I'm so tired. I stayed up way to late watching stupid Schitt and I wake up way to early because I'm getting texts from schools wanting to hire me, none of which are offering nearly enough money.
I get quite a few updates from home, none of them good. It seems as though the police are claiming that getting hit by a firetruck was entirely my fault. Apparently, a witness also claims that the accident was all my fault and there is a video of the accident that shows the whole thing was my fault too. I want to get pissed off and throw a hissy fit, but I'm stuck in China so I don't really know how I can defend myself. My lawyer is no longer returning my father's emails or phone calls. My dad thinks I'm fucked and will just have to pay all of these bills when I get back.
No time is working out for the rescheduling of the Tommy/Ryan meeting. I really want to see those boys faces. I know I miss them so much more than they miss me and it doesn't mean the same thing to them, but I really want to see my old friends. I miss everyone so much. Every message from anyone makes me so happy. I feel so needy.
Mitchell posted on instagram again. Just when I think I'm out, she pulls me back in. On today's post, she used the verb rile. Couldn't she have picked a different verb? That verb is 4/5ths of my name, its obviously going to rile me up to read that. There are lots of photos of her having lots of fun with her friends. She is so fucking beautiful. Plus, that fucking guy is in a lot of them. Although, I am starting to think that guy is gay. It might be stupid of me to be jealous of him. Not that any of this matters. But I can't help it. She's so fucking beautiful. I still miss her a lot. I really hope I get over her soon because it will be super lame if I hit her up when I come home.
My mattress now has a Riley shaped divot in the center of it. I hate this fucking thing.
I am starving but I really don't want to eat plain rice, so I just eat a couple pears. Hopefully those can tide me over until I get paid tonight. I mean, I'm still hungry, but I'll survive.
I do another phone job interview. These things are starting to annoy me so much. I hate applying for jobs, I just really want to fix my situation. I'm really worried I'll have to take a pay drop.
At this point I am pretty behind in my blog (though less behind than I am now) so I am writing about my trip in Shanghai and get to the part where I listen to Norah Jones in a coffee shop. This sends me on a total Norah Jones kick. Norah Jones is great, but probably not the best thing to be listening to after Mitchell uses rile in an Instagram post. I'm lovesick again.
When I take out the garbage, the garbage bag breaks right in front of the dumpster. Rice falls all over the floor and my shoes. I don't clean it up, it's too hard.Someone else will figure it out, like the garbage person. It will take way to long to pick up all that rice. My trash bag was just filled with rice and a few pear cores.
I forget to wear my uniform to work today and accidentally wear my Sriracha shirt. Is this a form of cultural appropriation? God I hope not. All the teachers are shocked to see me wearing a shirt with Chinese on it and begin reading my shirt. None of them seem offended, which is good, but I'm still embarrassed. I guess a lot of there shirts are in English and I am pretty sure none of them have any idea what they say. At least my shirt is acknowledging a true love of mine, which is my love of the sriracha hot sauce. Why is there no Sriracha out here? I didn't realize that until now, the Chinese should love Sriracha. It's there hot sauce, they should sell it in the stores. (Actually, most of the Chinese people I meet don't like spicy food.)
When I enter the office, only Peter is there.
"Ohhh, Riley today is a happy day for you! Get ready for your happy day!"
Peter pulls a plastic bag filled with stacks of cash out of his desk and drops it on the table. I count the money. The payment is almost 5,000 RMB short.
"Where is the rest of my money?"
Peter pulls out a small receipt and shows it to me. Because I arrived in China on the 7th instead of the 1st, a week's pay has been deducted from my check. This makes me very upset because, during the initial fight about me losing pay for missing a few days work when I went to Bali, I specifically asked Josie if I would get paid for the whole month or if I would be deducted for missing that first week and she had said I would get paid for the whole month. I immediately call Josie to talk about this and she says she is on her way to work and we can talk when she gets here.
Meanwhile, one of the women who works at the front desk comes back into the office and is asking me to reimburse the school for mailing my signed firetruck documents back to America. The school had originally told me they would pay for this, but after it cost more then they expected, they asked for the money back. I normally wouldn't mind, but what with the not actually getting paid for the full month, this feels like insult to injury. I pay them back anyway.
By the time my dinner break comes around, Josie still has not shown up to work. Because I was paid in cash instead of on WeChat, (Josie had previously told me I would be paid on WeChat) I can't order food delivered to the school so I take my ebike over to that shitty chicken restaurant. On my way over, my ebike battery dies so I have to start pedaling, which is very slow. As I wait to order, an entire family cuts me and orders a gigantic meal. This pisses me off so I walk over to pancakes come, get one of those crepe sandwiches with just about every kind of meat in it, and head back to work to eat it there. When I return, Josie still not has arrived so I eat my dinner alone in silence.
This pancakes come tastes insanely amazing. I don't think I am able to give it an honest or fair review at this point based on the only meals I have had for the last week and a half (rice and pears) but this is maybe one of the most satisfying meals I have had in my whole life. I eat the whole thing so quickly. There is an explosion of flavors in my mouth. It's god damn epic. If anyone wants to eat just rice and pears for 10 days, I guarantee you that whatever your first meal after that is will taste fucking amazing. I don't know if that makes the experience worth it, but it does make me see mediocre food in a new light.
After my pancakes come, I head to the teachers bathroom to take a piss. When I finish and drop my hog back into my underwear, I have some extra spills that leak out into my pants. I wish I could say this was a rarity, but as I get older I find this happens more and more in my life. I don't know if I am impatient or what is fully the cause of the problem is, but I need to stop doing this. It's embarrassing if anyone notices, plus it is unhygienic. I have heard you are supposed to give the penis a few shakes after a urination, but the shakes can also cause pee pee to fall onto my jeans and is often even more noticeable because I don't have the layer of underwear as protection. I sometimes try to leave my penis just hanging above the toilet for a while sometimes, but due to the angle of my penis created by the zipper it seems that often not all the urine can fall out unless I fully take my pants off. Otherwise, a small reservoir of urine can build up at the base of my penis and that falls out once my hog is dropped into my undies. If anyone has any suggestions for this (other then wearing big sweaters,) I would appreciate it.
I pull my large sweater down and finish my classes. Afterwards, I head into the office and have to wait another 15 minutes for Josie to finally show up. Josie starts giving me this bizarre explanation of how there are two versions of a month and says I am getting a full months pay because I worked from the 7th to the 7th so I will get paid for the full month, but the pay period is only from the 7th to the 30th which is why I am only getting partial pay. I explain how salary works in America and explain that Josie earlier had told me I would be getting the full months pay. Josie told me she can't give me money for the other week because it is illegal. I tell her I'm not asking for the money, I am complaining because I was lied to.
At one point, Josie says, "Are you stupid? If you don't work, you don't get paid. Are you stupid?"
This is more than I can take. I tell the Josie that I am going to start looking for other work. The school has been pushing me around to much and been giving me to much incorrect information and I can't take it anymore. And I leave.
Peter follows me out and stops me by my bike.
"I just want to say, if you leave, I understand. But it will be sad to see you go."
"Thanks, Peter."
I hope on my Benji and drive home. On the way back, I stop and buy a giant bottle of gin and some ciggies. I get hammered.
As I walk from my office to my bedroom, I notice the bottoms of my trash cans are filled with dirty rice juice, but I don't give a fuck. I'm getting out of this dump. I'm not ever gonna clean this apartment again.