prepping for margarita night

I have been absolutely wiped out this week, and for no good reason I can find. I totally busted walking down the stairs behind our guardhouse on Wednesday, and even though my whole left side hurts there's not yet a wicked-awesome bruise to show my pain. (I think I may have mentioned how most Chinese walking surfaces are non-porous, so water sits on top, not to mention leaves and algae, in this case.) We found out Monday that we were getting our health check on Wednesday morning--if we've left the country, we have to get one to renew our residence visas--and we had to cough up 400 yuan for it. Yeah, we just got paid last Friday, but I didn't think to budget for that. Good thing I'm tutoring every week! At least that day we also got to sign the primary contract for next year, and I got the raise I asked for--yeah! On Thursday, I discovered mouse droppings in the kitchen, much to my dismay. I'll be the first to admit that I'm horribly lazy when it comes to dishes, and I had definitely let it go way too far, so I was hoping that once I cleaned the dishes and countertops that the mouse would leave. My hopes were shot when I was woken at 3:11 a.m. on Friday by a mouse trying to CLIMB ON MY BED. We didn't have mice problems at home in L.R., just one time that I can remember and it was funny that time, because it was me plus my mom and our cat and dog playing with/not caring about the live mouse "terrorizing" our kitchen. Living on your own and dealing with pests is a whole new ballgame. I let our FAO liasion know, but she was not helpful at all (I expected as much) so I bought a cheap sticky trap at Wally World. Last night, not even late, I heard the mouse in the kitchen behind the fridge; I creeped in and turned the light on, and it poked its head halfway out before seeing me and hiding. I tried to gas it out with bug spray, but it ran behind the sanitizer and started to scurry up the appliance cords. I put the trap by the fridge, where I had seen the mouse, and shut the kitchen door for the night. When I went in this morning, I found the poor thing in the trap, trying every few seconds to peel itself off. My attempts to put it out of its misery were hopelessly clumsy, so I really hope it was the only one--if they didn't poop everywhere and wake me up, I wouldn't care so much.

Anyway, I think in one of my last few posts I mis-calculated the number of weeks until I was done teaching, which is actually currently one and a half. Amy is skipping out early and having another teacher cover her last few days so she can travel with her brother, and since next Saturday she is leaving to meet him, we are having one of probably a few final shindigs. I even stopped at the bakery to pick up a little surprise!

"I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited but I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it

I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded that for me, it isn't over"