I had 2 sets of plans in place for yesterday. The first was lunch with my childhood friend Lily and her hubbie Arnold, both of whom I hadn’t seen since their wedding in ’05. It just seemed like every time we tried to make plans for the past year they’ve been in Southern California, either my dad was in the hospital, or we were in San Simeon, or my dad was in the hospital again. So I was not about to cancel that. The second was dinner with my parents and maternal grandma for grandma’s birthday. It was already postponed from last week from my dad being in the hospital. I also was not going to postpone that again. So I didn’t tell any of them I was sick. Since I’d lost my voice yesterday, I text-messaged Lily to tell her we were on the way.

I broke the news to Lily and Arnold when they tried to hug me with “I wouldn’t hug me! I don’t know what I have!” The two doctors paused and shrank away from me. I felt like a leper, but they were so good about it the rest of the time through dim sum. I requested a spare pair of chopsticks to use as “community chopsticks” so I wouldn’t infect the food with the pair that I was using to feed myself, and Lily and Arnold shared a second pair of “community chopsticks.” After dim sum the four of us went back to Lily’s parents’ house in the affluent gated area of Diamond Bar, and Arnold set up the billiard table in the living room. “Do you shoot pool?” I asked Mr. W. He said, “A little. We played sometimes in the Marine Corps.” Arnold and Lily were apparently really good. Mr. W accepted the invitation to play against Arnold for a round, as Lily and I flipped through her professionally created wedding and engagement photo albums. It wasn’t long before we heard Arnold say, “I think [Mr. W] is hustling me.” We soon theorized through a brief period of observation that instead of protecting the country, Mr. W’s battalion had invested much time in goofing off.

After leaving Lily & Arnold, Mr. W and I met up with my parents at their house nearby. I was exhausted from being up most of the night before due to the tremendous throat pains. My hopes of sneaking a few z’s at my parents’ were quickly shattered as the construction activity of massive home remodeling going on indoors and outdoors of their house drove me and Mr. W back to my own house. There, Mr. W caught the pregame reports of the Superbowl on TV as I knocked out upstairs in bed. My mom called to check up on us, and then we were off to meet them for dinner.

Dinner was in a Chinese hot pot restaurant, but my grandma being the picky eater, wanted to order separate cooked dishes in lieu of hot pot (but insisted on doing so at a hot pot restaurant, which she chose). Oh well, it’s her birthday, what she says goes. The food was delicious, except when it came to the last dish, which is a delicacy — a cross-section of tender white fish simmering over tofu, with stir-fried ground soy beans covering the top of the plate. The fish is served on a metal tray set over contained flames so that it’s still cooking as it sits on your table. I took one bite and it felt like someone shoved sandpaper down my already-raw throat, rubbed it up and down my throat, and then sprayed chili-oil covered asbestos on the offended area. I gagged and choked and hacked so hard my inner ears stung, and sucked down 2 cups of tea to soothe my pissed off throat. I think it was largely due to that episode that my parents tried to take the bill from me when it came, cuz they felt bad I didn’t eat much (I ate till I was full). I was so offended, however, that they ended up giving the bill back to me. I have no idea what I looked like as I was surprised at my parents’ reaction. I just know that when they took the bill, I said hoarsely in the little voice I had that they shouldn’t do that because we’d already agreed that I was paying and they already gave my grandma a bday present and this was supposed to be MY bday present to her, and suddenly, they froze looking at me, said quietly to each other, “Daughter’s really mad!” and gave the bill tray back. It was under $100, anyway, not bad for 5 people.

I got my voice back this morning (altho a bit weak), but I am coughing more. The throat pain is more bearable, and the fever and body pains are pretty much gone. So my body, not to be outdone by a virus, saw to it that I got my period today. “She’s sick and in pain and hasn’t slept well in days, so let’s make her bleed, too!” *sigh*