"I feel really sick," I say. In English, this means you feel puke-worthy. Like you're gonna throw up any minute now. In US-ish it seems to be more generic, to mean you feel ill. Usually I can remember this difference and have adapted and picked up the phrase accordingly. Apart from when I'm so ill I'm dizzy and feeling like I might pass out at my desk and can only mutter to my new, middle-aged co-worker "I feel sick, I need to go home."
Her: "Ah've got a bit uvva sore throat mahself. What's wrong?". She's from Arksansaw. Lived in NY for like over 20 years or something and sounds like she hasn't stepped out from under the Confederate flag but ten minutes.
Me: "I - feel - sick"
Her: "Lahk - sore throat? A cold? You got a cold?"
Me: "I feel like I'm about to heave my guts over the desk before sliding off my chair onto the floor in an unconscious heap, you hick."
Well, it's what I wish I'd said. I was unable to leave work due to her relative newness [only been there like... 10 days maybe?] and incompentence. I'm being harsh. Just not so quick to pick up the [really very simple] job, and the fact that people kept throwing jobs at me, when all I wanted to do was crawl into bed with a toilet within running distance.
Tuesday I stumbled into work at ten thirty, still feeling like shit, but also feeling bad that I was leaving Mzz Arkansaw and *another* newbie alone - one girl left last week, I'm leaving any day now, so we have these two new ladies to replace us. So I finally get in to make sure things are going okay, and Arkansaw has fucking called in sick. I was furious, when I wasn't laying my head on the desk still feeling dizzy and sick.
Still not feeling hugely better, I had a "last supper" with my roommates that night - first time we've all sat down together in a long while. Although there were some disastrous moments, Jamie's running commentary of various animal facts ["Did you know the [insert name of some leaping running horned antelope type animal that lives in Africa] can run at 38mph for up to 4 hours? Did you know that there was a tortoise that lived to 270 years old? Did you know, I saw this German film one time that showed a woman giving a tortoise a blowjob while being shagged from the back by a dog?"] saved the evening. Then it was on to Private Mens Club at Black & White for a little. As we'd been eating in Union Sq I just walked down there after, so got there when Omri and A-Schway were the only people there. I settled myself in a corner with a book on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder someone had given me to read. Excellent bar fodder... luckily I was saved quite soon after by the arrival of all and sundry, a little damp from the rain that had just started.
Sad kids, happy kids. What happens when the tipsy kids in the corner steal your camera. [Apparently: "we were giving our best "i'm smiling with my grandparents" smile"]
Wednesday night was the MB leavers' shindig, held at My Moon in the Burg. I hadn't been at work that day 'cause of illness and I totally would've flaked out on the "prom" if I hadn't had to cough up so much moolah for it. For the most part it wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting. It's a good venue, it had all been done nicely, and I mainly just hung out with Spindly. Then the Big Cheese of the program gets up to do his leaving speech - only it's not a serious speech, it's when he tries to show he's "hip", that he's "with it" [a strange urge that people over 50 sometimes seem to have, to the embarrassment of all involved]. At the January leaving do, he did his "song" in the form of the blues; apparently this time around it was a "rap." Yeah whatever. It still amounted to him just reading his speech in a strange rhythm while some kid he'd roped in from the office wailed on a guitar behind him [after the first verse he made the kid unplug the amp.] All's going smoothly, a couple of "hilarious" verses about us all moving to NY. Then he moves on to the verses where he theoretically dishes the dirt on what everyone's done this past year. [Hey, Anonymous-that-used-to-be-on-MB who I've chatted to on AIM before, d'you still ever check in on this??] I figured, being as that I don't socialise with any of them or have much to do with any of them [apart from Spindz and the Scottish Boy] outside of class commitments, I'd be off scot-free.
Oh how wrong could I be. Not only did I get got, I got gotted first. The first person from our intake he names and shames: "H--- D--- and her blog." I was *totally* thrown. To say I thought everyone was over that and had forgotten about it [quick recap: some charming person from MB discovers the blog, sends a group email to almost everyone currently on MB - probably about 250 people I guess - giving it out. I get shit and stupid comments. A source tells me what's happened. To say I'm bummed out and pissed the fuck off is an understatement. Yes, I know these things are a public forum, but come on. So I change the web address. Problem kind of solved.] is an understatment. Motherfuckers. I'm so glad I never got involved in that whole thing. And whatever you thought, derogatory or whatever - I'm just telling it how I see it, kids...
I left early, after the lame awards and stuff 'cause I was still feeling crappy.
Rolled into work for a couple hours today, to check up on the newbies who seem to be doing fine, spent the rest of the day sleeping, watching Freaks & Geeks, and trying to persuade my sister to come out for the weekend.
I've also been occasionally working on something this week, and on Monday discovered this. Ellen, this is for you:
This was last summer, when I was first going to Misshapes, when I was still trying to make friends, whatever. Now I've become lazy and don't bother to talk to random people so much, but back then, as long as I had a drink or two in me to make the shyness dissipate, I'd chat to anyone, just trying to be friendly. Never knew I'd actually properly talked to the lovely Ellen [apart from that time she was sat outside with Piper, who I just wanted to eat] or Josh this far back. Funny how things like that happen.
