You're Doing It Wrong

Last week both husband and colleague had the crud. They had different versions of it and different ways of dealing with it but mostly they wanted me to hear about how miserable it was to have the crud.

I understand and I did mete out some sympathy and said things like, “you should rest” and “here’s a lozenge.” But also I got to a point where I’d heard enough whining about the crud.

I knew my days were probably numbered. Monday when I went to bed and I had a little scratchy throat and I thought, “I hope it’s not my turn with the crud.”

I woke up Tuesday morning and I didn’t even know what was happening. I was trembling with a raging headache and ached all over so bad I groaned when I moved. I got up long enough to tell colleague I was staying home and cancel a dentist appointment and I got back in bed.

I then slept for about 20 of the next 24 hours. Even reading and watching TV didn’t feel great. I listened to an audiobook while bundled up under the covers. I had an appetite but nothing sounded good.

I can’t remember the last time I missed any time off from work for being sick. I stayed home for two days. I already felt a lot better the second day and I went to work on Thursday. I felt fine until the end of the day and then I crashed hard, staggered home, and went to bed really early. I’m taking it easy today. A couple of chores but mostly sitting around reading and I’m going to watch a movie this afternoon.

I think the moral is that talking about being sick is like talking about the dream you had — it’s always more interesting to talk about than to listen to.

Future flowers breaking through all over the yard.

I already told this story a few times but I thought I’d put it here, too.

I took my car in on New Year’s Eve day. The dealership had the B team on the schedule that day.

The guy that checked me in seemed like he would rather be getting a tooth pulled. I don’t think it would be possible to show less interest in me and my car while checking me in to get my car serviced.

Well, except for the actual service part — they weren’t very busy so I’m guessing that had a crew going at it like a pit stop. They finished in about 40 minutes.

I was at the office so I didn’t pick it up until later in the day and when I arrived, they couldn’t find my key.

I’m fairly confident the guy who checked me out was baked. He told me to wait by my car and someone would bring me the key.

I waited and waited and waited and finally a different kid came out and asked me which car I was waiting for.

I pointed at my car and said I was waiting for the key.

Current state of the garden. Those are groundhog daikon radishes which are supposed to do wonderful things to the soil. I have them planted in a bunch of different spots. More info here.

Finally the guy who checked me out came out and said, “Hey sister. You had your key chain. Are you sure you didn’t grab the key?”

Yes, I told him: It’s a smart key. If I had the key I could get in the car and drive away.

[It’s the kind of key that just has to be close to the car, it doesn’t have to be inserted in the ignition.]

Me: You don’t know where the key is?

He said, oh, I know where it is. It’s here. Somewhere.

I wasn’t mad. I thought it was funny. I waited some more and the finally the other kid came out with my key, kind of shaking his head. “It was still hanging on the rack.”

On Christmas Eve, barely an hour before our company was expected to arrive I heard a tremendous crash. I thought something had come through our front window.

I was relieved that it was only our Christmas tree.

Then I was in a panic about how quickly I could clean it up and restore it to its original state before company arrived which was impossible because I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Bob was picking up my dad so I was the only one home.

I picked it up and propped it against the wall so there would be no repeat performance. Then I ran out to the garage and found an empty box for all the non-broken ornaments on the floor. I blotted up the water as best I could.

Meanwhile, our vacuum motor died and the vacuum is at the shop. We do have slightly functioning back-up vacuum and I found that little stair attachment and cleaned up the strewn pine needles and ornament shards as best as I could.

I wasn’t that upset about it — what can you do? But I was bummed that I haven’t even put up a tree in years and this year we would actually have company to see it. And then it looked like a disaster.

The other side doesn’t look quite as bad. I don’t know what happened. It must have gotten bumped or settled and leaned too much. It could have been a ghost.

If you want to keep track, I will add that our exhaust heater fan in the bathroom also broke this month and we had an electrician over who was super nice but also had a sharp eye and pointed out every problem with our house that is related to electricity. So lots of fixing happening with us.

Cookie fight: Yoda v. Bat Boy.

I think I finally fixed my website so that when you comment, I will get a notification in my email. This has been broken forever but yesterday I spent the afternoon trying to fix and/or modify a few things.

My plan for New Year’s Eve is to eat leftovers and watch Band of Brothers. I just started it this week and wow — it is terrifying and really good. It originally aired in 2001 so I’m finally getting caught up.

Happy New year. Hope all your wishes come true.