Wish you were here…not

Just a quick note to say hi from New Orleans!
HI!!
So much fun, so much to write about, the food is awesome (shrimp po’ boys, the happiest Indian restaurant on the planet, biegnets, and coffee coffee coffee!), the weather is awesome (got a sunburn and everything), the boy is awesome (!).
New Orleans will always be to me the filthy lady with the pretty dress. So dirty, but I’ll be sad to leave Friday.
Latah, y’all

Merry Flu-like Christmas

I went in to Urgent Care today to find out if I was treatably sick or just ride-it-out sick. Strep trst came back negative though the doctor was concerned about the swelling in my throat giving me the usual ‘if it’s still swollen in so many days please come back’.
I have the flu, so it’s all pleanty of liquids and bedrest and Tylenol multi-symptom flu medicine.
Urgent Care was packed to the gills today which didn’t surprise me. It being Christmas eve they closed all but one location, everyone on the planet is sick and all being funneled to this one location. They were so busy they did my exam in the emergency heart attack room. Weird. The funny thing was that the nurse and the doctor kept apologizing to me. The apologized for making me roll up my sleeve to have my blood pressure taken, for having cold fingers when she took my pulse, for the slight uncomfortable moment when she swabbed my throat for the strep culture. I kept telling her it was fine, all normal procedure and all. The doctor kept apologizing because he couldn’t find anything he could treat with a prescription. I didn’t want a prescription, I don’t want any sort of bacterial or secondary infections. I am happy enough that it is just the flu and nothing worse. I understand perfectly well that antibiotics are no good against the flu and you don’t have to apologize to me for not prescribing them.
I am staying home today, will make the 2 hour trek to my mom’s tomorrow. Spending the time at Urgent Care wiped me out and showed that I really am in no condition to drive. I am bundled up in bed with the dog watching the extended version of Return of the King on my laptop. What a great time this is in human history to be sick! When I was a child I was reduced to coloring or reading in bed while sick. Now I’ve technology at my fingertips. or something.
I just got off the phone with my friend, Kerri! You should all wish her a merry merry christmas!

And a good day to you, sir

Happy holidays people! This is my crazy post of the season. I’ve been crazy busy all week shopping, hanging out with people and whatnot.
* First off, I got almost all my Christmas shopping done. I promised people that if they did not have an Amazon wishlist they would not get anything. I came through though and managed to get things for people! (see how I make myself out to be a hero? I do this because it’s true, I am a hero. A great big sparkly hero). I even broke down and bought wrapping paper instead of gift bags. I got dinosaur wrapping paper and not Santa paper, but I’m sure you understand. Hell, I even got little mini bottles of bubbles to tie on the packages. I’m swell.
* Nothing upsets a puppy more than seeing things that are obviously for him getting covered in paper and tape. Yes, I bought gifts for the dog and wrapped them for him. He’ll get to unwrap his gifts and everything.
* I am heading up to my mom’s for Christmas this weekend and in true-to-me fashion, I am completely unprepared to be away from home. I need to clean, do laundry, finish wrapping presents and go to urgent care to see if the swelling in my throat, glands and ear is the result of a treatable bacterial infection (strep) or sux-o-matic viral infection (flu). If treatable I need to get antibiotics now because…
* I go to my mom’s on friday, come back sunday and fly out to New Orleans on Monday leaving me no time to get to a doctor if I need one. Also, I want to get this treated ASAP because…
* I’m going to New Orleans to spend a week with the boy and his family. Meeting the parents is kinda nervewracking. Ick. BUT I will be in New Orleans and I will go the aquarium and eat good food and finally see the boy after missing him all week. Also, the weather will be warmer than this negative degrees of cold crap.
* Stupid fucking cold weather, I hate you.
* Peanut butter cookies kick ass. Homemade peanut butter cookies made by a coworker as a bribe for a favor are all the sweeter.
* I have a chuck roast simmering away in my special secret chili spices at home right now. I haven’t made chili in a long time, I’m kind of excited about this. The leftovers will have to be taken by Alan as I will not be home for a week starting tomorrow.
* Last Sunday I went grocery shopping and after putting everything away I realized that I was not going to be home all this week for dinner (with the exception of chili night tonight) and I would not be able to eat this food. My friends will be getting lots of perishable groceries.
* The actual DAY of Christmas never has that much significance to me. People keep saying ‘3 more days! Aren’t you excited??’. Well, honestly, no. With the various and sundry Christmas dinners and celebrations spread out between the divorced parents, friends, other families and whatnot, the actual DAY of Christmas, 12/25, gets a little lost. It’s cool actually, because I have a whole month of getting to celebrate instead of concentrating it all on one day.
* For the first time in YEARS my nails are chewed. I haven’t chewed my nails in the longest time. I sort of nibble on them occasionally, or I gnaw on my thumbnail, but I never chew them in such a way that my nails look short and chewed on. I think the combination of really cold, dry weather combined with holiday madness has conspired to make my hands look like those of a 14 year old emo girl.
* Yeah, I’ve rambled on enough. People, you have yourselves a happy happy holiday week. Eat a lot, hug a lot, hump a lot if you have someone or something to hump, find one person and forgive them, eat some fruitcake to remind yourself that this is the worst thing you could possibly eat, bundle up and enjoy the ride.

A chance encounter

At Target last night buying the odds and ends for Christmas and personal well being. Wandered to the health and beauty section to pick up the last item.
‘Calculatedly good-looking suburban white guy’ and i go down the same aisle together to get what we need. My item comes in boxes of 12 and 36, I need the box of 36 but there are 3 of the 12 packs hanging on the peg in front of the box of 36 that I want. Pulling the 3 small boxes off then grabbing my economy pack I feel success. Mr Guy comes back down the aisle towards me and we glance at each other.
He’s holding a giant box of tampons as though they were tainted with nuclear waste, I’m standing there holding 72 condoms in my hands (only wanting to buy 36, mind you). In an instant, our eyes said everything that needed to be said. We both knew who was going to have fun.
It was sad to see a man look so defeated in such a short span of time.
As an afterword…
I bought my condoms last night and arranged the ones I had by expiration date (doesn’t really matter since they get used regularly and the expiration dates are for sometime in 2007, but…you know). This morning I got to work and a friend had sent me a large package of condoms to make sure I had a happy and healthy holiday season.