Picking battles

As it works out, I've been eating about twice as much protein as my body can use, but blood levels are still critical.

It also works out that I've drawn the attention and concern of the powers that be. What's with the farang who's sucking more insurance money than any other farang ever?

They are worried about me. I am so small and soft. Always pale. Too skinny.

I met with my BigBossLady. She is of the same stock as my German Aunt Annie, who I think was an old gray teenager for the allied invasion and has not aged appreciably since, despite beating breast cancer with a mimosa a day, losing her husband and son, and living on from an outright primitive girlhood to be a 21st century grandmother. Same same but different for my BigBossLady: she would wear the same expression whether a tidal wave swept through town, armageddon fell, there were hand grenades in the streets, or a kidlet puked on her new outfit. But she glows for students who do well.

She expressed her concerns, ending with, "I worry about you and your health and I worry that Thailand might not be the place for you."

Gulp.

I returned the next day to apologize for falling apart, for getting sick, for the bike wrecks, for being too sick and weak to hide it from the students. I expressed my enthusiasm for the school, for Thailand, that I have no intention of returning stateside anytime this side of a new economy, and even then, I really like it here.

Evidently, after our conversation, the DirectorOfTheSchoolHimself met with her to talk about me, the skinny guy with all the insurance claims: what on earth was my boss thinking with throwing me to the Regular Program?

A previous visit to a G1 class convinced her that I could broadcast as forcefully as needed, and she stood up for me (pfew).

Going back confirmed the suspicions on which she'd based her argument (double pfew) and granted some openness about the Regular Program and where I'm going with things.

[As I write, I realize how long it's been since I've done any substantive updating: both the Regular Program and Reiki still to come....]

I walked out with the bottom line that I'm doing better, I'm on the upswing, feel consistently better, and will not be visiting the doctor anytime soon, unless I'm in an accident (but I've had my three, so I should be done).

And that's that. Now it's the war for protein.