bears

I very nearly went into a violent rage the other night. Or cried. Or both. Instead, I went into a quiet seething rage that exploded into frenzied bitching during break time. ARGH! If I hadn't already quit, I would have then. Yeah!

But no. I still drag myself in for those last few days. I'm milking the $80 a day udder as long as I possibly can. I mean, $80 - that can finance the drinking I plan on doing this weekend. Or another new black top (I only have like 6 so far; god knows I need more!). Or something else consumer-driven and American before I go back and resume my frugal lifestyle in a freezing flat with no modern conveniences. Peanut butter! $85 will buy a lot of peanut butter to fill that third suitcase I plan on bringing over..

Anyway, I'm so off track here. Work! Yeah. Sucky. I won't go into the details, because they are no doubt boring as hell to the uninitiated. Suffice it to say everyone takes advantage of me and screws me over. And I get stuck with the WORST partners EVER including bossy bitch, loud mouth trash whore bore, and Jesus freak. Actually, my one stroke of luck was NOT to be paired up with Jesus freak for the entire night, but she did seek me out when she heard I was leaving and gave me a 10-minute lecture about the Bible. Did I mention she is a bearded lady?

So they're all psychos, I suppose I should just accept this fact and move on. And even though they are psychos, and sometimes scary, tonight they showed they care. That's right. Tonight they threw me a surprise going away party! Awww. Yeah. The surprise was not the fact that they were throwing me a party - I didn't KNOW they would, but I suspected something was up - but that they threw it last night, which wasn't actually my last night of work. This wasn't a clever ruse to throw me off guard, mind. They just got confused. But no matter. It was the thought that counted. And now everyone in the entire building knows I'm leaving, so I should get lots of really awkward hugs when I actually do leave tonight/tomorrow. Like the one I got from my kinda supervisor who I hardly know. Ewww.

My Laotian friend - who I have kinda stopped considering my friend actually, and more like an annoying creepy guy - was especially upset. He'll miss my grand exit as it's his night off, so we said our goodbyes this morning. He shook my hand and slipped me his business card - which has the name of a film production company on top? What?

"I make movie!" he grinned.

Yeah. So on top of being a former commercial airline pilot, restaurant owner, quail farmer, magazine publisher, factory worker and postal employee, he also has a production company? He also told me recently that he will be cooking a big meal for his Scottish lawyer and 15 friends, on camera, to be broadcast on a public acess cooking show. He's optimistic that all this experience will prove invaluable when he returns to Laos to run for Senate next year. Hmmm.

Another guy, a Portugese mechanic whose name I just learned for the first time last night, wants me to send his kid a postcard, as he gets really excited about all things Scottish. Er. Ok.

I think I'm getting out just in time.

Chicago! This weekend! I can't wait! Get me outta heeeeere! I've already packed! I'll be reuniting with about 10 of my closest friends from my year abroad in Greece. Woo hoo! Hopefully I won't get too depressed with their normal grown-up lives. They're all married and buying houses and stuff. And they're not the only ones. I just learned that two more of my friends have up and gotten married in my absence! And another one is a well-to-do journalist in Iraq! Lordy! Another colleague has been promoted to arts editor at my old newspaper... and... yeah! What I could be doing now, if only I were more ambitious... or less restless... or... something.

Ah well. I guess I'll just have to settle for moving back abroad and fake marrying an Englishman/impending rockstar (ha! I just like saying that). Sigh.