it takes 2 to tango or jumped by da roaches

so i really haven't been doing much sight seeing the past few days, mostly just reconnecting with a childhood friend. my friend kristina whom i have known now for almost 20 yrs lives here in thailand, i think i've said this already but it is my blog so deal with it!!

yeah, so we've known each other for a long time, but it is so strange, we just decided that if we just met randomly now we would never be friends. we are like night and day, it is amazing that we can stand each others company, but somehow it works. she is off taking her lsat's right now and dreaming of law school and working with prision reform, while i am working at clearing my mind of everything i've ever known.
we have played it cool the past two days and been light in conversation so she is fully prepaired for her test, but after this it's on. we will do are favorite activity of drinking red wine, or home brewed thai whiskey, and talking shit...deep down dirty shit. we've started in the past few days but always cut it off. it is to heavy to talk about life, love, religion, spirituality, and the pursuit of fullfilment this close to a big test.

so in part of the relaxation process we went to get a massage together. the only time i ever recieved a massage was after a car accident, and those were short and not that often, so i didn't really know what to expect. then yesterday we went and had an hour hot oil massage. as i understand it this is different then traditional thai massage because it is more about making the muscles loose, and not about making the joints flexable. i've had neither so i was down for the expereince.

right. so when they say full body massage they are not kidding! they mean back, neck, shoulders, arms, butt, stomach, breasts. i think the only thing they didn't massage was basically my labia. yup you read it right. everything but the labia, even my crack got a little action, suprise! when they were massaging my ass i felt like i was really there for a wedgie removal, little on the ticklish side!i think i saw more action from theses thai ladies than i have in the past few months. i really felt like i needed to send her flowers or take her out for dinner after that massage.


kristina and i had to wear paper hats and paper panties and we were put in a room together divided by a curtain, i felt like we were going into surgery with only a blanket over me and the AC set to blizzard. i told her i thought we were really going to swap out kidneys or have babies together and they would be wheeling us out shortly. but no i was wrong, thank god. but because we were friends they threw back the curtain so we could share this naked, semi invasive experience with each other. nothing like seeing your childhood hood friend flat on her back in onlt a paper hat and pannies. i don't know what they though, that we could talk while we got massaged.

i thought my lady was going to kill me, she looked like a nice young grandmother with glasses and bright pink lipstick, but she was definitly no softy!
half an hour into it i didn't know if i liked it or wanted to go home i don't really think i had a choice at that moment so hung in there, in the end it was good. i found it really hard to take direction from a lady when we don't speak the same language so it was like what, turn over? what spread my legs wider? what are you trying to do to me?? kristina was there with some interpretation skills, but mostly i was left on my own. i think she wanted to protect me from the comments they were making about our bodies. the women were both really into my tattoos, and were not shy about pushing me around to get a better look at them.
my iron fisted grandma did however suprise me at the end as she was washing the oil of my body, she smiled so sweetly and grabbed my breast and said, "oh very nice little pink nipples" i was like, oh shit the broad does speak english. then she laughed and left the room. i had to double check with my partner in crime if i had heard right, oh yeah i did. she turned her head so as not to witness the gropping of the breast, but the words where there. oddly enough i fely quite please, perhaps a little violated, but more just shocked and amused at the situation.
it reminded me of one of those embarassing grandma stories when girls are just getting boobs. i never had one of those to share, but now i have this.


later that night we hung out at peace corps office and ordered in pizza and watched movies, i felt like i was in america. not that i'm missing america yet, but i'm down to do whatever on this trip.
the walk home was a different story. it was semi late, 10pm! goodbye jetlag, and there was heat lightning in the sky, something i kept stopping to watch and then having to run and catch up with kristina and emily, another volunteer. so as i'm running i am suddenly hit by what i think is a falling leaf. oh if only i had kept that preciouse thought in my mind...yes a beautiful hard brown leaf drifting on the wind during a storm of heat lightning. it's when the leaf hit my arm and stuck that i thought i might be in trouble.
i took my left hand to brush away at the "leaf" stuck to my upper right arm, and hit resistance. a hard segmented brown body was clinging to my arm. i hit harder and it was flung against a near by wall, all in a flutter. oh yeah big daddy cockroach coming to say hi. i didn't scream but was overwhelemed by what is commenly known as the heebe-jeebes. i looked at the fluttering roach on the wall and looked at the ground as another one darted for my foot. like a roach sixth sense they knew to come after me.
so i did a wild interpritive dance that anyone trying to conjure up spirits, or get rid of a roach attack would be proud of. of course i ran myself rather close to the street, and thought that by throwing myself in front of a tuk-tuk at least the fear and the heebee-jeebees would be gone. but my body reactions, that are much better than my mind reactions, stopped me from commiting such a foolish act, but i remained jumpy the rest of the way home.

so tonight i say good bye to bagkok for a couple of weeks. which is good. i've written a lot but not thought as much as i would like to. i feel myself unwinding, and know i'll be able to think soon. so far i am to busy, bangkok is to busy, and i love this kind of visual stimmulation. it shuts everything else out.

i am reading the alchemist over and over again and finding something new everytime i read it. i am making plans for the next few weeks, but i am working on being quiet, on being not planned out, working on being here with the people and the heat, and the smells(which are killing me!).
it is such an amazing place i am, and not just in a physical sense.

i am still promising pictures, because i already have a ton...just not the capability to upload them.

it is early yet today so i'm off to explore.