beauty talk.

And so. I have spent the past few days trying to think of something interesting to write. Here is what I have come up with.

-I am moving on Friday. I have to take one of my personal days from work to do so, as I also have to go into school on Friday. It is Father's Day on tuesday, and if we want to have Monday off as well we have to haul our asses in on Saturday. Go Thailand. Not only do I miss out on a couple hundred bucks of tutoring money, but I also have to go to work and be angry all day.

-My new house is lovely. I am going to paint the front gate red. I think that's bad for the chinese, or the gods, or for allah or something, but I am about up to here with tradition and going by the rules for now. (see next point.)

-As I am planning out our moving trip, Rin decided to tell me we have to make the first trip in the truck with only his buddha things, flowers, incense, rice, plates, our rice cooker and things that make us safe from harm, like candles. I recall moving three times in two years with Rin and I never remember this insane Thai ritual, but this is new, and I have to smile and say yes. Why is it when it comes to religion we have to just smile and nod? I want to say, NO. We have a huge truck and if we are going to waste a trip to the new house with a few trinkets on our laps and sprinkle rice in the garden, you are freaking wrong. I am a woman of method and organization. I will not live with this insanity. But the funny thing is, when it comes to culture and tradition, I have to go along with it. Fine. Take your rice to the new house and sprinkle holy water and light candles. But could you do it before 7am, and try not to wake me up? Thanks.

-I am in love with my computer. I tell Rin everyday how I love my computer more than him, and if we ever break up, could I please have no threats of my computer being taken away. I am thinking of getting a prenuptual dating agreement for this macbook. He opened the bag just now as I was getting into my pjs, and I freaked out on him. We are now fighting because he touched my computer.

-My old computer is now being turned into a Karaoke machine. Sometimes I hate my life.

-I have added up my beauty salon bill for the month. Let's see.

Wash/massage/dry/straighten (70 baht each-$1.75) x 5 = 350 baht
Manicure/pedicure, weekly (120 baht each-$3.00) x 3 (i missed a week) = 360 baht
Facial (100 baht-$2.50) x 2 = 200 baht
Hair cut (120 baht-$3.00, including wash/massage/dry/straighten) = 120 baht
Steam hair treatment, weekly (180 baht-$4.75) x 3 (i missed a week) = 460 baht.

So we have a grand total of 1,460 baht in one month. (i did that in my head and i am tired. sorry if it's wrong, i will check in the morning) That's about...well...less than thirty bucks for all the pampering I can handle. Hald the price of a haircut I used to get in London, Ontario.

Then again, sometimes I love my life.

-We got a new teacher. Minus scheduling headaches, I am pumped. Less work for me. Eventually.

-I hate my dog. Only for now, but she eats everything (including a cell phone, a leather chair, two pairs of Dr. Scholl's shoes, an entire pack of toilet paper, a blanket, a wooden table (not mine...) and the remote to my tv.

And my roommate is surprised that his slippers got eaten when he leaves them on the front step. Man, she eats the front step!

She is also digging a hole in the front yard. Now, I am in a bit of a situation here. When I was little my brother and I used to joke about digging a hole to China, but, quite frankly, that isn't possible from here (not that it was from there...) but, China is really close. So, is she digging a hole to....say....Canada? Vermont? Maybe she is trying to find her long lost family in the mountains of Vermont. Keep digging baby. The next hole you dig I am going to push you in there and bury you. See how you like that...huh?

-Calming down, I think it's time for bed. I apologize for all the photos featuring, well, myself. Quite frankly, I sit in my office and take pictures with this thing all day. I show people, but I don't think they really care.

And goodnight.

(ps, the title of this post was for the salon thing. Which is what i came on here to write about. but I just had a chocolate and I am going a little insane. CAPS HERE...lowercase here. Who really cares?

I love my computer, but I can't figure out how to upload a photo right now. Upload in the morning

And I'm in love. I finally got a macbook....and I can't stop thinking about her.

More cray photo posts tonight for sure!

can i really be sick again?

