196 Books: Bolivia

American Visa by Juan de Recacoechea

Bolivia is in South America, here:

And summary, straight from the back of the book:

Armed with fake papers and a handful of gold nuggets, an unemployed schoolteacher sets out from a small town in Bolivia on a desperate quest for an American visa, his best hope for escaping his painful past and reuniting with his grown son in Miami. Mario Alvarez's dream of emigration takes a tragicomic twist on the rough streets of La Paz, Bolivia, as he embarks on a series of Kafkaesque adventures, crossing paths with a colorful cast of hustlers, social outcasts, and crooked politicians--and initiates a romance with a straight-shooting prostitute named Blanca. Spurred on by his detective fantasies and his own tribulations, he hatches a plan to rob a wealthy gold dealer, a decision that draws him into a web of high-society corruption but also brings him closer than ever to obtaining his illusive ticket to paradise. 

So, the summary for this book got me all hyped up but was a little misleading. It might have been my own fault though since I haven't read any Kafka so I wasn't prepared (I started to listen to an audio of The Metamorphosis but I think I only got a third of the way through). Then I saw how a couple of reviewers likened the main character to Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and I was like oh...yeah...that's why this wasn't exactly my favorite. 

I mean, this book was entertaining enough, and a very easy read. And being home with nasty face shingles has given me a good amount of time to sit down, relax, and escape in the book. I think part of the distaste I had is of my own making--I'm a bit of a snob. Maybe more than a bit. But you've got the main character who is basically constantly drunk, who's in his 40s and really has nothing to show for his life, and who creates a lot of his own problems. (Easy for the white, middle class girl to say) Then you've got a ton of prostitutes, vagabonds, beggars, and generally undesirable people. Plus it constantly talked about "half-breeds" which made me feel like it was slightly racist. Maybe that's just how they talk in Bolivia. I dunno. 

*SPOILER*
He never gets his visa. The last sentence of the summary, for some reason, I thought was going to be most of the book. I imagined that he'd get entangled in some shady ass ultra-rich people shit where they'd be like "hey, do this illegal stuff for us and we'll get you to America...also if you don't we'll kill you." Nope. The high-society stuff only came in roughly 200 pages in (give or take) and he really isn't drawn into any sort of web. The author did try to give it a happy ending, it just felt a little lukewarm, probably partly because I didn't love the main character. 

This was a pretty decent book. Apparently it was made into a movie that I don't think I would be very interested in, but cool. Sooo, yeah. Stuff and junk and onto the next. 

Shingles

Not the roof kind.

Welp, we're back on the down side of life. Eh, kind of, it could be a lot worse. But it's what happens when your body is a big old jackass.

This post is a little gross medically/bodily/facially. Read at your own risk.

I had Sunday to pull myself back together after the trip before getting back to work on Monday. No big deal, just tried to get some rest, unpack, and do laundry. About halfway through Monday I was absolutely exhausted, but I didn't think anything of it; it takes a bit to get back into office work after a vacation. On Tuesday and Wednesday I started having some pain in my ear. Still no biggie, I remember having a bit of a hard time trying to equalize it on the plane back so it must have been from that. Then I started getting some tingling in my cheek and chin. Whatever, I thought I was just breaking out. 

The first thing that seemed a little odd was that, where I expected I would break out a bit, I got kind of like welts. Hmm. Okay, they still looked kind of pimpley. I'm the sort of person who can't help but mess with blemishes, so of course I did that. That's when I got freaked out. *Grossness coming* There were some little whiteheads and when I poked at them, some skin just kind of peeled off. Every time I looked at them (and still now) they give me goosebumps because it's so disgusting. And there was also a larger welt thing at one of my temples that seemed weird. Since Humira takes a while to get into your system, I thought I was having a reaction to it. Cue my freak out to the worst possible scenario. If my body didn't like the meds it would be back to the drawing board on making my immune system be less douchey. 

To the doctor! I was very detailed and open about what was going on and she didn't waste much time saying it was shingles. Qu'est-ce que fuck?! SICK. I was so grossed out by myself. I ran back to the office to pick up my things and tell them I'm diseas-ed and repugnant. 

