Today was potentially the worst day ever, but I arose from it yet victorious.
My day started around 6 a.m. when Nick brought Jonas to me. We played with toys for a while, did some dancing to a Big Band CD, and he did an amazing thing. He grabed my pants leg and led me to the bathroom for me to unlock the door, then he waited for me to sit him on the toilet and he took a poop. What a cool kid! After that I put some training pants on him. I felt that earned a break from the diaper.
He is still in his pajama top in this one:

He brought me his shoes and socks to put on him. It wasn't my idea for him to put on shoes at like 6:30 A.M. He has alterior motives though. Everymorning, he tells me he hears the birds singing. Then he tells me he hears Baht sweeping. Baht is our landlord's gardener. He has to sweep leaves off of the driveway twice per day. Jonas really really likes to "help" Baht sweep the driveway. Basically, Jonas messes up his piles of leaves. So usually I end up sweeping with Baht, out of guilt.
Anyway, around 8 o'clock, I left the hosue on the Vespa to go to Lao class, which starts at 8:30. I had asked Nick to get me gas over the weekend, but he forgot. This morning I asked him about it and he looked in the tank and said "Oh, you have plenty to get to school and back!"
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I ran out of gas on the way to school. This wouldn't be a big deal, except I was in the middle of a village with no gas station in sight. The Vespa is really too heavy to "walk" it anywhere. So, I called Nick on my cell.
No answer.
I called about 5 more times.
No answer.
I called 2 different neighbors to see if they could go to our house and tell him to call me.
No answer.
I called Nick 3 or so more times.
No answer.
I called a friend who lived close by to where I ran out of gas.
No answer.
Finally I called one friend who ALWAYS answers her phone, no matter WHAT she is doing.
She did pick up but was in the process of giving a test to her students and couldn't leave. While we were on the phone a truck hit a guy on a motorbike about 10 feet away from me. The motorbike pinned the driver's leg to the ground and he just sat there for a few minutes, stunned I guess, but eventually he got up. I'm glad it wasn't any worse than that. It was so close to me that I had to move my bike a little further off the side of the road because I was in the way of people trying to drive around the wreck.
Anyway my friend said to call her back in 5 minutes if I couldn't find anyone to help me.
I finally decided to call one of my friends who is 8 months pregnant and has a 2 year old. I hesistated to call her for obvious reasons, but she agreed to come pick me up after she got her daughter dressed (it is about 9:15 by this point).
I waited and waited for her and when she finally arrived, she had already gotten 2 liters of gas for me. I poured it in and, thank goodness she was a mom because she gave me a lot of baby wipes to clean the gas and oil off of my hands and bike.
I got on the bike and tried to start it.
Nothing.
I tried to start it about 15 more times.
Nothing.
Finally, one of our friends who used to be a mechanic in Canada happened to be driving by and stopped to help me.
He started it after only 3 tries.
Then his wife showed up because she saw his jeep parked in front of a house of prostitution and wondered what her husband was doing there! (he had parked across the street from where I was and walked over). That was my favorite part of the whole episode.
I went on to school and made it there during the midpoint break.
There was a time when something like this might have reduced me to tears, but for some reason I was totally relaxed throughout the whole thing. I even had a book that I read while I was waiting for my friend.
I decided to photograph the rest of my day as an independant woman.

Lao Class:

After class, I went to go exercise for the second time since January.
My machines:

The view out the window while I am on the eliptical trainer: (it is a spirit house...they are all over the place here)

The "ball room" where I do my crunches, or make believe that I am in a gum machine:

My Lao homework:

It was a lucky thing that Nick DIDN'T answer his phone the 12 times I called (it ended up being in the bedroom, under his pillow, by the way) because it gave me time to not be mad at him anymore. By the time I got home I was in a good mood again.

Monday, Mar. 13, 2006 at 8:47 PM