Magenta, Burgundy, Flame, Brick

I attended, and participated in, my first ever Bunko game last night. It was a lot of fun! I have read about it in the paper and heard about it from friends, but I never really knew just what Bunko was about, or how to play. Well, the game itself is fun, but it was also a lot of fun getting to meet the ladies that were there, and to visit with some old friends that I have not seen for a while. And Sister got to come! Sister won two times, her winnings being some lovely candles, and Antipasti book, two bottles of red nail polish, two red ink pens, and some red M&Ms, among the ones that I can remember. I one once, but my prize was a really cool red plaid purse with black stripes. I was telling sister that I need to get a skirt to match, some fishnet hose, black boots, and I would have a really sweet outfit. (This special outfit would probably only be worn to go to the movies with Sister and Brother or BBB; or to walk around the house singing some Nancy Sinatra tune to myself.)

The theme of the party, if you haven't already caught it, was "Shades of Red." We were to wear something red (I wore my read "Nashville" t-shirt; not very dressy, but quite red), many of the foods were red (like the Red Velvet Cake: Yum!), and most of the decorations and gifts were red or had red in them. The nails of the fingers typing this entry are currently bright red, as Sister painted them with the nail polish that she won. Loads of fun!

There have been a number of fun/nice things this week. Getting to talk with old friends, spend some more time getting to know new friends, and the possibility of a new job with the company that I work for. It is not a certain thing, but I am supposed to talk to a lady about a data-entering position on Monday. Excitement and exhaustion are swirling around in me right now. As well as more blood sugar than I care to think about right now. Hopefully not too much. I do not currently have blood sugar problems, but I do need to keep an eye on my health, which is really always a good idea anyway.

Well, I am speaking from a partial delirium at this point, so there really is no focus to this writing that I can discern. So, I will try to get some good sleep so that I will be awake and alert and ready to learn in church tomorrow. I hope that you all have a good night and may God bless you!

Woe is My Bank Account

Well, I am sure that it is not too bad, and as things go, there are plenty of other things that could be worse. Today will be the third day that I have not gone into work because of being sick. It isn't much fun sitting around the house being bored to tears and aching to pieces. But, I felt that it would still be better than going to work and spreading even more germs in an already germ-saturated environment. It would also be quite embarrasing if gross stuff was oozing out of my ears onto my desk, telephone, or anything else at work. That would just be digusting and humiliating. There is still quite a bit of otic discharge, though the turbidity and viscosity of the oozings have changed (Does anyone know if I am using these terms appropriately? If I was going for word count I could say that the stuff coming out of my ear is thicker in consistency and somewhat more vivid in coloring, not so watery. Yeah, I think that those words are used correctly, shorter.)

However, despite the amount of gunk that is coming out, the swelling and pain have decreased considerably. I am hoping that the gunk will decrease too, but I think that I will need to exercise some of that patience that I prayed for. That is also an interesting topic: patience, more specifically, praying for patience. I have joked about it with friends at church and school. Some people say that you should not pray for patience because God, being a generous, loving God who does desire to answer our prayers, will most certainly put you in situations that will teach you patience. How else would we end up with gridlocked rush hour traffic and those terrible afterschool grocery lines. Some of those people probably prayed for patience. I know that I am trying to be funny, but truly, a lot of my prayers have been answered, especially the ones for patience. You might not believe it, but I could tell you some funny....

I am beginning to go off on a tangent. I have been reading some other blogs, and some of the postings are very long. I don't think that this is bad, but I don't think that it would be fair to inflict too much of my ways of thinking on you all at once. It should be more gently, gradually done. Otherwise I would probably be receiving more complaints of nightmares, acute paranoia, and toe jambs in conjunction with reading my blog. Thankfully, that has not been the case yet. Or you know, it could just be the antibiotics talking. When I talked with Sister a little bit earlier this afternoon, we were both a little bit crazy. BBB said that I was just punch drunk: maybe from the earache? Well, I don't know. I do know that I look forward to being a wholly healthy person again soon.

If I don't get better very soon, I may not have any money at all. Then how would I buy my spinach? If you see anything about the National Spinach for Fiona campaign, I hope that you will open your hearts, and your pocketbooks, to aid in this terrible situation. But, until you hear about that, please seriously keep the Asian tsunami victims in your prayers, and check out some of the ways that people have helped, and maybe some ways that you can help. May God bless our combined efforts!

I Will Live to Love Another Day

Ya know, I don't know if there really are that many people out there that are cornier than I am. You see, I am a lover and not a fighter, therefore I will live to love, and not fight another day. I might have said, "I Will Fight to Live Another Day." In most situations, that is what I would do. Though, honestly I would love to live another day too, but as mama always used to say, "Life is like a box of chocolates; other people have already taken one bite and left the half-eaten ones that they didn't like." Isn't that what your mother always said to you? Hmm, it must be a southern thing.

