the weak-end

The weekend is over, back to the old grind.  Breakfast, crafts, swimming, lunch, nap, tv, make dinner.  Wait a minute, that's not much of a grind, is it? 

Still and all, the past few days were crappy -- just in the middle of a let's-get-going-now mood.  I like KL but it's the same old 'hm, with no family or friends around, it's just not thaaat much fun sitting around getting tanned and chubby!'  Ji is a marvel, as always, of course.  And Phet is cheery and gettin' bidniss taken care of.  But I am ready to start working and get out of the house.  Am also not looking forward to Phet's upcoming trip to Cambodia, when he will be away for the 4-5 days before christmas.  And on other downish news, Kit and Nelson's nanny Cecylia is back home in Indonesia with her family for a month, so they are not entertaining us with big feasts like usual. 

Ah well, as Phet said, it's ONLY a couple of weeks.   

But last night was a truly wretched evening, and I think it was karmic retribution for my crappy mood...

10:00 pm - "Ji let's get our books and go to bed"  "Ok Mummah"

10:05 pm - "I want Pa to read me a book!"  "Ok."  "Pa, read me this book!"  "But it's in Vietnamese, Ji."  "Dat's okay, it's about a little guy who goes to the North Pole."  "But I can't read Vietnamese."  [me, from the bedroom] "Phet, just make it up by looking at the pictures!"  "Ok..."

10:14 pm - "...and that was the end of the story!  Good night, Ji."

10:30 pm - Two chapters of 'Emma's Emu' later, I say..."Ok, good night Ji!" "Goodnight."

11:00 pm - "Ji, stop wriggling in the bed!  I can't go to sleep!"

11:30 pm - "Ji, don't kick!  I'm going to the other room!"

11:32 pm -  Bzzzz zzzzz  Goddamn mosquito in the other room....ok, I'll go back to Ji.

11:45 pm - "Ji, if you can't sleep, go out into the living room with Pa.  I HAVE to go to bed!!"

12:00 am - Ji comes back to bed with Phet.

12:05 am - "Ji stop kicking the bed!  I'm going sleep on the couch!!" 12:15 am - Phet comes out of bedroom.  Ji is sleeping.  I go back to bed.  Ji wakes up again.

12:20 am - "Muuuuummmm, I need the Gold Bond!"  "Get your father, I'm sleeping."  "Paaaaa!  I need the Gold Bond, I got a mosquito bite!!!"  "Come here, Ji..."

12:30 am - "Muuuummm, I've got an ant on me!"  "So brush it off Ji, I'm sleeping!"

12:50 am - "Muuuummmm, there's another ant on me..."  "PHET I NEED TO SLEEP COME AND CHECK JI FOR ANTS!!!!"

1:00 am   - Bzzzz zzzz.  Itch, itch.  Scratch, scratch.  A mosquito is biting me.

1:02 am   - "Phet, is Ji getting bit by mosquitos?"  Lights on.  "Yup, he's got about 6 bites."  I get up and check.  There is a welty mosquito bite the diameter of a complimentary hotel soap on Ji's arm.  We start mosquito hunting.

1:03 am   - SMACK!  Yes!  I have killed a blood-laden mosquito and squished it on my pillow.  I flip the pillow over, bloodstain side-down.  Never before have I killed the mosquito so quickly!

1:05 am   - We continue to check for mosquitos, just in case, and Phet smushes two more in short order, leaving big blood circles on the bed sheets.  Shurely that is it?  We go back to bed.

1:30 am   - "Muuuummm, I got another mosquito bite!!!"  We wake up.  Again. Turn on the lights.  Yes, indeed, Ji has a doozy of a bite, straight in the middle of his forehead.  We hunt again...

2:00 am   - This mosquito is an evil devil straight from the swamps of hell.   We have sighted it on Ji's head, on my leg, on the patio glass doors, on the wall, on the bed, and on the curtains.  We have lunged and smacked a thousand times, to no avail.  I feel like I'm going to puke.  I hate that Phet has rented us an apartment without screen doors.  I don't think he really, truly loves us.  I beg for him to kill the mosquito.  "Please, just kill it."  I fall onto the bed, exhausted, unable to go on.

2:20 am  - I get a mosquito bite.  I open my eyes (the lights are STILL on).   The mosquito is beside me on the bed.  I squish it, leaving a black smear on the blue sheets.  I fall back asleep.

8:50 am  - Ji wakes up.  I go make some coffee... So, ok, ok, I get the point, I have to lighten up or else I'm going to suffer from Biblical plagues like that one.  Or worse, if that can be imagined.  So fine.  I'M HAPPY.  BUT TIRED.