Life is Short

This Friday I learned that an anquentance of mine from the 1950's Western Bar passed from this life and is no longer with us. Motorcycle accident Monday night.

A moment of silence.

Not Quite a Vacation but my Vacation.

I'm on vacation now. Not sure how it already is Tuesday. I've got one good thing going for me today. It's morning, late morning but none-the-less. The afternoon has yet to begin.

Christmas Eve: The 24th.
Following the Christmas Presentation for the kids. I took off with D. Wolf & J.A.De to the Christmas Eve party at the 1950's Bar. It was also J.A.De's birthday.
We got a seat at the bar. There was to be a presentation of bar tenders dancing and spinning bottles. They usually do this sort of thing on special occasions.
It also happened to be D. Jaguar's birthday also. He showed up later on in the evening.
I made a quick run to Baskin Robins to pick up a cake for J.A.De. The smile and surprise on her face was priceless. [This is where the voice for the Master Card commercial comes in]
After the bottle spinning performances and arrival of more people the dancing began. The regulars know. Seriously crazy time.

Christmas Day: The 25th.
I stayed in bed all day. There was no recollection of the journey home. The film from that part of my memory and much of what happen after the spinning bottles of the night previous was stolen from the vault. The vault being my memory bank.
The feeling of staying in bed all Christmas seems sort of depressing but it was sort of what I needed.

The Day After Christmas: The 26th.
There was a late day of work. I had to finish the progress report/evaluation cards and send them home with the afternoon kids.
Following work I rendezvous with a friend that partied with me on the 24th - 25th. Together, we were spending more time than usual. It was enjoyable to spend time with somebody on a consistent basis. How much of it will last is already written into the cards. This mystery girl will be heading back to Australia in a few days. The Korean-Australian lady will not be close for long. Though it is nice to have her company. It ends in time... The right time. In time for the end of the year.
I drank until the bar closed. Then we moved the party to another western bar down the road called California. A few people I new showed up and the rest is another stolen film from the vault.
I do remember at one point telling two girls around me to just duke it out. Go ahead, fight for me.

Saturday: The 27th.
The phone rings. It's Gib. "You do remember we have a wedding to go to this afternoon".
The front desk lady/teacher got married. It was a wonderful wedding. Reminded me of when my younger sister got married. The food after the ceremony was delicious. I ate a lot of salmon and ate some soup. After the ceremony dinner I began to sober up.
The Korean-Australian lady met up later that evening for a beer and a movie. I was extremely tired. The movie was well worth the trip out rather than the trip home to be alone.

Sunday: The 28th.
Hectic afternoon. I got a little hungry and cooked up some ramen noodles. The K.A.L. was suppose to call me at 8p.m. that evening. She didn't call so I took off to my Aunt's house. My mother's sister.
As I was eating pizza and playing 7 card stud with my uncles the phone rang. It was a number that I didn't recognize before. I let it ring. The phone was bombarded by this number. I stepped out to smoke a cigarette and answer the phone. It was K.A.L.
K.A.L. is sort of upset. She's at my place and I'm not there. I give her my password for the door lock.
I continue to play poker for another hour before taking off to pick up K.A.L. Now I'm running real late. While I was on my way to my Aunt's house Gib sent a message. He wanted to meet up at the 1950's Bar.
I finally make it there at 1A.M.
It's quite possible that I got to bed at 5A.M. that night/morning.

Monday: 29th.
Ordered McDonald's delivered to my house. Yeah, can you believe that? McDonald's is delivered here. Ate a Big Mac meal set. Then I jammed on the guitar until 8P.M.
That evening K.A.L. invited me out to meet some of her friends. Childhood friends that she went to elementary and middle school with. It was fun.
They ate some Korean food and drank soju. Soju is a Korean alcoholic beverage usually made of potatoes or rice and is not very good. I personally don't like soju but that's beside the point. There had to be an exception made on my part. I couldn't be the only one drinking something other than what the crowd gathered was drinking. It was cold last night. I was home before 1.A.M.

Today: 30th.
With the morning sunrise so did my eyelids rise. With all this time on my hands I've got some time to recollect this busy week/weekend that has passed. No highlights I suppose. Maybe just attempts to hide the loneliness of being in Korea alone. In some ways... I'm numb to it.

Hospital Visit Number 2 & 3

During the winter months of the year I have a recurring problem. This problem involves the excessive perspiration of my feet. The problem is bad to the point that by the end of the day my feet are drenched with perspiration. You can imagine the odor that accompanies this problem.

I've been trying all sorts of antics to remedy the problem. I've applied baby powder to my feet. The logic to this is that the powder would absorb the excess sweat that is created by my beautiful, stinky feet. It works to a degree. However, it doesn't complete the job. The feet still stink. It's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. An odor that is unavoidably recognizable.

On the second day of my hospital visit. I was nervous about my soggy socks and odor. As the first visit but it seemed to be worse. Maybe I didn't go home the night before. This type of thing happens even on work days. Drinking whiskey in Korea is a Marathon of longevity. It's fun too. And when it's time to start heading back home you might find yourself holding some ladies hand. Where you end up at night is discovered the next morning as your stretching out of bed to get ready for work. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the reason though.

It made for an embarrassing moment. Your feet are bare and the Doctor is poking his little needles into you. The entire time that lingering smell manifests itself. I wonder if they have some sort of acupuncture for excessive sweat from the feet?

The Doctor is done with his poking. A stream of different nurses are in and out of the curtain room around my unfortunately small and uncomfortable bed. I feel bad that they have to smell my feet odor. It makes me very, very self conscience.

That night (Thursday) I went out to my regular hole in the wall spot for drinking and socializing. It's quite the spot the "1950's Western Bar". When I first started dropping into the spot back in April of 2007, it was the music that drew me in. I literally lived about 7 minutes away from the place that's elevator time included. Needless to say, it became my favorite spot to sit down and socialize. The people there are the sort that finds solace and comfort in whatever way they know how. Mainly solace and comfort is found in a bottle with this crowd. Sure, there are always exceptions.

When you frequent a place over a period of time you begin to see patterns. These patterns, social or otherwise makes an interesting impact onto our psyche. It allows us to let down our guard. In many respects it allows for contact with the outside world from our own. I made many friends and so it's always nice to visit 1950's Western Bar even when I live an 8 Dollar cab ride away now.

I didn't make it home that Thursday night.

Friday morning, I stretched out of bed washed up and headed to the subway station with my friend who's place I crashed at for the night. She was heading to work as was I.

I'm not completely sure why the hospital insisted that I have three visits or sessions. When I asked about having to come for the third one the receptionist laughed.

In a slightly broken Korean Grammar, "Do I really have to come tomorrow? My ankle doesn't hurt any more. I can walk on it now".

Now the problem was climaxing. I have the same smelly socks on and my feet aren't particularly doing so well. A spot opened up later in the afternoon for me to slip out to the hospital and back before teaching my last class for post kindergarten reading (An after school program for kindergarten graduates... Ha).

I quickly grabbed some baby powder found in the teachers office a few days earlier. Most of the teachers were in class teaching. I powdered up my feet. Boy were they soaked. It's crazy that it's being said here but seriously.

I had two options. Eat free food left over from lunch or go to the hospital and pay $10 to be poked with needles. Lunch was great by the way... meatballs with rice and some fried potatoes with little slices of ham. The choice was obvious, right. That's exactly what I did. Free food.

There was no third visit to the hospital. Maneuvering around is not at all uncomfortable. Things are looking up.