Pablo and Marga made an enormous chop-suey and also passionfruit juice. I arranged flowers. All the employees and their children come, and the children go swimming in the pool while the adults hover around the living room in silence and occasion gossip that I can't understand. After lunch, we exchange presents. It turns out, Kenny has to give me a present, which is funny because I'm sure he resented having anything to do with me, let alone something nice. "This present is for someone who has started working here recently. And even though we have already had lots of problems, I still like you, so this is for you." It is a reversible Roxy brand bag, bright blue, which is my favorite color. I thank him graciously.
From Marga, Kenny gets a huge bottle of aged rum. When I call Cato, our favorite driver, to bring me home, he brings me back to his house because there's a party. Kenny, Pablo, Marjorie, and Jorge, Yolanda's father, are swilling back rum and cokes while Pablo plays the guitar. "It's my anniversary! I have been at Amatierra for one year as of today! Tonight's gonna be a party! We're going to get hammered! Here, Rachel, have a drink!" Oh, Kenny.
Pablo and I bust out some pretty great renditions of "Free Falling" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and then Kenny and I do an a capella of "Mercedes Benz". Then we go next door to Coco Bongo, the bar, and everyone dances and Kenny buys everyone drinks. He apologizes to me for being so nasty and even catches me by my dress when I start to fall off the dancing platform mid-Cumbia. What a gentleman.
I spend the next day organizing Jill's storage cabinet (because throwing things away and organizing things is what I do best) and nursing a hangover. What I have learned is that the hangover is a degenerative condition. Instead of getting better over the course of the day, as I might have expected, the opposite seems to occur: I wake up and think, "wow, thank God I've magically escaped a hangover!" A few hours later, I think, "wow, I do not feel like myself. I am more tired than usual, and everything is difficult and painful." And then by dinner time, the entire world becomes unbearably aggressive to my peace of mind and I want to go to bed so badly I could cry.
Today I realized that my hangover has blended seamlessly with my getting sick. Today was like being hung over again, and it also continued to get worse. Then I took a nap and had cold sweats and could barely wake up. So I have spent the rest of the day watching movies and eating Kraft mac and cheese. And updating my blog. I have several bottles of Chinese herbal supplements that Jill muscle tested me for (what's that?). Which is about the coolest thing ever. I will get better soon, I think. I'm good at being sick, because resting is fun, at least at first.
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