8:00. Time to rise and shine. I didn't feel very shiny, though I'm sure the beads of sweat dotting my brow added a bit of a sheen. I still felt miserable, unable to get rid of whatever disease I've picked up. I wanted to lay in bed but duty called, so I got myself ready and headed in to the gallery.
Just a little while later, my associate Jeska arrived. She took one look at me and said I looked terrible, that it was very obvious I was not well. She suggested I try to find one of the on-call staff to come in and cover my shift for me.
This whole idea seemed foreign to me. I've been brainwashed by the bottom-line-first corporate world I've recently left behind. The casinos didn't care if you were sick. They just wanted you at the table pitching cards. If you keeled over, they would just roll your body out of the way and have another dealer step in to keep the game going. Having a supervisor express genuine concern over your health was rare unless, of course, your health was making it so the company wasn't earning money. Then, it was an issue.
I started making calls. The first call went straight to voicemail. No help there. The girl who answered the second call was as sick as I was. Still no help. The third call, to one of the artists we represent who also moonlights at the gallery occasionally, said she would be there in an hour. Jeska was happy and strongly suggested I go home and take care of myself.
Devon, the girl covering my shift for the day, arrived right when she said she would. Her and Jeska spent some time telling me about their favorite cure-alls and home remedies. Both talked up the healing properties of a certain thai soup. That made me remember the small pad thai place at Wharf Cinema Center, conveniently next to the bus stop.
Bus stop, you ask? Yes, I normally walk when I work at the Lahaina gallery but I felt too miserable to tackle that journey today and I took the bus instead. I would be taking it home as well. First, I needed some pad thai to hopefully make me feel better!
I checked the bus schedule to make sure I had enough time and then searched out my lunch spot. A small hole in the wall with one really nice (I know, imagine that) lady who might have been the owner, and me. Small and out of the way, this was my kind of place. I knew lunch was going to be good. The lady working the counter helped me box up my leftovers to take home and even complimented me on knowing how to eat pad thai properly.
I rode the bus to the post office and walked the two blocks back to the condo. Two blocks felt like two miles and I was completely exhausted by the time I got home. I hate being sick, regardless of where I am, but it seems especially evil circumstances to be sick in such a beautiful place. It's just not fair.
Back at home, I lounged on the slowly leaking air bed. I started Freaks & Geeks and watched TV while following along with The Hubby as he tried to win some extra money playing the ponies at Hoosier Park.
The highlight of the day came late. A chime alerted me to an incoming email message. Opening it up, I saw that it was a shipping notification. My bed shipped and should arrive next Friday. I can finally stop sleeping on this air bed and start enjoying my (hopefully) comfortable new mattress!
Aloha!
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