The point that I am not really trying to make is that when I saw the doctor on Wednesday, which I believe was yesterday, he just said that I have an infection in my ear (didn't mention if it was related to my head cold), granted, a really gross infection. My right ear has been "weeping" for two days now, and sometimes the tears are a little red. Yech! It was enough to have BBB, Sister, and myself rather worried. But, no fear: the doctor prescribed some antibiotics for the infection, and another prescription for the pain, only to be taken as needed so that I can sleep. If the pain isn't too bad, I should be able to sleep without it. This being the second day that I have taken the antibiotics, the swelling around my eustachian tube already seems to have significantly decreased, and the earache is not so agonizingly painful as it had been, though there is still a steady stream of drainage.

There is also wonderful news to be shared: ¡Hoy es el cumpleaños de mi mejor amiga! I am not certain if the grammar is correct, but today BBB and I are the same age! Probably for as long as I have known her it has always seemed to me that she is the older of the two of us. It may be because she is more mature and because I often seem to look younger than I am. I am not certain, but there is probably also a degree of respect involved in this perception as well. In many ways I look up to her (yup, she's taller than me too; who isn't?). And if she is reading this, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO!!

Agony, Misery, and Woe

I hope that you do not mind permitting me a little melodrama. I will try to contain myself as much as I can, but I feel somewhat awful right now. Anything but the vaguest sense of temporal passage has left me, so I am not certain of specific dates, but I believe that it was a little more than a week ago that I first fell ill. Fell ill hard. As of last Thursday I felt quite recovered, enough to go to work on Saturday. Well, as you might know, I did not take as good of care of myself as I should have once I got to feeling better. Ironically enough, I neither got enough sleep nor water. I don't know how much those factors came into play, but I started to feel icky again at work on Saturday. I was well enough to make it to church on Sunday, but decided not to stay for the evening service in favor of coming home and sleeping.

Monday found me sniffling a little bit more, but I made it through school and work without too much trouble. However, when I awoke Tuesday morning, before my alarm even went off, I felt about as good as though I had been turned into sausage in my sleep. Apparently I had not even begun to understand how bad one can feel, because shortly after I cleaned up, I developed an awful earache. Not a dull, mild pain, but an awful, agonizing ache. I had a test in Chemistry, and we cannot make up tests, so I decided to go ahead and take the test but skip lab. This will probably (hopefully) be my lowest test grade of the semester. It is hard to concentrate on balancing addition reactions between alkanes and halogens when you feel like your own head is undergoing a series of combustion reactions.

After the test I just came home, took a couple of ibuprofen tablets and tried to sleep, which wasn't easy either. But, after sleeping for about forty-five minutes in my car, since it was nice and toasty from being out in the sun, I came inside and slept for another three or four hours. My ear was somewhat numb and I couldn't hear very well out of it when BBB took me out to dinner, followed by a short roam around a local bookstore before she had to go to work. Sleep has since been somewhat elusive. I took two more ibuprofen before trying to lie down again. Around midnight my ear felt like it was starting to drain, so I put some paper towels under that ear and have been trying to lie only on that side. I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow(actually, later today), for the first time in a few years. Let us hope that it is not anything too serious. It's miserable feeling miserable.

My love to Sister, Brother, and Little Sister: I hope that you all are feeling better!

"I Would Like to Thank..."

Well, if there are any foreign invading microbes left in my body that are related to the ones that caused my weekend episode of ill health, they are on the decline. I feel better today than I have for a while. I was able to make it through school and work with few problems. Also, I found out at work that one of the supervisors nominated me for a recognition of good work. Me!? Yeah, I am still fairly shocked, but I am also grateful that they think I am doing a good job, even if it is only the one supervisor. Some days I feel like I am not doing a very good job at all, though I s'pose that many things are that way.

Actually, this kind of inspires me to do a better job at work, to try harder. To me it is similar to making a good grade in school or having some other kind of reward for going, studying, and doing the work: it makes me want to continue to improve, to work harder.

Speaking of which, this will be a short entry because I have Spanish homework to do. Buenas Noches!

Is Some Explanation Needed?

Probably not. One of the potentionally annoying facets of me is that I like to over-explain things sometimes. To get to the point, the reason that the previous entry has its title - Back in [Sn]ac[k]tion - is because there was this awful monster en mi estómago que se llama hambre (in my stomach calling itself hunger) just before I went to Spanish class! Ya see, I accidentally slept until about twenty-five minutes until my first class started this morning. Since I would already be late, and my teacher already knows that I was sick, I contemplated sleeping in and skipping my first class. However, I rose up, put my books in my bag, threw on something mostly decent, and headed for the door. I did grab a package of cheese crackers to eat on the way, and I drank a small glass of juice. So, that's why my tummy was a bit rumbly. If one is built like a work horse, one cannot subsist on a breakfast like that to get them through five or six hours.