I've basically been lying on the couch all weekend...popping all sorts of (prescribed) pills, practicing every home remedy the internet could throw at me, and doing my best not to scratch my face off. 
I was a little worried about work since I don't get paid leave, and I'm the only one who does many of the office duties. Luckily my bosses (well, at least one of them) don't want me there while I'm contagious (which is basically the whole time till this runs its course...which could be weeks) and they want me to do some work from home. So maybe I'll get paid a little bit and my pride doesn't have to be subjected to the outside world while my face is festering. 

So now it's basically taking all of my willpower not to mutilate my face. But the good thing is I think I've had a decent ride as far as shingles go. I don't have a huge amount of pain or itchiness, at least not so bad I can't handle it. And poor Soldier is basically a saint. He's been so good about listening to me cry, getting things from the outside world, and even sleeping on the couch so he doesn't disturb me in bed. He's the bee's knees. 

Guys, here's the moral of the story: don't get an autoimmune disease. Cause you know what? It basically fucks up everything always. 
Oops, let me connect those dots. When your immune system is an overzealous asshole you have to take meds to calm that shit down. And now I've had to shut it down so much that it opens me up to getting down with the sickness. All the sickness. Being stuck in a giant metal germ tube (aka plane) for 6 hours doesn't help, of course. 

On the bright side, it's given me time to draw and listen to podcasts and watch lots of anime with Soldier. My latest favorite podcast is one called Nothing Rhymes with Murder. It's two British girls who "travel" to a different country each episode and each do a murder story, ending with cool places to visit there. But they're so lovely and funny and they also talk a lot about their lives and dealing with anxiety and such. I want to be best friends with them. Listen to it. Now. 

Well...that's what's going on with me now. A semi invalid again. 
Isn't it kind of odd? I've let you guys into aspects of my life for quite a while now...it's gone from dating and jackass guys to being married to my Lobster but continuing to change my worldview and deal with a chronic illness. Ya'll have been with me through a lot. I'm getting a little verklempt. 

Ok. Me and my gross face are going to bed. Sweet dreams, guys. 

Aloha

The Big Island

Yay, guys! We went to Hawaii! I'll tell you what we did, and I'll put some pictures up for you. Cause I'm a very nice lady. 

So to start, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to book a 5am flight. I think this was because it meant we we would get to Hawaii in the early evening. But I super didn't enjoy getting up at like 2. Solution? Get drunk in the airport. 
But we did get into Kona early and it was a b-e-a-utiful day. Soldier went to get the car and picked me up in a fancy red Mustang GT convertible. First stop? COSTCO! We were amazed at how big it is and excited to be able to get alcohol with the rest of our things. (The Juneau Costco is one of the smallest they have, and up here you can't buy booze with your groceries and stuff.) The drive over to Hilo was about two hours and it was raining over on that side. Oh well. 

Monday
It was still raining a lot the next morning, but we thought it might not be raining farther south. So off we went to Isaac Hale Beach Park. It's a spot known for surfing and the ocean was especially turnt-up, if you will. We watched the waves for a few minutes and then it started down-pouring. I had some hot springs on our itinerary next, but it was raining so hard we decided against it. 





We decided to check out the Volcano Winery. It was really, really good. We tasted some wines, bought some wines, and just went back to the hotel. It started to get nicer so we walked over to the Liliuokalani Gardens. And guess what? Down-pour again. We were absolutely soaked but we didn't care. We walked through to look at all the plants and all of a sudden...chickens! There were two chickens just chillin there. I was amused. That night we got sushi and a super yummy bottle of sake. Twas lovely.





<--Isaac Hale


Chickens!-->

Tuesday
This was our day to spend in Kona. We started off at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. It had some old grass huts and a bunch of old wooden statues and a great lava wall and I'm not awesome at descriptions. And we saw sea turtles! And these really pretty bright yellow fish. Afterwards we walked next door to Two Steps, where a lot of people snorkel. We didn't have any snorkeling gear and the water was a bit cold for me so we went in search of a beach to just lounge on. 