I feel like I spend most of my time in Bangkok either getting sick or getting over being sick, or covering for people who are sick.

And so, after I came back from a friend's wedding in Petchaburi this past weekend, I was....yes, you guessed it....sick. Couldn't breathe, achey, miserable, and generally falling apart at the seams. So here we are Thursday, four days later, and just as I thought I was better, I woke up with burning eye syndrome (who knows) and stomach that can't seem to handle anything other than lemon tea.

Fun fun fun.

I spend my days looking at my new love affair, a new mac notebook I think I am going to get in a few days...I literaly spend all my free time on the apple.com website looking at it from different angles, and thinking about what our first day together will be like. Maybe I will take her to lunch, and then to a park for a rest, and then maybe out ith the girls at night. We shall see. But I can't stop dreaming about her.

Rin is getting a little jealous.

Speaking of Rin...



Actually, this one is prettier...



Perhaps a more meaningful post will follow tomorrow. But the burning eye syndrome is waaaaaaaaaay worse infront of a computer.

sometimes...

Often I like Thailand. Often I love Thailand. But there are some mornings when I could do without the traffic, the heat, and quite frankly, the Thais.

I woke up late this morning, feeling my bed was more comforable than a shower at 6 in the morning. This put me a few minutes behind schedule, but nonetheless, I was still going to make it to work on time.

Rin was angry at Sophie for chewing on something else, and he was in a bad mood. Lucky for me, his bad mood is taken out on the streets, with me on the back of his motorbike going 80 km per hour on our soi (about one lane wide). We stopped for coffee, and then kept going, me hitting him every few metres to tell him I was afraid I was going to die. Then, we got stuck at red light. For over five minutes. This, my friends, seemed to put him over the edge, making him speed out from the light, almost hit a taxi who ran a red light, and swerve around this bus and that truck and this car and mirrors of other cars en route to school, me kicking and screaming the whole way.

I finally got to school and punched in one minute before I would hav been late, and proceeded to go over to my building. Now, I came to school today, not wearing the usual uniform. The uniform today is a fabric that is the same colour as baby excrament, and is so ugly I am embarassed to have it in my closet. We are having a Halloween party today, which means a lot of running around on my part, so I decided to wear pants. Generally not a problem, as I can count the amount of times I have worn pants to school this year on one hand.

As I walked into the foyer of my building where all the Thai teachers and students congregate in the morning waiting for morning assembly, these are the following comments I received:

'Oh, wow, you're late.' (Inner thoughts: 'Nope, not late. On time. But thanks for noticing!')

'Oh, pants ! That's different. I thought you had this suit.' (Inner thoughts: 'Yup, pants! Look, it's the 21st century! Women can wear pants! I do have that suit, and it's convenient, because if a student throws up on me, it will blend right in!')

'Oh...too busy to get your hair done? You look so much better with your hair down. Or maybe you don't make enough money, so you can't get your hair done every day!' (followed by snide laughter and jealous glares...) (Inner thoughts: 'Nope, hair not done. In a ponytail. Still wet, in fact! The funny thing is, as much as I like to spend 2 hours getting my hair done every night and then going at 6:30 in the morning to get it restraightened, I somehow just don't. I know...what a civilian. I do my own hair.') (Short version: 'bite me.')

'You look so...young in that shirt!' (Inner thoughts: 'huh? Why do you feel the need to say something every morning?')

'Oh Heather, you wear that necklace everyday. Nice earrings, by the way, but you should change your necklace more often.' (Inner thoughts: 'This is the icing on the cake. First of all, I bought the necklace a week ago, and I have worn it once. Granted, it was on Wednesday, and this is only Friday, making the period between showings quite small. But, I mean, come on. Who cares? And the earrings? She gave them to me for my birthday, yesterday! My birthday was a week ago! You don't see me giving her shit now do you?!!!!!!!!!')

Grr. I get so annoyed. And the way things work here, I had to do everything in my power not to talk back, because it would only make things worse. So I met every comment with a smile and kept walking.

Just keep walking...