When I got home from school I had a lovely lunch of black beans and sliced hot dogs, with a piece of wheat bread, and about a half cup of 'nilla ice cream with some cubes of cantaloupe. That poor acid-swimming monster has been quieted.

CHALLENGED: Your beloved Fair One has been challenged by another blogger, one Super Fox, a mischievous mastermind of uncharted neuronal activity levels! As of Monday, February 7, 2005, she posted her challenge for myself to a mental duel of sorts. I have accepted this dare. If you wish to know the nature of her challenge, or wish to accept the challenge yourself, I would direct you to her entry containing said provocation, Recovered and Soon to be BACK IN ACTION!!!

At the present time, I need to go accept another challenge: I have chores that I need to be about doing. So, I hope that you have a wonderful day!

(P.S. And thank you for continuing to give me a reason for continuing to write this blasted blog. If you didn't read this blog, what other poor soul would be kind enough to suffer through my dillusions of grandeur? You do a good job! In fact, you deserve a raise! I think about 2.5 % more than I pay you now would be appropriate. And is that a new shirt that you're wearing? Don't you look spiffy! *wink* Seriously, lovies to each of you!)

Back in [Sn]ac[k]tion!

I don't think that the title is that good, but this is a quickie. The illness that washed over me this past weekend is waning, so I am at school. I have Spanish class in just a few minutes. I was also able to make it through Chemistry class and the lab yesterday rather uneventfully. A few sniffles here and there, maybe a cough or two. Our HMF(HouseholdMotherFigure) gave me some good decongestant/cough suppressant before I left for school, and that helped tremendously!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it through my regular shift at work last night. The medicine had probably worn off because the sniffling, near-sneezing, and coughing would not be subsided. Thankfully, the supervisors were understanding.

Well, I better get to class.

Quiero apprender hablar espanol.

Continuing Neocortical Degradation

I might be acting a little overdramatic about the whole neocortical-apoptosis-thing. (And if you are wondering just what "apoptosis" means, http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=apoptosis has some fairly good definitions.) However, it is Monday, and I am still sick. For the good of mankind I have decided to stay home from school and work today, but I really hope that I get better soon. I have Chemistry class tomorrow!

If you must know, my current state of being is that of a drippy, coughy, sneezing, wheezing, digusting body of germ-ridden, snot-spewing, aching human flesh. "But," I hear you ask, " does your mouth feel clean?" To that I respond that you must ask yourself a question: "Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?!" Now really, what kind of question is that to ask of someone that is ill? Of course my mouth doesn't feel clean. The sinuses that are towards the back of the roof of my mouth are kind of stinging because of all the drainage, and my inner ears feel about the same way.

But, other than all that, I am unfortunately quite mentally alert and raring to go. In fact, I woke up at about 2:30 am this morning. I couldn't get back to sleep, and my alarm wasn't set to go off until 6:30 am, becuase I had every intention of feeling better and going to school. Things that I needed to remember, that I wanted to write to people, certain homework problems, and movie musicals were swirling through my congested, germy little head. I may have been able to snatch one or two more zz's after I got some cough medicine and laid back down, but I mostly just lay there trying to clear my mind. Sorrier am I that I was unable even to go to church yesterday, that's how sick I was.

On the bright side, I cannot be sick forever. I am hoping that I will be well enough to participate in humanity (and Chemistry) again by tomorrow, or at the latest Wednesday. Until then, I will continue to brush and floss my teeth so that once again I may be able to tell you that, truly, my mouth does feel clean!

And what a happy day that will be.

Sad Side of Still Somewhat Sick

I am still somewhat sick, as I have been all day today. Right now, I am just puttering around on the computer and listening to my favorite Christian rock/urban music radio show. What's really cool is that the station is just down about five minutes drive from here. And you can call or e-mail in requests for songs that you would like to hear. So, though I am still fair-to-middlin' in terms of physical homeostasis and comfort, I am enjoying listening to the songs that I like.

Almost everyone at home is sick, even Little Sister. She's really pretty miserable. I don't remember much of what it is like to be young and yucky-feeling, but I know from seeing and listening to her that it is a draining experience. The little girl that you usually cannot get to sit down for more than a few minutes, she barely had the energy to walk from the diningroom table to the kitchen. She's just pooped. I know that Sister and Brother are only feeling a little bit better. I got to bug Brother while he was trying to do the dishes, and even earlier when he was helping to put away the groceries. Sister, Brother, and Little Sister are the most awesome siblings. I could not get better siblings if I searched, paid money, or gave up internal organs.