There we ate at a place called Foster's Kitchen which, if you find yourself in Kona, you should stop at. 








<--Statues
Sea turtles!-->




Wednesday
Today we stayed in Hilo. There's a farmer's market downtown that I wanted to check out, and we got a couple of nice prints. We had a burger for lunch and headed over to Mehana Brewing for a flight tasting. After a brief rest at the hotel we went to check out Richardson's Black Sand Beach. Still too cold for me to get in the water much, but it was very picturesque. Then it was off to the other end of town to see Rainbow Falls. 
We had dinner at a place called Pineapples that was so good we ate there the next day too.

 


<--Black sand beach
Rainbow Falls-->





Thursday
I was really excited for Volcanoes National Park today! It was rainy again so the views weren't the best, but I think it kept the crowds away. I finally drove the 'Stang too, down Chain of Craters Drive. We didn't stop to see all the craters, but there were places where it felt like some post-apocalyptic future where we were the only people left on the planet. It was eerie but really cool. Finally at the end we got to the Sea Arch and some crazy lava cliffs. I stood close to the edge at one point and kind of freaked out; I realized that the whole thing could collapse at any time and I would just be toast. It makes you think of how completely powerless we are against nature. We also got to walk through a lava tube. You couldn't see a whole lot and we had to walk through a big puddle, but it's neat that to know I've walked through lava! Plus since there weren't a ton of other tourists we got through everything pretty quick and didn't really have to wait in lines. Me likey.

 

Friday
We'd been staying in Hilo so far. Since we had a morning flight in Kona on Saturday, and the towns are about 2 hours away from each other, we decided we'd spend our last day and night in Kona. We found a beach near the hotel we were staying at and laid in the sun for a few hours. We wandered down the strip and had lunch and got some touristy shit. Soldier had noticed we had a great view from our room for the luau that night so we did get to see it, it would a lot of fun. I decided maybe I should just try and do that stuff for exercise...they had crazy leg muscles. There was even a fire dance at the end! I loved it. 

And that's it. We had a great time and got to do most of the stuff we wanted, plus a few extras. I'm so excited I got to see some sea turtles and spend some good beach time with my Soldier. He's still a keeper. 
Also, sorry I really effed up the pictures. I haven't done them in a long time so I really couldn't remember how to do it nicely. I'll do better next time. 

196 Books: Bhutan

The Hero with a Thousand Eyes, Karma Ura

That's Bhutan. I don't love this map, because it doesn't give you much of an idea of how big it is and stuff. But this is one of the few places where I've had a harder (okay I didn't have to put THAT much effort into it) time finding a good map. Shrug.

Description:
This novella is set in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan in the recent past. Nevertheless, it reflects an age and a set of manners-mostly set about the court and central administration-which is now almost completely changed. This is a book about a courtier, who represented a mode of life and living which had vanished overnight, and not about the kings he served, but the reader will find rich detail on all aspects of life in Bhutan. 
The plot is a relatively simple one. A reincarnation is born in central Bhutan with prospects of a quiet and uneventful religious life in a small but lively rural community. By happenstance, he is allowed to serve first at the court of the second King, and later in the wider administration of the country. He achieves high position. By the time of his voluntary retirement, Bhutan is already caught up in increasingly rapid economic, social, political, and cultural changes. 

It goes on a little more to praise the book, but that's probably enough.

This book...okay. I have to admit that I read a couple other reviews and they're tainting mine. On the other hand, they kind of took my feelings about the book and put them into words. This book was very blah. Though the summary says it's a novella, that's not really a good word for it. It's over 350 pages an doesn't have much of a story line. It's more of a report than a narrative.

I did keep having to remind myself that it mostly took place in the mid-1900s; it seemed more like the mid-1800s with no cars, no real financial system, and a strong kingdom heirarchy. So that was kind of interesting I guess. I also had no idea what was going on half the time. People's names seemed to change with their position in the government, and some of the stuff I tried to look up didn't have much of a description.

