an unproductive week

You might have thought from the lack of blog posts around here that perhaps I was really busy. In reality, I spent most of the week in bed. I wasn't majorly sick or anything (and I did make it to both of my in-person classes and was able to keep up with my work online), just headachy, achy, and malaise-y. The headache was actually gone yesterday... but it reappeared this evening. No, this isn't anything new - it's something I've been dealing with most of my life. Yay, chronic headaches. 

So short story long, I did very little that could be deemed blog-worthy this week. That being said, I've been slowly adding more to The Inhumane Society. I've posted the first 45 of the 70 pages I've written so far. Check it out! I can't promise it will be a pleasant read, but it is, at least, interesting...

Mostly a good day. Not all, but mostly.

Today was mostly a good day. If I hadn't realized at about 9pm that I'd neglected to check the mail, I'd have gone to bed feeling content, instead pacing around my house ranting crankily.

I had a really nice lunch with T, a friend of mine from undergrad (who already has his PhD and is teaching - albeit in a different department from mine at the university I'll be attending as of Monday). I hadn't actually spoken to him (other than facebook) since graduation in 2001 (god, we're old), so it was really nice to catch up.

Now, do you recall my obsession with the Daewoo Matiz / Chevy Spark? Well, it is finally going on sale here in the US and I so very much want one. I'm a tad hindered by the fact that my income is teeny-tiny, so I shan't be buying one any time soon. That being said... the Chevy dealer down the road from my house is having a drawing to give away a free, lime green Chevy Spark. I totally went down to the dealer after lunch this afternoon and registered. The free car is probably an automatic, but if I were to get a free car, I wouldn't quibble. Here's hoping I win!

And here's hoping all that tacky shite comes off the poor thing.
After registering to win the car, I drove over to Winter Park to check out the Lacomka Bakery and Deli - a Russian deli, grocery, and restaurant. I was specifically on a quest for chechil (чечил), but unfortunately they don't carry it :( They did, however, have suluguni (сулугуни), a delicious Georgian cheese, so I came away happy, even if they didn't have what I wanted. I'll need to go in sometime when I haven't just eaten lunch to check out their restaurant.
Now... remember back in June when Mama Cat thought Mochi was attacking her, and accidentally sliced open my face as a result, requiring me to get four stitches? Just four. Only four. Yeah. Well in July I got a bill for $650. I thought $160/stitch was a tad steep, but my mom paid the bill for me... Then tonight I went out to check the mail and discovered a bill for $1177!! You know, in addition to the previous $650. We're now up to $450/stitch which is completely ridiculous. Not to mention something I can't exactly afford to pay. Despite my part time jobs, that amounts to a good tenth of my annual salary. What the hell?

healin' up and heatin' up

The cat mutilation of my face has healed up quite nicely - with makeup and lipstick on you can hardly see it at all. It's a bit more noticeable without makeup and lipstick (inset). Unfortunately, given the temperature (see below) I'm pretty much sweating off makeup the instant I go outside, so I'm looking a bit more like the inset than the photo above. Still, it seems pretty unlikely that I'll get to go through the rest of my life shocking people with tales of how I got knifed in a bar fight. Or of how my face got slashed open by a cat while I slept.

Kyrgyzify your snack time!

One of my favorite things to eat is something I refer to as either "beer cheese" or "chechil" - a smoked, salted cheese popular for consumption with booze in the former Soviet Union (like peanuts in the US). I posted something the other day on facebook about how I really wished I had some chechil, and one of my former students from Kyrgyzstan responded that she was coming to the US, and she would bring some, and mail it once she got here. A week later, I had six packets of chechil; I'm now down to three and a half :-)

There was a period of time in Kyrgyzstan where I ate mostly chechil and twix, and drank mostly tan. Today I treated myself to my favorite Kyrgyz snack:

And in case you're wondering, the cat scratch is healing up nicely:

Healing, Solutions, and Cute Charlie Pix

Yeah, that's gonna make a sexy scar. Sigh.
And insanely enough stitches come out on MONDAY. As in tomorrow.
Mama Cat no longer gets to sleep on the bed when I'm sleeping. Instead, I shut her up in the crate to prevent a repeat of the incident that led to me having four stitches in my face. I was worried about how she'd react to that, but as you can see, she goes in there all on her own.
And now: cute pictures of Charlie

Ouch! That sucked.

