 3 in the morning. Sounds like a dream, right? When I use the word sweaty, I mean to use the words COMPLETELY SOAKED. Always a ball, though, always a ball.

The next day I woke up with no appetite and what I thought was a mild hangover except that it got worse and worse as the day wore on. Then my stomach started to go, and I basically hogged the bathroom all day long. My friends from UT (Mario Luis and Lars) and I were going to celebrate our friend Lilia's birthday that night. I was supposed to make the tortilla española and my famous pound cake. I seriously could barely walk. I went to the pharmacy and got some antibiotics and something for the diarrhea and stomach cramps and then went to Mario Luis' house. I started peeling the potatoes and realized that I had a fever and had to lie down. I called directions from the bedroom to the kitchen regarding ingredients, oven temperatures, and techniques (the tortilla has to be just so), feeling like I was a total bitch and like I was going to die. Mario Luis, the doll that he is, bought me crackers to take my pills with, and I just fell asleep. They woke me up when Lilia, Cesar, and Rosi got there, and I tried to be good company but to no avail.

I caught a mototaxi home and went straight to bed. Kirle was really worried so she called her boyfriend's sister who's a nurse. Ruth came over right away and gave me a shot for my 104 (!) fever. They made me drink my electrolytes and change the tank top I already sweat through in my fever. Ick.

[A side note is that I got the flu for the first time last January. I don't tend to get sick and I don't think I make a very good sick person.]

Sunday I woke up without a fever (hooray!) but very weak, with aching muscles and a terrible headache. Everyone had advice. EVERYONE! I read and slept all day (well, when I wasn't hitting the bathroom) and kept drinking fluids. They called it a stomach infection and everyone was convinced it was something I ate. I think it's just that my floura are getting used to the floura from here. Monday morning I took metronidazol, a nasty, bacteria-killing wonderpill that I took when I had ghiardia. Two more of those in the same day and I felt great. Tuesday dawned and I didn't have to go to the bathroom, and all I had was mild congestion. Hooray!

Since I felt so great yesterday, I worked on my prospectus (which I wanted to finish by Friday at 5) all day at Mario Luis' house. He and Lars have air conditioning, a great huge desk to work at, and peace and quiet. Except that the three of us get along like peas in a pod and often can't stop talking and laughing when we're together. I feel like I've known them forever, and it's kind of funny, because we jumped from formal introductions to speaking freely about bowel movements, love interests, and everything else you can possibly imagine. But don't mistake this time at their house for all fun and games because I really have gotten a lot of work done there.

Tuesday night I went to the movies with Mario and Zeudy. Fast and Furious 3. A fabulous, brainless, pointless action flick with sweet cars. And it takes place in Tokyo, which is pretty rad, too. If you can see it for less than a dollar, as I did, I recommend it. After the movies? Karaoke of course! I sang "I will Survive" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." We had a ball, even though Mario refused to sing.

The "whew" part of the Title, you ask? Well, that would be that today, the eighteenth of October, two thousand and six, I finished a decent draft of my prospectus. All I gotta say is yee-ha. Yee-ha!