There's not a whole lot super likable about the main character/narrator: he gets promoted a bunch but doesn't seems to do the bare minimum in his job, breaks up a few marriages and then *whoops* has to marry the women himself (after divorces of course), and gets himself into financial difficulties which other people then take care of.

The narrator works in the government for over 40 years and has nothing but wonderful things to say about everything. Each king is wonderful and generous, they do nothing but advance and improve the country in strides, every civil servant is hardworking and earnest, everyone just wants the best for everyone else. I mean is a story even really a story without any conflict?

Meh.I did kind of rush to finish this so I could start the new one before we head to Hawaii. So excited! And you know you'll be hearing all about it. So...Aloha!

Better

Or something like it

It's been 3 weeks since I saw the new doc. He put me back on more steroids, which seem to be helping. I'm trying to get back into some yoga and light working out so I can feel like less of a blob for Hawaii. (Did I tell you all that we're visiting Hawaii soon? I'm pretty stoked for some sunshine and relaxation. BTW, if you have any good tips for the Big Island, please share.) 

I felt pretty sorry for myself for a while, and angry at the whole situation. I had to talk to so many different people for the new med...the hospital, med reps, nurse ambassador (who I'm pretty sure is Jane Lynch's sister or cousin or something), pharmacy reps, insurance people, and others that I don't even know what they do. It was lucky that we're in a later time zone so I could call them before work, but I got so burned out having to talk to all these people and getting so much information to try and keep straight. I mean I'm still trying to figure it all out.

Anyway I was supposed to get my meds just before Christmas. Luckily I had the day off already but Nurse Ambassador (henceforth known as NA) recommended being with someone just in case I had a reaction...so Soldier took some time off to be with me. We sat around and sat around and...nothing. I got pretty irritated. I thought maybe it was backed up with the holidays, and checked early in the morning, but nada. So, back to the phone. It turned out there was a late flight and it was stuck in Anchorage sooo long story short, I got it like 4 days late. Uh, thanks Alaska.
By the time it came in there was a bit of concern (mostly from me) that it had frozen in transit. There was supposed to be some sort of card or something that told me if it got out of the necessary temperature range, but they weren't there. Real cool. Honestly there was a point in all of this where I just had to kind of laugh, it was a bit of a comedy of errors.

So, the injection pen got to me, that was the big part. Thankfully Soldier was there...I wasn't at all worried about having a reaction, but I wanted to have him there for moral support. The more time I have to think (worry) about something, the more freaked out I get.
I got NA on the phone and got ready to stab myself. Really it might have been better if I had just done it rather than talking through it with her, but it's required for her job...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'll cut to the chase. If you've ever seen an EPI pen, that's pretty much what mine looks like. It's spring loaded and just sends the meds right in there. I underestimated it though; the needle is so small that I really didn't expect to feel it a whole lot. Oh also with my swollen and sore hands it was kind of hard to even push the button. That doesn't really add much to it, just that it took longer to even get the injection in since my hands hurt so much.

I finally hit the button. It hurt. It startled me. I pulled the pen away. The needle came out. The meds started spraying on me. Soldier and I gave each other a deer-in-the-headlights look. I closed the pen back over the injection site so some of it might soak in. (I don't know if it works that way at all, but it seemed like a fair idea at the time). We laughed about it afterward.

I do think I got at least a teensy bit of the medicine, and now I know what to expect. On the bad side, I have a small ugly bruise on my tum. I'm guessing I'll get one every time, so that's fun.

I think I'm almost back to being able to wear my rings. As silly as it is, that's been one of the biggest issues for me. I know you're all interested, so I'll be sure to keep you in the loop if anything changes!

Till then, I hope you all have a happy New Year and that your 2018 is magical!

196 Books: Benin

Why Monkeys Live in Trees by Raouf Mama

Benin is another smaller country, this time in Africa:

Summmmarrrry:

This is a book for both young and old lovers of folklore. Why Monkeys Live in Trees and Other Stories from Benin is a rich tapestry of oral tales that come from a wide range of Beninese ethnic groups. They include trickster tales and sacred tales involving the greatest and meanest of mankind, as well as nature and the world of spirits. These ageless tales remind us of the power of love, the perils of greed and pride, and the redemptive virtues of courage, humility, and kindness.