So you remember how Mama Cat was staying at my house both before her spay surgery and afterwards for recovery? Well, last night was supposed to be her last night at my house. She had been sleeping next to my pillow; Mochi and Charlie were sleeping together at the foot of my bed. Every morning, as soon as I'm awake, Mochi leaps onto my chest, like he's just so overjoyed that I'm awake. He did that this morning at 8am, right after I'd turned my alarm off. Mama Cat, being right next to my head and all, thought she was under attack. Her response was to lash out with her razor sharp claws. She missed Mochi and snagged my lip. If it had caught me pretty much anywhere else, it wouldn't have been too bad, but my lip? Her claw sliced right through it like a hot knife through butter, and blood exploded all over my bed. I staggered to the bathroom, and saw that there was a gaping hole from just above my upper lip, all the way through to the bottom of it. Blood was going everywhere. I called my mom and asked her to come pick me up and take me to the ER. Then I passed out. A couple of times. (I'm definitely not someone who could get shot or stabbed and keep on fighting!)

Luckily (?) this happened fairly early, so the ER was not crowded. There were only two people in there ahead of me when I arrived, although by the time I left the lobby was packed. Even so it four hours to get in and out. Sigh.

Sitting in the ER waiting for stitches, taken with my cell phone.

Four stitches later...
And, as it was an injury caused by an animal (even though it was my animal, not a bite, and an accident), the hospital had to report it to both Animal Control and the Health Department. I have to keep Mama Cat at my house until after they can "investigate." Mama Cat is a sweetheart, but she's spending the night in her crate until she can go back out to the land.

gross, gross, gross.

I've been having really horrific headaches recently. I've had headaches my entire life, but this has been worse than usual. I'd been thinking possible causes were stress or the absurdly dry Seoul winter air. They actually got worse when I finally turned on the floor heat and started sleeping on the floor - which I thought was kind of odd, as normally I feel *better* when I sleep on the floor (my back adores the hard floor; soft mattresses are the enemy).

Today I noticed a small black patch on the wall, coming up from behind the headboard of my bed. I scooted the bed away from the wall and was immediately disgusted by the nasty mold growing all over the wall. In a panic I moved my bookshelf and wardrobe away from their respective walls, and the grossed-out feeling continued. My apartment had apparently become a prime greenhouse for not just onions, but various varieties of mold.

The walls in this place sweat when it's cold outside and the heat's on inside. The walls are made of concrete, covered with wallpaper on the inside. Where headboards, bookcases, and wardrobes press against it, mold apparently multiplied like mad.

Left: back of bookshelfRight: behind the bed

Left: back of wardrobeRight: behind the wardrobe
Now my apartment is mold-free and reeking of cleaning products. Let's hope it stays gone for the next 70 days (and now that I'm aware that this occurs, I've moved the bed, bookcase and wardrobe so they don't directly touch the walls, and I will be checking behind them regularly). I really hope this has been the cause of my headaches, as it would be nice for them to actually go away for 2012. Also, in case you didn't catch that... Charlie and I are leaving Korea in 70 days!

headaches, shabu-shabu, and hello kitty

Somehow - miracle of miracles in this workaholic country - I managed to finagle a four-day holiday weekend out of my employer. I'm planning on spending Saturday and Sunday down in Daegu with G and her family, and planned to spend both today and Monday relaxing and puttering about Seoul.

Late Thursday afternoon, I started to get a headache. This is nothing new - I've had problems with headaches my entire life. Within an hour of returning home after work, it had evolved into a full-blown migraine. This isn't anything too surprising either, although I no longer get migraines nearly as often as I used to. During my late teens and early twenties, I used to get one or two a month. Now it's more like one or two a year - far preferable, except for when one comes pounding into my head at the start of my minuscule vacation. After a miserable night, the migraine sauntered off in the morning, leaving it's relative the Very Bad Headache in its place. The Very Bad Headach apparently decided that my head was a pretty awesome place to chill, and it stuck around until early evening, when it passed off the duty of torturing Anonymity to its friend Minor Headache. Yep, over 24 hours later and I am still headachy. I've consumed an unhealthy amount of OTC pain relievers in the hope that something would rid me of this nastiness, but to no particular avail. I'm hoping that Minor Headache will have skeedaddled by the time I get around to boarding the train for Daegu tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

