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October 17, 2005
Paying the Price
This weekend has been a microcosm of life. There are good times, there are bad times. When the good times are good, you think that nothing bad can happen. And then you wake up the next morning with copious amounts of snot and no Kleenex in site.
It all started off great on Saturday. I met up with Ms. Wish to See (and S.O.) and Mr. Fliven (and S.O.) at the Maryand Renaissance Festival. Jousting was observed, the ethics of elephant riding debated, amusing shows seen, faces painted, and general merriment had by all. At one point I found myself strapped in to a full-on wench outfit (testament to my "best sport EVER" crown), but thankfully I escaped before I was forced to make a purchase. On the other hand, I am now the owner of a delightful feather mask, which I will be wearing for Halloween, and any other mask-necessitating events.
From the festival, I then proceeded to the Wintergate Maize Maze, which is definitely the highlight of the season. With Mr. Bad Apologies and his friends, I joined in a competition to see which team could successfully navigate the 35 acres of corn fields, armed only with a flashlight (and a helpful map of the maze), and emerge victorious with all checkpoints located. I feel I needn't mention the obvious fact that OUR TEAM WON.
All fine and dandy, and I arrived home with muddy shoes (note to self: sweep floors before mother kills herself) and good spirits. Unbeknownst to me, I fell asleep with no concept of the misery to come.
This morning I woke up with what can only be described as the cold from hell. I thought that my kleenex-to-date count might be interesting, but I lost track around 63. I am confident that I have, in fact, used a full box of tissues--plus a half roll of toilet paper (when the replacement kleenex box could not be located in a timely manner). By midafternoon, my nose was a sneezing, bleeding, raw mess. I was truly a joy to behold.
At one point Janie told me to stuff tissues up my nose because it would help me talk normally.
"I don' tink zo," was my cogent reply.
Following some well-qualified advice, I have chosen to combat this virus (Could it be bird flu? One must consider all the possibilities!) by attempting to drown it in water. Which has really only compounded the toilet-paper overuse problem, since now I have to pee every 10 seconds. Literally, I ran to the bathroom during every single commercial break during Desperate Housewives tonight (plus once in the middle of the show--never did I think that I would want MORE commercials).
So far, I cannot report favorably on the kill-virus-with-water campaign. But I can speak V-E-R-Y highly of the relax-with-Nyquil method. Of course, during the process of swallowing the pills (somewhere in the second paragraph of this entry), I managed to spill water directly from my mouth all down my shirt. Well, to be completely honest, I'm wearing one of those shelf-bra tank tops--so really I spilled water directly onto my chest, where it splashed unceremoniously southwards and soaked my entire torso area.
Long story short, now that the Nyquil has kicked in and I'm feeling pretty good (perhaps tipsy would be a better descriptor), I'm not minding the chilly, wet shirt so much.
And...I'm SO tempted to spill all the juicy secrets told at girls night. However, I was strictly forbidden to impart such hilarious news, and so I will instead change my shirt and crawl into bed--where I plan on sleeping with my mouth open and snoring to wake the dead.
But lest you be sad about the lack of girls-night news (and you KNOW you are), here are some coming attractions on Write Again Soon:
-- Date #2 of October 2005. The first one, which I scruptulously avoided mentioning, but am now quite pleased to describe, was a DISASTER. I'll spare you the details, but it basically culminated in an awkward and obvious hand-grabbing attempt (by him) and a shrieking of "OH NO THAT'S WEIRD" (by me). To which he replied (after loosening my hand), "thank you for being honest with me". Ouch. Anyway, I have a NEW first date on Tuesday, for which I'm very excited. My goal today, however, is slightly different that yesterday. While on Saturday I had aspired to woo him with my grace and charm, tonight my sole goal is to not blow my nose at the table.
-- Tales of horror and intrigue at the Amnesty International Regional Conference (next weekend), which I'm attending with a friend from work. Rabid liberals (and very, VERY few attractive men, I'm told), rallies against the Patriot Act, and a weekend in Philadelphia--oh my!
-- An ongoing, blow-by-blow (ha-ha) description of the Great Cold of October 2005. I had briefly considered calling it the Great Cold of 2005, but that's just tempting November and December to show me what a virus can REALLY do.
Comments
Didn't you babysit Janie all day Friday while she was similarly sick? Hmmmmmm.....
Also, I have found that if I take "Airborne" (tablets dissolve in water, high dose of several vitamins, including echinacea) right when I first start feeling ill, then I have been able to fight off descent into "bird flu like misery" (particularly in the early sore throat type illness) That being said, the most clinical evidence says echinacia won't help you, but do you really believe those science clowns? :)
I wish I had brought them here (to Vancouver) actually, I have found they help after hangovers too :) And I think I had one too many maple syrup martinis in a revolving restaurant (oh the dizziness!) last night :) Blog updates arriving soon...
Posted by: Red at October 17, 2005 09:18 AM
Did you say "kleenex"? You better hide them when you go to your rabid-liberal party.
Posted by: gizmo guy at October 17, 2005 09:51 PM
Hmmmm.... I will ALSO be in Philadelphia this coming weekend. Perhaps if you admit to your audience that we are a STUNNING maze team together, then I will consider burning a bra or two with you.
Posted by: Mr. Bad Apologies at October 20, 2005 12:38 AM
