Rough Day.

Oh. My. Sweet. Jesus. Yesterday afternoon was almost as bad as waking up at 1:30 a.m. with this rotton ear infection. For that reason, I feel it is worthy of telling and remembering.

I took the day before yesterday and yesterday morning to stay in bed and recoup from a bummer cold, and though bedrest didn't help at all, I set out mentally refreshed for the afternoon. I had much to accomplish and I was determined to be cheery about it. In my cheeriness I slipped on my floor-length white cotton skirt and a bright green racer-backed tank top. Though the combo of that outfit and my long, curly blonde lockes screams tourist, it makes me feel happy and free. I headed for town with Jorge after lunch excited for my zampona lesson, but my teacher never showed up. After calling him with no answer, I left 15 minutes after my arrival and walked to a shop for art materials I would need for paint class that evening.

The art shop was closed, but I opted to wait there a while with my spare time. I noticed something weird about everyone while waiting. They were staring at me like they always do, but this afternoon it was more of a probe. Everyone turned their heads whether they were walking past me or on a bus. They didn't whistle as usual, but just look perplexed. Sometimes they chuckled and grinned amongst eachother when in groups or pairs. I simply could not figure it out. I knew I looked pretty touristy, but there are all kinds of tourists in Sucre. I started to become a bit self-conscious, but decided I didn't particularly care. Eventually, I noticed a younger man walking down the sidewalk toward me. He was kinda gorgeous actually. He walked past me with that weird probe, but then he suddenly turned around. "Te acompano?" he says. "Que?" "Te acompano. You want company?" "No. Gracias." I was caught off guard at first and didn't understand him. So here is little miss blondie getting hit on by some creeper guy that won't go away. He doesn't take no for an answer, so he whips out a silver chain necklace from nowhere and asks me again if I want company while muttering some other things I am sure I should be glad I didn't understand. This time I am terse, and a little disgusted. "NO. Chau! " I couldn't even throw in a 'gracias' at that point. After saying 'chau(goodbye)' a few times, he finally got the signal. Well, sort of. He had to caress a strand of my hair and give me that nasty nod before taking off in the other direction. I was absolutely disgusted. He kept glancing back before he leaned against the crutch of a short tree and urinated as random people walked past. All I could do at that point was laugh. Eeew! What a creeper. So at that point I just convinced myself that everyone's stares were because they liked my touristy outfit--enough to caress my hair and give me silver jewelry anyway. I don't really care either way, but I am probably not going to wear that skirt again.

Finally!, the store owner showed up and I made it in and out as a happy woman, though she didn't have one item on my list. From there, I had plans to go meet Wonderful Laura at the tennis courts. From there, she was going to accompany me to the doctor. Thanks to Carnaval and being soaking wet 5 days straight, I had a pretty miserable could. This cold recently turned into a very painful and exhausting ear infection that was keeping me up at night. For that reason, I chose to go to the doctor at last. Laura gladly said yes when I asked her to go with me. She had already been to the same doctor and knew how to get there, and plus I just wanted someone to be my mother for the afternoon. We made it to the office of Dr. Luiz Angel Diaz del Castillo and all went well. He put in some ear drops and we chatted for awhile. Thankfully, Laura and I get him for free as he is a Rotary member. I think he is more helpful than any Rotarian here. I love the man! Anyway, he wrote down a prescription and told me very specifically what to do with it. I was to take that prescription to a specific pharmacy and purchase that exact medicine. The expected cost was 70 bolivianos. With the receipt of that purchase AND his prescription, I was to go to a different pharmacy and receive two free pills. Well, Laura and I left happily from his office, but I am sure you can already guess that the happiness wasn't maintained.

After leaving his office, we headed for the pharmacies. I just chose the pharmacist I always go to and told her I needed three pills of the exact medicine in the prescription. I made this very clear, just as Dr. Diaz made it clear to me. She gave me the medicine for 20 bolivianos. Now of course, you are thinking 'Hmmm, it was supposed to cost 70 bolivianos.' Well, you are smart. I am not. That thought didn't really cross my mind. I thought I simply got lucky, so I purchased the pills and thanked her graciously for the cheaper price. Dr. Diaz told me to take one of the pills right away after I purchased them, so I did just that as Laura and I set off for the other pharmacy with receipt in hand. Of course, there we were told that the medicine I was given was NOT the exact medicine on the prescription. No free pills for me. So Laura and I had to traipse all the way back across town to find the right pharmacist and spend 70 bolivianos more before I could get those two free pills. We did just that. The only problem now was that I had already taken one of the wrong pills. This meant that I had to call Dr. Diaz for the third time that afternoon and ask him what to do. I was humiliated by my stupidity and simply exhausted. As we left the pharmacy, I walked right out into the street without looking and almost got my butt run over by one unhappy cab driver. That really lifted my spirits. I almost got run over! Woohoo! For some reason, I laughed about it and ran to the other side of the street, but it caught up with me a few seconds later. I was teary-eyed over my stupidity and exhausted from my cold, ear infection, and having to walk all over the entire city while people stared at me obnoxiously. Finally, we found the correct pharmacy and bought the exact same pills as the prescription. With that receipt, we started the trek back to the second pharmacy. I was grouchy, irritated, and sad, and I was getting some really strong gut pain. I let everything get to me, and I was just mentally out of it at that point.