I'd planned to meet my friend S for a late lunch on Saturday (S is a high school buddy of mine who just so happens to be stationed in Korea with the USAF). Well, I did meet up with him, although I suspect I was *not* the most companionable of companions, as I'd brought the Very Bad Headache along with me. S and I decided to go to the Fresh Shabu Dining restaurant in Hongdae, where we'd been before and where we knew the food was super-awesome. Headache or no headache, a girl needs to eat. I'm a huge fan of shabu-shabu, a Japanese dish involving veggies, mushrooms, noodles, and thin slices of meat boiled into a tasty stew at your table. This restaurant offers a bit of a twist on the traditional shabu-shabu goodness. You can choose two different soup broths and cook two different soups at the same time in a dual-partition yin-yang shaped pot:

The two broths

Veggies and mushrooms added

And lastly, with the meat added
This stuff is absolutely wonderful, and it certainly perked me up, even if it didn't drive the headache away. 
After lunch, I wasn't really up for doing much of anything, so S and I went to the Hello Kitty Cafe. It's very, very, very pepto-pink inside and full of Hello Kitty knick-knacks, products, and decor. We got some coffee and enjoyed the bizarre ambiance and squealing girls taking copious photos of themselves in front of various Hello Kitty displays until my head couldn't really take it any more. (FYI - they won't take your order until you've placed your shit on a table and staked claim to your space. Unfortunately, we didn't discover this until we stood in line for 10 minutes to order only to have the cashier eye our winter coats and bags then point disinterestedly at a small sign on the cash register saying that we needed to do so. Oi.)

Some things from the US that bother me.

I wish my mom kept a blog, because so much of what goes on in her life would make for interesting reading. (I mean, just imagine if you could have followed the Deliverance Drama from the very beginning!) But, as my mother is not a blogger, I'll just have to share info on her behalf. I hope she doesn't mind.

My mother lives in the USA. She is a US citizen. The current year is 2011.

Four years ago, my mother brought eight acres of land in the country, just outside of the small town where she lives. Her plan was to put some of it into pasture, get some horses, and eventually move a house out there. She has certainly done all of this: horses? check! house? check! There's just one minor thing that hasn't yet been taken care of: There's no electricity out at her land.

Now, I've always known that people must pay their electric bills, or else their electricity would be turned off. What I didn't realize was how much money one would have to spend to obtain electricity if there wasn't already a power-line running past one's property. Perhaps I'm just foolish and naive, but I had honestly thought that in the USA in our modern era, everyone had the right to electricity, so long as they paid their monthly bills. Well, everyone does have the right... as long as one can personally shell out the funds to build the infrastructure.

My mom's land is located on an un-named private access road. (I use the term "road" loosely, as it's more of an un-maintained dirt track, part of which floods when it rains. I have literally taken a kayak down part of her "road" in the past.) The nearest electric powerline is located less than half a mile from her property. There are two power companies in her general part of the country, although only one operates in her specific location. Both companies told my mother that she would be responsible for all the costs of installing a powerline to her location.
The first company (which later turned out to not be the company she needed) estimated that it would cost $10,000. The other company, luckily, said they could do it for just over half that. Still, $5000 is a lot of cash. Both companies told my mother that the money had to be paid up front; she couldn't do it in monthly installments. Both companies also said that if someone decided to move in to any of the properties along the new powerline after my mother paid to have it installed, they (the new residents) could use the powerline at no cost (other than monthly utility payments). My mother was rather upset by the thought that she could shell out over $5000 for electrification, and that someone else could move in and use "her" powerline without having to share the cost.
As such, my mom decided to wait. Perhaps someone else would decide to move out there, and they could split the cost of electrification. So, the land sat with no electricity.


