Today I still felt sick.  I tried to pack for the two months off.  Noi came and got me for lunch which was nice.  It’s too hot to be in my house and too hot to be outside.  The restaurant offered no relief – it was hot.  After lunch I finished packing and went to the coffee shop.  I met with Laura one more time before she takes off on sabbatical.   I stayed at the coffee shop until it closed because it’s the only place with air conditioning.  After I came home, I tried to do more of my turbotax when I looked up and saw a large head and eyeball looking down at me.  That is either the biggest gecko I’ve ever seen or a snake.  It’s head was about 2″ long and I couldn’t see a body. I’m not ok with either one hanging out in my kitchen above my head.  I called my next door neighbor over since it was sitting on top of the wall between our houses.  He couldn’t see it from his side so he came over.  “I’ve seen it before, maybe gecko, not dangerous”.  That was it.  It just stared down at me most of the rest of the night and then disappeared.  So, not much useful got done the rest of the night.  I didn’t feel like cooking, it’s hot so how do I sleep, and I tried to do stuff on the internet, but was quite preoccupied with the gecko on my wall.  So, the question of the day to ponder is why is this ok for other people and no big deal and why do I want it to be different.  How can I be one with everything if I can’t be one with this mystery housemate?  I think once I’m no longer sick, it will be better.

Today I woke up at some 0 dark 30 to the monks broadcasting the good word of the day or whatever that is that sometimes happens at way too early in the morning.  It was still dark out.  I feel like death.  I’m so sick and it’s hot.  I don’t care too much about the gecko anymore.  I just am ready to not be sick.  I get it, when I get sick, I ate too much sugar and need downtime.

I only had one class to teach today so I mostly sat at school with my computer open looking like I was doing something, but just zoning out.  I showed Pat a picture of the head and eyeball on the top of my wall and asked what it was.  She said it was a main power switch.  Then I said what about the thing sitting on the power switch.  She got all grossed out and passed my phone to one of the students.  Then within seconds there was thirty 14 year olds squeeling “tokay, tokay” while passing my phone around.  So, by unanimous squeeling vote, it’s a tokay, which is a large gecko.  Even though she was absolutely horrified by it, she told me that it’s normal and they aren’t dangerous.  If they chased it out, another would just come in.  So, the tokay stays.  He better start eating way more bugs.  If he eats the rat, I’ll give him a name.

By the end of the day my head feels like it might explode.  I have to do taxes and book hotels for my trip, finish packing and eat the food I have before it goes bad.  Instead, I decided to lock myself in the pretend safety of my bug netted bed.  The fan is in no way mistakable for cool, but better than no fan.  I’m going to watch Game of Thrones because I downloaded it on my computer and then try to sleep.  I think that is the perfect plan.  Now you all go look up tokay on google and sleep tight!

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore