May 14: it's not over till someone sings karaoke

I tossed and turned quite a bit last night. My back was already aching from the heavy lifting. Mom also turned off the fan in the middle of the night so I was sweating.

6 AM Woke up. Wait for Grandma to get dressed to take her to the doctor.

Mom is in an especially pissy mood today because we’re leaving for BKK tomorrow and I know she’s stressed about leaving Grandma. I know taking care of Grandma has been entirely exhausting and stressful for her. I keep out of her way.

10:30 AM Ran into a baby elephant on the street. It takes food out of my hand and drools on my shorts.


I’m just starting to get used to it here. Even the mosquitoes have gotten used to my skin. Now I only get 1 or 2 bites a day as opposed to 20. Still, I’m looking forward to getting to the beach in a few days. Mom invited herself…grrr…I was hoping to have some alone time. But at least there’s plenty more for me to do there where we wouldn’t be at each other’s throats.

11 AM An old lady at the hospital asks me what day it is. I only know how to say Friday through Monday in Thai. For some reason, for the life of me, I can never remember how to say Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Today is Thursday. I tell her it’s the day before Friday. She looks at me strangely. I suck on my thumb hoping she’ll think I’m just a retard. Around here, it's better than being called a foreigner.

2 PM Got another $8 two hour massage. Helped get the kink out of my back. Mom’s cell phone goes off the entire time. She answers it every time.

5 PM Meet mom’s friend at Pui for dinner. Mom runs into old friends, including the town’s Sheriff, who are having a party at the restaurant. We join them. Of course, you can’t have a Thai dinner party without really bad karaoke going on. The waitress, who’s drunk, sits down next to me and asks what I want. I said I was still looking at the menu. She asks me 8 more times while I was still looking at the menu. She pours me a beer, half missing the glass. She sits next to me the entire night, practically on top of me, and continuously bumps into me as I eat. She keeps putting her arms around me. I really hate being touched by people I don’t know.

7 PM I’ve had enough. I’m sitting in the corner not talking to anyone. I can’t hear over the awful karaoke anyway. This one lady won’t stop singing and she’s terrible. She’s so serious about too. I hate being the party pooper but I’m over it. I tell mom Grandma needs to get home. By grandma, I mean me.

8 PM The farm help, his wife, and daughter are at the house. They were waiting out the rain. They have dinner here and mom tells them to stay over in the spare room. I like it when there are people here. This house used to be a place where all the town’s people would stop in for dinner, drinks, and dancing. Everyone would move the party over to our old treehouse. They would put a mat down for everyone to sit, play music, and we’d all dance around. Grandma used to get so drunk off whiskey we’re worry she would fall off. The house is much too quite these days.