World Traveler: Sick Day

My body has always had a way of taking its sick days on my days off. And today was no exception. I slept poorly. I was up until 3 AM worrying myself. *sigh* Then when I decided to get up, I was fairly grumpy and didn't feel well. I've had a hard time this whole week with my stomach and today it was REALLY unhappy with me. In any case, I couldn't stomach any breakfast and eventually convinced myself to go run my errands. (When I don't feel well everything feels ESPECIALLY overwhelming.) In any case, I needed to go by the bank as I will need to buy a new bus card early next week (Monday evening). I also keep having these nightmares where I'm stranded in Japan with no money so I was worried about my account balance. In any case, I kicked myself out the door at some point.

All last night it rained. It was heavenly (I love the sound of rain). Because of the rain, my kitchen smelled like cinnamon (the cinnamon in my threshold had gotten wet). I am very blessed though (mmm) as though it rained quite hard, none of my cinnamon was washed away. :D And today I found only 2 ants in my apartment. I feel VERY blessed in that regard. Anyway, sorry as I was saying.. the bank. I rode my bike the two blocks to Sakanacho and then parked it. (Sakanacho is like a giant strip mall/shopping alley. It is outdoor (well, until you go into the shops but many shops have their wares out in the center of the "road"), covered, and has shops on both sides. The bank (which is also the post office - that is, my bank account is THROUGH the post office here) is almost at the end. The walk was fine though. I listened to music and got my bank card ready. When I got there I used the ATM (the post office is never open Saturdays), got out some money, and saw to my relief that I didn't lose all my money overnight. Most of my bills come out of my account on the 25th of the month but then payday is the last day of the month and THIS payday will be a full paycheck. Hallelujah! (My last one was pro-rated as I was paid for the first week of April for hourly training and then started teaching ~ and thus earning my salary ~ on the 15th of April.) I then was about to head home but decided I couldn't wait another week to get my insoles. So I stopped at shoe shops in Sakanacho (there are 3). The first one I visited, I didn't find anything that would work. The second place I got to ask in Japanese if they had insoles and she said no. She then spoke a lot of Japanese at me but I understood "second floor" and "Nanak." Nanak is a big department store (like Fesan) that has an entrance in Sakanacho. I thanked her profusely and then thought, "No backing out!" And went to Nanak. I found the shoe store pretty quickly and grabbed the biggest insoles I could find (Japanese people have small feet!). I'm very lucky as they were only ¥1000 (a little over $10). They looked to be very good, so I made my purchase and left. I then was on a roll and I've been wanting to get guitar music so I stopped at the music store that had restrung (there you go Mom!) Vic (my guitar). I should have known. Almost the entire selection was Japanese music. It was VERY disheartening for me. They had some 7 Slipknot books for bass guitar. Are you kidding me!? And they had Blink-182 for guitar. I really like Blink-182, but they are not known for their complex guitar. I'm not looking for a really HARD book, but I wanted something more challenging than that. I actually was hoping for The Eagles or Alice in Chains. Or Buckethead but that would be considered challenging guitar. Either way, I left the music store sweating (it was SWELTERING in there) and with a very heavy heart. I had promised myself I would stop at the bakery, Michel, on the way home. I like to try something new every week. This week I tried their Melon Pan and some little sweet cornbread that looked like a donut hole (it was that size).

When I got home, I ate them. They were fairly good, but for the first thing I ate today? My tummy was angry with me. I ate some other food and tried really hard to visualize loving it and my stomach and my body being satiated and pleased but I couldn't fool my body. While I was lying down (to try and appease my digestive system), I was able to message a friend and that was nice for me. Maybe not for them as I complained about being sick and lonely. I guess there was a barbecue today. I was invited on fb but I'm not very good at remembering dates and truthfully I'm not sure if I would have made it anyway. It's a miracle I didn't puke today. My mouth kept watering and my stomach would make leaps up my throat but I was able to keep my food down. I did, however, have severe intestinal distress. Today was crappy. LOL Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously. Now I feel weak and washed out and just icky. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about church tomorrow. --I'm going to go - I feel really strongly about going, the heat is going to be bad tomorrow though and I don't want another Argentina. ~For those of you who don't know, Argentina also has very humid and hot summers. When I was there, I got sick and just never got better. The heat battered my health and then it kept battering away until I was sent home because I wasn't recovering. :/ I'm determined to not let that happen here. So I'm trying to decide if I could make it for all of Sacrament meeting. I would like to do at least that. I imagine that I'll probably end up staying the whole time.. just the way I feel right now makes that seem impossible. I can't even imagine biking that whole way. The thought of missing church, though, makes me want to weep. I HAVE to be there. I need the spiritual strength and reserves. I'm also hoping I can get a blessing. The mission president told the elders before (Elder Preston who is now home, and Elder Akiyama who is still here) to not give me blessings. I know where he's coming from, but I can't agree with how he went about it. He doesn't want to elders (or me) to become emotionally attached to one another. Why not, thus, say, "Any blessings given must be done at church." I'm happy to abide with that rule. I may just ask Elder Norawong to give me a blessing. He probably doesn't know what Elder Preston was told. But I don't want to go behind the mission president's back... AARRGHHH!! I just a blessing and I need it to be in English so that I can understand it. I have been wanting a blessing for weeks and haven't been able to figure out from whom I can get one. :(

So, that was pretty much my day. I was lying down or in the bathroom (except for my errands). I managed to keep a little food down, and I finished one book and am halfway through my last one. I hope I feel well tomorrow and I hope my angels protect me from more heat exhaustion. (I've already had it three times this month :/ That's not too bad though! 3 out of 15 days!) I am praying for you all and hope you are having a wonderful weekend. XOXO, A