Testing, Testing

The gods, or someone, are seriously against me in this trying-to-be-a-better person agenda.

After a great start, yesterday rapidly went downhill, with the annoying sinus cold sapping every last dose of energy. I managed to finish up the one bit of work I had, and then proceeded to sag onto the couch, too tired to read, watch movies, or even knit. By the end of the night, said sinus cold had migrated into just one ear so that it felt like someone was stabbing an invisible ice pick into my eardrum. I was not exactly a vision of cheerfulness. In fact, I was so whiny and miserable that Nurse Mr. J pretty much ignored me in exasperation. Rightfully so! (Though he did go out at about 10 to get me decongestants and nasal spray. That's true love.)

Today the ear pain has mostly subsided, and I'm down to a miserable drippy nose. But at least I feel a little more energetic. However, I woke up to a notice from my bank saying that my business account was down to $0. Remember that check I was so happy to receive yesterday? Yeah, it sure would have been nice if I had actually deposited it. Oops!

But there is a silver lining to all this woe and misery in my little world: I miraculously did not overdraw my account. The two checks that went out yesterday added up to exactly the amount I had had in my account two days ago. So when it said a balance of $0, it wasn't hiding some negative amount. So first thing this morning, in went the check, and all is right with the world. No returned checks. No annoying bank fees.

I love it when a non-plan comes together.

And the Phlegm Goes On . . .

I have been in absentia . . . again. I have a whole photo montage detailing why I've been out of touch, but right now, just typing this post is taking all my energy.

My blog friend over at The Creamery is doing a thing this week and next (?) and maybe for even longer in which she is posting about finding joy every day. As always, I am loving her posts. And right now, it is definitely a good challenge for me.

Here's my little bit of joy for the week:

For a year, we lived in Flower Mound, Texas, north of Dallas, not too far from DFW, smack dab in between two huge reservoir-y type lakes. To say that we hated it there would be a huge understatement. Mr. J and I were both miserable. The Dog, on the other hand, loved it. Never had he experienced the joys of lukewarm lakes and creeks and bugs, bugs, bugs galore to hunt all night in the backyard. But as much as we love The Dog, we were not willing to sacrifice our souls to stay in that town. (No disrespect to any Texans out there. It just was not our scene.)

Anyway, while living in Dallas, I had one and a half gals and one and a half guys that I would consider friends. For an entire year. I can survive on my own just fine and am able to keep myself entertained for weeks on end without seeing a soul (see: learning how to knit), but a girl needs more than a total of three friends to keep her sane. Sad, sad times. But there was a silver lining: With all that alone time, I don't think I got sick even once that entire year. No sore throats, no horrid stomach bugs, no weeklong flu that saps the very life out of you. Other than my weird, annoying skin rashes, I was the picture of health.

Here in Boise, on the other hand, we have more friends than we know what to do with. It's already gotten to the point that when we invite people over, we have to wheedle down the guest list. Otherwise we'd end up with close to 50 people for a small barbecue. And we only just moved here in August. It's actually incredible. And it is all very joyful. But that is not the joy I am finding today.

Today I can barely see through my two eyes, thanks to a raging case of conjunctivitis, which I haven't had since I was, oh, I don't know, 8? On top of that, it hurts to swallow and cough, and my ear is aching like nobody's business, all thanks to an upper respiratory infection. Joyous. So for the third time this year, I am going on antibiotics again! (Me, the woman who HATES drugs, especially antibiotics). Yes, it is all very sucky and lousy and so very annoying. And yet, it is all because we have friends. Friends who say, "Here, try this piece of brisket," as they feed it to Mr. J with their bare hands (which led to the horrid stomach plague of early spring). Or who offer a sip of their drink to see if I would like to order the same thing, which, I believe, has led to this wondrous trip down phlegm alley. So that is where I am finding the joy. I may be sick, but I am in a place I love with people I look forward to getting to know better and better. I can see myself living in this city for many, many years (like more than 10). And that is something this Air Force Brat had never even considered in any of my past homes. I am home and I belong here and that is so very joyful.

Now pass the antibiotics, please!!

Waiting for the Storm

There's this virulent little bug circulating among our friends. It started with Miss Z. She thought she had food poisoning, but it turns out it was some kind of stomach flu masquerading as food poisoning. Then it moved on to the K-Stein family, including 6-month old Syd. We, over here on the 6th Street side of the North End, thought we had escaped the wrath of the bug, but then there was the Saturday barbecue. JB and Mr. J both caught it at the same time. And now here I sit, feeling crampy and runny and extremely nervous.

Is it just nerves and lack of food that is making me feel so horrible, or is this the start of what we have all come to call the North End Plague? I don't know. But either way, it sucks.