The Western African Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey) is gifted with a great folktale tradition, one of the richest in the world. As pieces of oral literature and cultural history, these tales shed light on some of the values and beliefs as well as the customs and traditions of the people of Benin.

So one thing I forgot to mention in my last book post (I think) is that, coming across smaller countries, I don't have nearly as much choice in books. So I might have to go with one that wasn't written by a native of that country, or something that doesn't really sound super interesting. That's how I came across the short stories for the last two books. 

The difference? I loved these! They were more like fables or parables than just short stories. Wait, are fables and parables interchangeable? Hmm...not exactly, but apparently this book had both of them. 
Anyway they were super cute and, even though you don't get to "know" the characters so much, they had lessons at the end so it made it worth it for me. And the drawings were absolutely beautiful. 

Um...I know my "reviews" for these ones are really short, but how do you really go over a bunch of short stories? I don't know, so I won't try. On to the next!

Stabby Stab Stab

Forced masochism

I returned from Seattle today. It was...tiring. Mom met me out there because I'm spoiled, but it was so helpful for me to have her there. 

She got to the airport a few minutes before I did, so she was waiting for me at baggage claim. We checked into our hotel and set off to eat. We settled on a place that served Middle Eastern street food and yummmm. After eating we wandered around, found some shops to revisit in the morning, and grabbed a bottle of wine to sit and chat and watch terrible cable with. Honestly, why does cable still exist? It's terrible, most of the shows are terrible, and (worst of all) half of the "show" is commercials. It's bullshit. 

Next morning we went to a place called Biscuit Bitch that only served different types of biscuits and gravy. Not my favorite type of breakfast, but it was decent and the place was fun. Next we did some shopping and I woke up in a Sephora (so many bonus points to you if you get that reference). 

Then it was off to the hospital. Checked in and waited and worried. Saw the CMA who was really nice and took care of the basics. Waited some more. In came the doctor. He was thorough and very nice from the get-go, starting off with asking me to explain what happened when I got sick (which somehow hadn't made it with my other records). Next he checked my knees, ankles, feet, elbows, wrists, fingers (all of which have been giving me trouble in the past few weeks); he checked for psoriasis and issues in my back and other joints. 
He assured me that, though I am a very sick person, he knew how to treat me. That was good news. But there was a catch: it means giving myself an injection every two weeks for the rest of my life. 
It just occurred to me that I really shouldn't feel bad for myself, lots of people have to do it. But I hate it. I hate having this thing that takes over my body and is ruining it. Anyway. 

He told me how he wanted to treat the problem, and then everything went super fast. My head is still spinning. He explained some things to me, then the CMA came back in. Set up another appointment for me and worked on some insurance stuff. Next was the nurse. She went over how to do the injection and some of the medication stuff. She kept apologizing because all of that would normally have been in a second appointment but they were kind of tied with me not being local. Then it was off for blood work. 

The whole thing took 2 hours, which is the longest I've had with one appointment before. In a way it was good, because they made me feel like they were really taking care of me, and they stressed multiple times that I'm not alone; there's a team behind me that's available at any time for any question. It was very reassuring and a bit validating for him to say that I was am quite sick (and that the doctor here didn't give me enough steroids). But it was a whoooole lot at once. I'm really still trying to debrief myself and remember everything I need to do. I actually woke up in the middle of the night last night panicking about some phone call I need to make or some step in the process that I need to take care of.  

After the appointment we wandered a bit (have I mentioned how much I love walking around cities?!) and did some more shopping. Dinner at a brewery and another bottle of wine to go back for talking and bad cable. 

And this morning we left. I was (still am) exhausted, mentally drained, sleep deprived, and feeling sorry for myself. But when I landed I had to stop to pick up my steroids and get a flu shot. It did perk me up a bit to get home and see my Soldier. But it's still a lot. The worst part? Because of my fingers swelling I can't wear my engagement and wedding rings. Sentimental and silly, possibly, but I guess I'm in a good position if that's the worst of it.