So I took the day off from work today. March is an extra long month (31 days) and for my office it doesn't have any holidays. I felt sick this weekend and I didn't get anything done and I woke up still feeling sick...:| I had planned to work half a day but my coworker said today there wouldn't be a lot of work and suggested I take the whole day off. I decided I would try and get rested up fully.

It turned out to be a really good day. I used it to 'get my life back together again' - as in: pay my phone bill, spring clean my room, do laundry, etc. It felt sooooooo good... FACT: My job is tiring for me...and I always come home so tired in the evenings - and sometimes I feel like life never lets up, and then I get this feeling my life is falling apart - sometimes I really need a break. :P I would suggest the three-day weekend, once a month, or else the 4.5 day workweek, all month...:D

Sometimes one weekend doesn't seem to be enough time to get rested up. But taking one day of sick leave only in one month is pretty good for me...it means my health is getting a lot better. (!)

The weather is sooo hot...sometimes I don't know if I feel sick or it's just so hot I can't tell. :P

Oh - and I went grocery shopping for the first time in so long, today. I decided that I actually need to have stuff on hand to eat...sometimes I don't mind starving if I don't want to walk out to find something to eat, but I decided I need to eat more. (haha)

So this evening I had dinner at a small shop at the front of my soi. It's a "ran aharn tam sung" - food made to order restaurant, but they do have their own menu and it's pretty creative - they have the typical Thai 'food made to order dishes' like stir fry or omelettes, but with a creative twist: for example, I had tom yum with macaroni tonight...kind of like a Thai chicken-noodle soup. That was the first time I'd had it...it was actually pretty good. Besides fitting what I was in the mood for at the moment, I was pleasantly surprised that macaroni and shrimp tom yum could go together okay. I'm not a huge tom yum fan, like some people...I can eat it, but I'm not crazy about it...but I actually like it better with macaroni in it. :D

When you order 'food made to order' - usually you have three options with meat - chicken, pork, or shrimp (and some places have beef...but not so many, because most Chinese people don't eat beef)...I like shrimp best, then chicken, but not pork...and beef is okay. So tonight I picked shrimp..the funny thing about ordering shrimp is that if you order shrimp, you count how many they give you...you don't do that with chicken or pork. :D I didn't count, but some people do. :D

I was sitting in the restaurant and observing that the TV wasn't on, like usual...but tonight they had a small stereo set, and a CD of American romantic pop music going...which I thought was actually a pretty smart move for the restaurant - everything else was the same - the tile floor, the tables with plastic 'Pepsi' tablecloths, plastic chairs, etc - it is cleaner than most shops on the side of the street, but not spectacular...it has AC, which is cool (haha)...but with the music, rather than the TV going, the whole atmosphere changed. A cheap but effective improvement...the people eating seemed to exude a different aura - more peaceful, and relaxed. I recommend finding good music to turn on at your restaurant, or wherever you would like to create a good atmosphere. FACT: It's much better than kind of blankly staring at the TV over a meal. You focus more on the food and the people around you with good music...:D

So I guess this is pretty much the end of my day.

I'll gather the laundry from outside - whatever is dry...I think some will be; it was so hot today.

One thing that bugs me is that I've been so scatterbrained lately - about the people I want to keep up with, about the random random stuff people have asked me to do here and there, at work ...I can't seem to remember the stuff I need to do. I feel kind of disconnected...I think I'm just tired. The first few months at my new job were so stressful. Seriously. They were hiring other new (young) people my age...and these people had to work to keep themselves busy. I had to work just to stay on top of all I had to do. Just now it is slowing down...but that took a lot out of me. :P When life gets to be too much I guess sometimes you just zone out...

I don't like being forgetful. :P And I want to remember all the people I want to talk to...

Writing all this feels good though.