Warning: I'm going to talk about woman stuff. If you can't handle it, skip this one.
I've been on this cortisone eye drops for awhile. Cortisone is a steroid that lowers your immune system. Maybe this is why I got the yeast infection. Maybe it just happened, as they sometimes do. Who knows? What I did know is I was itchy down there. You can't get yeast infection meds over the counter in Germany like you can in the States. You need to go to the doctor. I went to the
Zentrum für sexuelle Gesundheit und Familieplanung in Charlottenburg. If you're in Berlin and need birth control, to see a gynecologist, or free STI testing, this place is great. They people who work there are nice. They do not care if you have insurance. They do not care if you are illegal. They do not judge you on your lifestyle. They charge you nothing. AND they speak English. The doctor took a look down there and said, "Yep, you've got some candida." She gave me a three dose pack of miconazole pessaries and sent my on my way. Miconazole hadn't worked for me the last few times I tried it, but I thought, "Why not? It can't hurt to try again, right?" I was so wrong!
The night was warm. I sat on my balcony in my underwear and wrote. I put my medicine in and laid down in bed. And then my vagina was on fire. Seriously, it was like there was an habañero pepper in there. The poor girl swelled up like a balloon and got as red as a clown nose. I didn't feel like it warranted a trip to the emergency room, seeing as I wasn't having trouble breathing or bleeding profusely, but DAMN, it was uncomfortable! I had take some diphenhydramine (thinks for the mega-American-sized bottle of allergy meds from Costo, mom) to shove a bag of ice in my pants. I finally got to sleep around 3 am. My alarm went off at 7:30. I put on some clothes and went back to the clinic, where the doctor wrote me a prescription for fluconazole, an oral anti-fungal that cures candida outbreaks. Unfortunately, it was 13€ (around $20.) Fortunately, it solved my problem.
13€ goes a long way in Berlin. I generally spend between 100€ and 125€ on food a month, and this includes going out to eat and the occasional beer. I'm coming down to the wire, flying into SFO on May 28th. I can't really look for work here, and I won't get my first paycheck until two weeks after I get back to the States. So medication cutting into my budget, at this point in time, is not so cool.
I had applied for a job passing out flyers for some club a while ago. On Thursday night, I got an email asking me if I could work from 22:30 to 1:30 Friday and Saturday night. I said I had a performance with
the Impronauts on Friday night but could work on Saturday. It paid 23€. Not fabulous, but better than 22€, right?
Last night was COLD! I stood at U Eberswalder, freezing, shoving flyers for a rock and roll club at passer-bys, avoiding drunken football fans rampaging through the streets, singing some song loudly and yelling "Ja!" every time they saw anyone else wearing yellow, which was the winning team's color. I was having a truly horrible time, wondering if having my fingers go numb and promoting something I did not care about was worth 23€. And then something amazing happened. This group of British (?) people approached me, and an extremely adorable and well-dressed man who, I kid you not, had hair exactly like this
said to me, "I really need a bra."
I looked at him and sad, "Oh no, yours are small. You don't need a bra."
"No, I do! Can I have yours?"
I play along. "I'd give it to you, but it's the only one I've got."
"I'll give you 50€."
"Seriously?" I think he's kidding. He pulls the money out.
"Okay, but you don't get to see anything." I took the bra off under my shirt. We made the exchange.
"You feel good about this?" He asked. "It's really important to me that you feel good about this."
"I feel awesome!" I said, the grin on my face so big it hurt my cheeks a little. "Now I have an excuse to buy a new bra!"
I liked that black bra, but it was old, and the straps just weren't staying up like they used to. And it cost me $50 USD new. The conversion rate from euros to dollars is currently 1€=$1.30 USD. You do the math. I came out on top!
The sheer randomness of the situation, the innocence of the request, and the absolute surprise at my complete and total willingness to sell someone my bra, it totally made my night! Well, that and the 50€. What can I say? The request in know way violated a personal boundary for me, didn't cost me anything. I'm an improviser. I say "yes, and!"
Today, I got cast in a comic role for a film directed by academy award nominee Daryush Shokof. The shooting will take place before my journey to the States. Just when I was getting scared, things are looking up, again!