While I did not feel 100%, I still felt well enough to push myself a bit. I did some more of those exercises that are supposed to be beneficial to my back, and then I also went for a 40-minute, easy-paced walk, followed by a roughly 15-minute split, round-trip bike ride. I took a long break to read and catch my breathe, but I didn't feel too bad. However, I did get a ride home from mommy: I am, in the end, usually a bit of a wimp.

BIG NEWS: Tobymac's new album, Welcome to Diverse City, is now out in stores. Though I have not heard all of the songs yet, it's Tobymac. I would like to give my officious stamp of approval and strong recommendation to this album. If you have the opportunity, check it out; it will definitely be worth your buck and your time. The website is http://www.tobymac.com.

The Past Week (or so) in Review

Hoy es viernes. There is a beautiful weekend ahead: nice weather, no school, no work. And I am sick. I understand that this kind of thing happens. What can you do?

Honestly, I do not mind being sick. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I enjoy being sick, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I am sick so infrequently that the respite from good health often helps me appreciate that good health all the more. Another reason is that I tend to take better care of myself when I am feeling under the weather. Por ejemplo: today, after coming home from school coughing, I called in to excuse myself from work tonight. While I was eating lunch, I also thumbed through the March issue of Runner's World. There were all kinds of cool articles, but there was one about abdominal exercises that caught my eye. It offered two good exercises to do if you have lower back pain. I do. It sometimes causes sleeping problems because my hips will become sore as well, and I sometimes have pain sitting in the chairs at school or work, I think from my weak back muscles. After letting my lunch set for a while I did one set each of the exercises, as well as some push-ups. Feeling a little bit better, I also took a long, warm soak, cleaned me hair (which was all greasy and icky), and did some of my reading for my Philosophy class.

Our HouseholdMotherFigure(HMF) came home this evening, feeling even worse than I do, but she helped me to feel better. She gave me some cough medicine, which has been MUCH help, and some Vicks Vaporub to help a little more. I do feel better!

~~<@>~~~<@>~~~<@>~~~<@>~~~<@>~~

After napping for about two hours, I tried to fight waking for about 15 minutes, but I am not a very good fighter. Even though I do feel a little sluggish, my brain still feels like it's going full-speed ahead. I ate a yummy dinner of steamed broccoli and plum, a slice of salmon loaf, and a toasted piece of wheat bread. I had some sweet and sour sauce to go with the cooked plum and broccoli : Mmm, Mmm, Mm! (Probably somewhat to my detriment, there are few occasions when I do NOT have an appetite.) Having been perked a little bit by an easy-down supper, I have checked me e-mail and am itching to write. So, I will try to give a brief (HA!) update on the past week's developments.

SATURDAY, Jan. 29th: Local department store had a very good sale. I spent probably $5 more than I needed to, but I don't regret it. Good buys. Later, Little Sister and I walked up to the library, had a good time reading a book called Scranimals, about funny animal/animal and animal/fruit or vegetable combinations (Potatoad, Rhinocerose, etc.). Even Later, Brother and I went to a Christian rock concert. Brother a little sick, but we had a good time. Blessed to get to go. Met local Christian rock radio DJ's after concert. Cool guys.

SUNDAY, Jan. 30th: Church. Visited with Dad. Choir practice. Fifth Sunday Sing at church. Fellowship after service. Visited family: all sick :( .

MONDAY, Jan. 31st: School. Work.

TUESDAY, Feb. 1st: Took tax papers to Grandma. Her tax man is going to do my taxes as well. (Does anyone here Handel?) School. Work. Hung out with BBB after work.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 2nd: School. NO WORK! Got some stuff done around the house. Cut some bangs for myself. Kept myself from cutting ALL my hair off. Helped Sister with Chemistry homework. Short church: most of us went to the visitation of a dear member of the church who passed away on Monday. I did not know him very well, but he was a kind, funny, godly man. Helped Sister some more with Chemistry, though probably not that much help. Hung out with BBB again :) .

THURSDAY, Feb. 3rd: Ate lunch with a dear older friend. She made us some chicken salad sandwiches. School. Work. ALIEN[microbe]S TOOK OVER MY BODY, FOLDED SOME OF MY LAUNDRY, DID SOME OF MY CHEMISTRY HOMEWORK, AND CONTEMPLATED THE MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE, LEAVING MY CEREBRAL CORTEXT IN A SHAMBLES!!

And we are now back to today: School. Stayed home sick from work. Aside from feeling like I have a bit of neocortical apoptosis going on, I feel that I have mentally recovered from Thursday. I am not certain exactly what happened, but it was a little bit scary. Chemistry homework AND folding my laundry? Oh my, I think that I also emptied the bathroom trash can! Maybe I shouldn't worry about getting better too quickly.

I will now go brush and floss my teeth, smear on some Vick's, and count my blessings.