Today was a glass half full, glass half empty kind of day.

My glasses broke. I haven’t had them for a month and both sidepieces broke. I went to the eyeglass place to get another pair, but they didn’t have a duplicate pair of those glasses.

I hate buying glasses because the frames are so boring anyway. I either want a statement pair, or something unobtrusive. And it doesn’t matter how much I pay. The last time I bought glasses in China, I dropped $1400 USD on some Prada frames and fairly thick lenses. They started breaking down six months later.

I’ve repaired them dozens of times since. I bought glasses again about two years ago, both pairs (regular and prescription sunglasses) and both of those broke too. Back to the Prada frames and Arnold Palmer prescription shades.

I saved up for a while, and bought a regular pair and prescription sunglasses a few weeks ago. The shades are still working, but the regular ones broke. I superglued them. All seemed well until I tried them on today. And it isn’t just the right earpiece. They also cracked where the lens is.

So I went most of the day without glasses, unless I was outside. There I used my wannabe Ray Bans. But those don’t help at night.

I went to the fancy grocery store to get sunflower kernels. Here in China, they come in the shell. So it’s rare to see sunflower kernels, roasted and salted, ready to go. I pounced on them when I first saw them, and went back to get some more today. I planned to buy my veggies for juicing at Young Hui, instead of Ole. But I checked out the produce section and was pleasantly surprised to find spinach and carrots on sale. The Granny Smiths weren’t discounted, but two out of three ain’t bad. I got some other stuff too, and the final tab was less than $28.

I felt pretty good (the juicing is helping) so I decided to go swimming.

The health club where I swim is about a half hour’s walk from my apartment. They’ve upgraded the lockers, which were rather janky and rusty. Plus, you had to bring your own lock. That’s fine, I have plenty of them. But now the lockers are nice and new, but you need a phone to operate them. You scan the QR code and press a few prompts, and a door opens.

The issue with this is you have to take your phone with you if you want to be able to open the locker back up. The pool area has only two benches and no cubby holes or shelves or compartments to put you phone or towel in. So I wrap it up in my towel, put on the bench, and hope for the best.

I went swimming last Thursday, and the water was cloudy. I thought since the pool is part of a gym, that the pool would be adults only. I’ve swam in “adults only” pools and never had problems. It’s only when the pools are open to kids that I’ve gotten sick. This one’s open to kids. Going on a weekday doesn’t help.

Also, the pool seems a bit chaotic. I don’t know if they have designated lap lanes, but they do have three lanes roped off for lap swimming, presumably. The problem is, some people hang out in these lanes and they don’t actually swim. Or if they do, they swim a few laps, stop, then stand there for a few seconds before taking a few strokes, then stopping and standing there again. There are little kids who just show up in the “lap” lanes with their arm floaties, pool noodles, and kickboards and cross lanes back and forth willy nilly. Sometimes couples will just park themselves in the middle of a lane, chattering away.

And it drives me nuts.

Then there are people who swim right up on you, and you risk kicking someone in the face because they followed you too closely. Or else they pass you but cut it so close they sideswipe you or kick your arm.

The pool seemed cloudy again today, so that plus the crowdedness meant I did 24 lengths of the pool today. I swam 36 on Thursday.

But I’d had it, dodging pool noodles and kickboards.

It’s a shame, because I LOVE swimming. It’s the only exercise that really relaxes me and makes me feel good. I was thinking about my brother last night, and I was getting infuriated by my history with him. So I figured today was the day to swim.

But that’s becoming stressful too.

Then, I couldn’t get my locker open. I don’t know if I pushed something prematurely or what, but I couldn’t get it open. So I walked out in my bathing suit, to the front desk and said via translator, I couldn’t get my locker open. The desk attendant comes in with a key. The locker pops open. I grab my bag, and a giant cockroach zips from the back of the locker to the left front side and disappears. Was this thing crawling around in my bag? I didn’t zip it up when I put it in.

Yuck.

I rarely drink, but on the way home I picked up some orange juice. I had some Absolut Citron at home, and I’m sipping on a mixture of that now. Yum.

I attempted to repair my glasses again, only to superglue my fingers to my glasses frames. Luckily I had just enough nail polish remover to unstick myself, but I’m not touching that superglue again until I have a full bottle of Cutex or similar at my disposal.

And I poured more vodka and orange juice.

By the way, this is post number 666. A.k.a. the number of the beast! Beware!