lauren in japan

There's a new ramen shop in Hakata named The Noodle of Prejudice. My favorite co-worker (the only one I've been able to tolerate as of late -- I don't know what it is but either I need to become less irritable or they need to KNOCK IT OFF -- seriously, anything they're doing, they just need to stop it and become less annoying*) and I debated on whether the namesake implied that:

a) we gaijin wouldn't be let in, or
b) we could only be let in if partook in prejudicing.

He was for the former; I was for the latter and gave some examples which shan't be repeated here because I want as few possible written examples of evidence for my descent into hell. (Although I'm really excited to have just used "partook"!)

And I'm still not ill, despite feeling that it might be the end of my mostly healthy days last night. Apparently my body fought enough through the evening to make it through another day without allowing whatever is brewing inside of me come to full force -- and though I'm not full-on ick with sick, this body battle it has left me completely wiped. I was supposed to run some errands before work this morning and while I technically got up early enough to do so, I was moving so slowly that had I NOT gotten up when I did I'd have been late for work. Folding up my futon and blankets took like ten minutes. And don't even get me started on putting on pants.

*or creepy! I'm not going to name names, but here is part of an e-mail I sent a friend about...well, let's just say it rhymes with "slew Mapanese bo-merker": "I have a ______ who is bat[expletive deleted] insane and tells me things that are related to nothing. The other day I was grading some homework and she said "I'm good at those" and when I looked up she was pointing to the paper cutter. And we had said nothing of the paper cutter. And nobody had been using the paper cutter. She's probably going to kill me, and NOT with the paper cutter, because that might actually be connected somehow." I just said "congratulations" to her paper-cutter comment and went right on grading, which, yeah, is bitchy. But after a couple weeks of being uber-polite and overly-forbearing I decided that was enough of that when the weird comments just never stopped (and always came -- and are still coming! -- when I'm trying to work). Sigh. And actually, save for the slew Mapanese bo-merker, I really do like everyone I work with...just not this week.

PS - Caucus is a funny word. And I'm out!