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2003-07-05 - 4:29 p.m. Hallucinating in America So, I went to the lake yesterday. I can't say whether it was terrible or not, though. Let me begin this way: I love swimming. I love the water. I have this strange affection for the smell of chlorine-tainted water because it tends to reminf me of swimming pools... and swimming in general. I also love that lake. I always thought that the fact that it is a red lake made it even more special and unique. I've gone to that lake countless of times and I have always enjoyed myself there. When I woke up yesterday, however, I opened my eyes and the first thing that I saw was a bad omen. The numbers on my alarm clock were bleeding. Okay, they weren't really bleeding, but my eyes were blurred, they might as well have been. I still stand by my earlier comment of it being a bad omen for a "not that great of a day" day. We left the house at 6 am and got into the park at around 7, along with the usual holiday crowd of idiots and jackoffs. The lake opened at 10. My brother and his wife brought her brother and sister, whose names I don't know, but, considering that I can't even remember if the wife's name is Aida or not, I guess that's expected. They were okay people, though the sister (who's shorter than most 6-year-olds) may be a little annoying. The real trouble was in the lake itself. Because I was the oldest, I had to watch my aunt's two girls (twins, age 8(?). Both girls insisted on making me their seahorse, climbing on my back and yanking on my shoulders way too much. After some time, I ended up with another parasite on my back by the name of Karla. A cute, extremely thin 8-year-old, she insisted on being with me the whole time I was in the water with her, causing the twins to become sulking little balls of fat. I got to do very little swimming. In fact, after getting everyone in our group out of the water for lunch, I deliberately stayed in the picnic area, drawing what I think is Harry Potter (who I didn't want to draw, by the way) just so that I could avoid Karla. Ooh, she was a leech. My plan was: I'll wait, and, hopefully, as I'm heading towards the water, the kids were heading to the food again. No such luck, and after spending some time in the deep end, trying to recover my swimming ability, I willing gave myself up to Karla and her clinging abilities. Admittedly, it was fun, but, damnit, my shoulders were hurting, not just from the misuse, but from the sun as well. They're burned now. We came back home around 4, tired and covered in lake sand and grime. After we all got clean, we went to Tony's, who invited us to a fireworks display near where he lived. The display was okay, but even before we went to the Acme parking lot to get ready, I was dying to go home. I'm getting tired just sitting here telling you about it. The best thing about all this, besides the strawberry shortcake someone had bought for Tony's barbeque and I had 3 or 4 slices of: the possibility of hallucinations. Seriously, as we were driving to the lake that morning, I thought about the last time we went to the lake on the Fourth of July. A couple of weeks after the trip that day 3 years ago, I developed a bad ear... something. I couldn't hear out of my left ear and it was filled with liquid. I went to a doctor on Broadway, who cleaned my ear with a vacuum of some sort, gave me some antibiotics and painkillers, and sent me on my way. After the pain pills were finished three days later, the premise was that I wouldn't need them anymore. That day, however, I was walking to work with pain in my left ear, worse than before. The Aleve I bought on the way didn't work. I tried to eat, and I couldn't even touch it. I was a mere two, three blocks from work when I couldn't take it anymore. I called my aunt from a payphone and waited for her right on the street, sitting down and holding my head in the heat. When I saw the doctor the next day (he was closed the day before), he says casually that my ear drum was ruptured. Oh, I wanted to strangle him. The hallucinations I had at night because of that pain were so horrible, almost worst than the pain itself. It did heal, and he did give me more painkillers, but... I actually thought jokingly to myself, hey, if I get another ear infection, I may get some sick days off work. I don't know if the day off is worth the hallucinations, though. That said... ganbare nippon. More on this if it pans out, I guess. The Past - Guestbook - The Future, Too |