Laura knew I had reached my limit, so she decided food was the cure. She offered to buy me my favorite orange cake from the market even though I had no desire to eat with this new gut pain. We took a side trip through the very busy and notoriously dangerous market in search of my cake before going for those two free pills. Somewhere along there, I noticed my coin purse was missing. That irritated me even more. Only minutes later, I noticed my cell phone was missing too. That really irritated me. After going through every item in my bag, I knew I had been robbed. We stood on the other side of the market and I just felt defeated. Me and my stupid skirt. Me and my stupid exhausted self. I put those things in an outside pocket of my bag which does not close. I deserved to be robbed. I was a stupid tourist. Somehow, Wonderful Laura made me forget about it and we kept on toward the pharmacy.

From this point, we made it to the pharmacy and got those two free pills after running around all afternoon. It was getting late though, and I was relying on a ride home from Jorge. Laura and I headed for his office, and I would have called and asked him to wait, but for obvious reasons that was not an option. Thankfully, he was staying late that night. We walked in while he and Jorgito were talking on Skype with Majo. I put on a happy face at that point. Somewhere along there, two of my awesome aunts came into the office. I had to explain that I lost my phone to one of them, and they expressed that to Jorge before I even had a chance to tell him, and then I had to explain the whole afternoon, and then I just gave up. I started crying. Of course they were all smiling, which is why I love them. I love my aunts Rosario and Elena for their love and compassion, and Jorge fits in there too. We were all just kind of sitting there and laughing as I explained the afternoon through teary eyes.

I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep. I knew I had a paint lesson to go to that night, but that was the last thing on my mind. Plus, I didn't even have all my materials! Ugh. During the ride home I was fine mentally, but I just randomly burst into tears every so often. Every time I cry over stupid things, I laugh just as much. I suppose it is because I know how ridiculous my tears are most of the time, and I don't want anyone else to take my tears seriously. So I laughed and I cried, and I finally went to bed and expected some sound sleep with my new meds.

Oh boy was that a bad assumption. That was the worst night of sleep yet. I woke up at some random time(I wasn't sure what time because I didn't have a cell phone to check) with the worst ear pain yet, some really really strong stomach pains, and I was freezing cold while sweating at the same time. Ick. I think I spent more time in the bathroom that night than I did in my bed, but I will spare you all the wonderful details of that. At some point, I must have just become too exhausted by all of that misery that I finally fell back asleep while seated upright in my bed. What a horrible and lonely night. This brings me to this morning, in which I chose to stay in bed and sleep. And sleep I did. Like a rock.

This afternoon I made a trip back to the doctor. He just smiled when I told him how horrible my night was. The antibiotics kicked my butt harder than the actual infection I think. After giving me some more ear drops and chatting a bit more, I left his office happy to know that I didn't have anything else to do. I hopped on a bus, made it home, and was thrilled at the smell of home-made huminitas. Nothing better than yummy warm food to cheer me up. :) I think right now I shall go eat another one before taking my splendid antibiotics for the evening.

So that was my horrible afternoon. I still haven't found much positive in it. I did learn a lesson, so I suppose that counts as something positive. Actually, 2 lessons. Number One: Don't dress like a stupid tourist. Number Two: Don't let one bad thing get a grip on you. I let one crummy moment get to me, and it just started a snowball effect. I gave up. I felt defeated. I was defeated. Everything bummer thing about that afternoon was my fault because I was being lazy both physically and mentally.

Thank goodness I enjoy writing. I think now I can put that afternoon behind me and laugh about it. Now I just have to buy a phone and borrow Jorgito's for my alarm clock. :) And it would be nice if I could sleep decently tonight, but either way I will try to make tomorrow a better day. And now I sign off to eat a delightful huminita.

But I forgot one thing...Laura. She is my Wonderful Soccer-Mom Laura. Thank you Laura for taking the role of mommy that afternoon. She had a boatload of homework to do, but put it off for me instead. Though the afternoon sucked royally, it was nice to have someone there to share the misery with. Gracias, Laura!

Okay. My huminita!