In order for the horses and cats to have drinking water,
my mother had a well drilled, and a hand-pump installed.
It's been four years. No one else has moved out there. Most of the neighboring property owners have been foreclosed upon. And my mother just had a house moved out there. Finally my mom decided that it was time to bite the bullet and get the place electrified.
Just fork over a little more than $5k to the electric company, and everything will be taken care of, right? Alas, no. Before she can even do that, her "road" needs a name. For a place to get electricity, it has to have a mailing address, not just a plat number. In order to get a mailing address, one must be located on a named road. And in order to officially name one's private access road, one must pay $200 to the county.
Sigh. End rant #1. Begin rant #2.
I take two different medications every day. They're kind of hard to come by here in South Korea, so I'd been having my mom send them to me from the US. (Well, I get the expensive one from Canada; the other's on the cheap meds list at Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, etc.) There haven't been any problems with getting the one drug from Canada. However, there have been some shortages of one I've been getting from pharmacies in the US. (And because it's on the cheap meds lists at US pharmacies, it's actually more expensive to get it from Canada.)
It took several weeks before my prescription medication was available. The thing is, this isn't some rare, hard-to-come-by drug. In fact, it's pretty commonly prescribed for a bunch of different things. And yet there are shortages. (As a result of all this, I'll be checking out the International Clinic in Itaewon to see if I can get my meds from there.)
Today I heard from my mother that there is a shortage of one of the medications that she takes on a daily basis. Again, this is a commonly prescribed drug. And it's not just my mother's pharmacy of choice in her small community that's having these problems. It's nationwide. Here are just a handful of the articles I found on this topic. Apparently a lot of the drugs that are in short supply are the ones that are cheaper. The ones that are sold on the 'cheap meds' lists at places like Wal-Mart. Yeah. Welcome to the USA in 2011.
Prescription Drug Shortages Threaten Patient CareGrowing Shortage of Some Rx DrugsWhat's behind prescription drug shortages?Hospital Drug Shortages Present Costly Crisis

spay day!

I took Charlie to the vet this morning to get spayed. Somehow - with that sixth sense pets have - she must've known we were going to the vet. Instead of sitting in my lap, purring, while I drank my morning coffee, she hid under the bed. In the end I had to chase her out from under the bed with a broom. I felt absolutely terrible about having to do so. When I brought her home from the vet, she ran under the bed and hid. She was still hiding under the bed glaring at me when I got home for work, but as I was typing this, she came out and sat my my feet for a little while. I think I've been forgiven :-)

While Charlie was at the vet (on the 4th floor of Lotte Plaza in Yulha-dong), I decided that if she could undergo major surgery, I could buck up and go get my teeth cleaned. And as there is a dentist located on the 3rd floor of Lotte Plaza, it seemed like a good idea. I've had a bit of a dentist phobia for years following a bad dental experience in the US, and it's taken me a while to work up the nerve to go. But I'm glad I went. I got my teeth cleaned, two cavities detected (boo - I'll get them fixed next month), and had the abraded enamel on my front teeth patched.

Between the vet and the dentist, it was an expensive morning - but worth it all around, I think!

back exercises (baxercises?)

Between emails, facebook comments and messages, conversations, and internet research, I've come up with several more exercises and stretches for my back, which seem to be having a positive effect. At the very least, I'm not in the state of misery I was all weekend. The suggestion that it might be my upper trapezius and/or rhomboid presents a likely cause of my problems. This picture shows the muscles that I swear I have been feeling for weeks.

For those who might be interested in stretching, the Mayo Clinic has a nice set of back exercises here, although I'd been doing most of them for weeks. Oddly enough, the exercises below - specifically number 5 - while simple, really seem to have made a difference. I found them on ideafit.com. I suspect that my students might be wondering about my tendency to do #5 in class.

And I'm going to see about going to an orthopedist later this week.

mapping the pain

I've had back pain on and off for years. It usually centers around my left shoulder blade. Sometimes it works its way down along the left side of my spine. Other times it creeps up my neck. On really bad days it crawls up into my skull and gives me a killer headache. Normally this nonsense lasts for about two or three days. I plaster myself with sticky pas (medicated pain patches) and take a lot of naproxen, and the pain goes away. Unfortunately, a side effect of growing older seems to be that the life expectancy of my back/shoulder pain has increased from a few days to several weeks. Needless to say, this ridiculousness is growing nigh intolerable.



I'm really not a big fan of going to see doctors, and I've been trying to deal with this via stretching and relaxation, pas, and naproxen. However, at this point it seems I'm going to have to give in and see a doctor. Not at all looking forward to that, but it would be nice to not ache all the time. I'll keep you posted.