Time to make another bathroom run. Wish me well on this "joyous" journey of sickness.

Getting Back Into It

So a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine was complaining of being sick and having no energy and just sleeping. And I thought, that sounds OK. I could use a few days of having a good excuse to just lie (lay? recline? laze?) about, maybe catch up on some reading, find a new knitting project, chill. But then I was reminded, by my very own cold, that being sick sucks. And when both the people in a relationship are sick, it's even suckier. Each one is begging the other to go find some drugs or make a pot of hot tea or cook up a big huge pot of chicken broth. And neither one wants to oblige, because both are too busy coughing and blowing noses and spitting up yellow goo. And I just felt too crappy to read or knit or anything. Even TV was too much. I just wanted to sleep, but the coughing and hacking kept getting in the way.

So, thanks, Life, for reminding me to be careful of what I wish for!

But I am better now. I still have some kind of goop in my lungs and my nose is still running like a faucet, but I don't feel crappy anymore. I just sound horrible. Mr. J, on the other hand ... when he gets sick, he makes a four-week production out of it. Right now we are on Week 2, which involves antibiotics, inhalers, decongestants and lots and lots of coughing. The kind of coughing that I think you might here coming out of the TB ward of an old-timey sanitarium. Poor guy. His entire face turns red and he just grabs his entire head with his hands because it hurts so bad.

I feel horrible for him, and yet I have discovered that I would be the world's worst nurse. I want to make him better but I can't, so I just get frustrated and impatient and then, when he looks at me all red-eyed and stuffy and miserable, I just roll my eyes. Oh, aren't I just the sweetest thing? How quickly I forget, after one day of feeling better, how bad it feels to feel so bad!!

But, on a lighter, happier, healthier note, the sun is finally peeking through the inversion layer that has clouded our fair city since Christmas. Yesterday afternoon I was even able to sit in my hammock swing on the front porch, sipping a cold brew, tossing a tennis ball for the pack of dogs we are watching over this weekend, and enjoying the sunshine in my face. I had forgotten how great a little warmth on the sun can feel! It looks like maybe we are in for the same treat this afternoon. And if so, I will send Mr. J into my hammock swing, with a cup of tea replacing that Corona, and have him absorb some healthy vitamin D. See ... I can be caring!

p.s. My Firefox crashed three times in the making of this post, requiring me to rewrite it several times. Grrrr. Macs are supposed to be perfect. What is up with that?

Sniffle

I am here, I am alive. I'm just emerging from beneath stacks of used up tissues. Oh, how I love being sick. Ugh. And now Mr. J has it, and he's got it bad. Seems that whenever he gets sick, even if it's some kind of toe fungus, it eventually makes its way to his lungs and becomes some kind of infected bronchitis thing. So back on antibiotics he goes. At least this time he agreed to talk to our doctor friend about it sooner rather than later. He tends to think it will just get better, and it only gets worse. So here's hoping we caught it in time and that he'll be back to his chipper self in no time (because he is no fun when he is coughing up a lung all day long, let me tell you!).

So no new news to report. Just trying to clear my head (and this house) of the fog of sickness that has settled over it for the past week.

Yesterday

Little thoughts came to me yesterday (actually, it's today, but I'm not going to post it until tomorrow, so that makes today yesterday). Anyway, here are some of those thoughts:

--OW! On Monday, I went to my first "real" workout class in ages (real meaning there were actual weights and lunges and squats and even push-ups?!?! involved). And each day since then I've been moving more and more like a pregnant cowboy (though maybe that should be cowgirl) (man, do I love parentheses or what?). I can't seem to get up off our low-slung couch or up out of my itty-bitty Honda without bracing myself and sort of pushing my hips up with my butt, so that I don't actually have to engage my aching quads, which feel as if someone has beat them to a pulp with a bag of oranges. So there's the pregnant part. And then when I try to walk, I sort of swing my legs out to the side, instead of bending at the knees, to once again avoid using my poor, poor quads. Thus the cowboy. Add this to my swollen cold sore lip, and I am one hot about-to-be-40-year-old. Watch out world!

--It is now today, which yesterday would have been tomorrow. I had other little thoughts, but never got around to writing about them. So I'll just say that Today is here, and I am 40, and I feel no older than I did yesterday. However, it seems that I suddenly know everything, or so I profess to Mr. J, as I expounded on all things philosophical and psychological and political over breakfast. After listening to NPR and solving the world's problem with one pithy statement, I proclaimed, "I know everything!" After analyzing our sister-in-law and discerning the reasons for her lack of child-rearing skills, I knew I was right about it all, because "I know everything." Mr. J's reply after each of my oh-so-modest proclamations was, "And you didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express." GIGGLE! And now I'm off to enjoy my day, which I know will be splendiforous, because I obviously know everything.