What Now

Things I learned this weekend.

1) If you squeeze the nasal spray too hard, the fine, soothing mist becomes a lancet of liquid that causes atomic level pain. Not to mention, it can come close to drowning you. Avoid that if you can.

2) You can have a headache so bad that even when you fall asleep, you dream about having a headache.

3) A cold induced narcolepsy is inconvenient when you have things to get done.

4) My mom will call three times a day if she knows I'm sick, just to make sure I'm still alive.

5) Apparently the stoppers in wine bottles are no longer made of cork. Putting them in the oven makes them swell up and die. Now I have to figure out a way to make a stopper for my art final tomorrow. GAH! More on that later.

If you haven't realized it already, I was sick all weekend. It started on Thursday and by Friday, I was too bad to go to work. I had to send an e-mail to my boss begging him not to fire me for missing another day of work. However, sick or no, I give you my...

WEEKEND UPDATE!

Friday I stayed home from work and took full advantage of what Greg calls "The Green Def" or in non-budness, Nyquil. At first I didn't think it was going to work. I took it and sat back in my recliner with a book, fully expecting to conk out before I read a paragraph. It didn't seem to be doing anything until I stood up and the room did a quick river dance out from under my feet, then I realized I should go lay down. I ended up sleeping most of the day. Steve had volunteered to help the guys at the SpaceDome work on the compressor (which broke down just in time to cancel "The Polar Express") and so I was pretty much on my own for the rest of the day. I ended up feeling really bad because I had forgotten it was Butler's birthday! Butler didn't seem to mind much, I mean, he IS an old man now that he's 4, but Steve came to the rescue. When he got back from the dome, he had gone by Krystals and gotten Butler a box of fries, so Butler, Bear, and I sat down and shared them. It got a little scary at one point because Butler and Bear started to crowd me, but everyone got their fair share. So Butler forgave me for not having a party this year. Besides, he was just greatful not to have to wear a hat!

Saturday dawned much the same. Steve left to help at the theater some more and I shuffled my hide out of bed at some point. I kept medicating myself, probably moreso than I needed to, but a least I was able to breathe. I left the house once to pick up some stuff at Target and get lunch. It was during this time that I realized how bad I felt and that when I don't feel well, I get mean.

I was driving in the parking lot in front of the stores. Since I learned a long time ago that pedestrians get the right of way, I stopped and let some people walk in front of me to get on the sidewalk. This guy behind me honked his horn. I wasn't sure that he was honking at me, because I wasn't doing anything wrong, so I didn't react. More people were trying to walk by, so I waved them on and the dude honked again. This time I realized that he WAS honking at me.

*Let's pause a minute here to recap. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I had stopped to let pedestrians walk across the walkway because they had the right to do so. There just happened to be a lot of people out and about that day*

So I looked in my rearview mirror and see this middle aged guy in his little, fussy, yuppie-jerk car getting pissed off at me for being polite. Granted, I would have been driving had people not been walking in front of me, but Mr. No-Patience Ass didn't want to wait. So when one more person walked ahead of me, he punched the horn and lay down on it. At this point, the point in which Steve would have probably jumped out of the car and ran for cover had he been with me, I had two seconds to think and I didn't use them to think about what Jesus would have done. So I swiftly raised my hand and gave him the "California Howdy" out of the back window of my car. He kept on the horn, I kept up the finger. I even sat in the spot a little longer than I needed to to spite him. The walkway finally cleared, and I was able to go and that jack-ass decided that it would be in his best interest to drive on my tail. Was it not for the fact that I was pretty sure I'd sucker punch the guy in the throat if I came face to face with him, I would have slammed on my brakes and let him hit my bumper just so he'd have to pay for it. However, I ended up having to stop to let someone walk ahead of me again and the guy behind me made a disgusted face and slapped his dashboard and turned off to cow-pasture drive through the parking lot. At this point I started lauging at myself. I couldn't believe I had let some peckerwood touch me off like that! I was ashamed of myself, but also a little bit glad I gave the jerk the finger. Then I realized I needed to get a new Jesus-Fish for my car to curb my outbursts of road rage. It worked for my Cavalier, so certainly it would work for my Sebring. AHHHHH! I do not understand this horn honking thing that seems to be so popular these days. People will honk at you the second the light turns green. Literally before you could possibly take your foot off of the break, much less move the car. I think of them as Yankee-Drivers. That isn't totally fair, because I know some very nice yankees who probably wouldn't do that, but the only other time I've ever known people to do that was while I was in Buffalo, NY, so it's been inextricably linked with yankees in my mind. I hope I can be forgiven!

Anyways, so I got my stuff at Target and got my lunch and headed home. By then I had such a bad headache that I was afraid I'd not be able to drive home. I made it, though. I took some medicine for my head and it didn't work, so I finally went to sleep. When I woke up, I felt surprisingly better! I was still stopped up, but I wasn't wanting to die. I had a lot of homework and stuff to do, so I got started on that, but I felt much better than I had earlier. Steve was gone again to his Sunday School christmas party, which I would have gone to as well, but one of the women in his class is pregnant and I didn't want to make her sick. I had spells of nodding off to sleep, but I got quite a bit of my work done. Go me! I was feeling better until I woke up in the middle of the night coughing like crazy. I felt bad because I didn't want to keep Steve awake, so I got up to go sleep on the Lazy-Boy. I got comfortable and dozed off. Two seconds later I hear *scratch, scratch* which is Butler's way of asking to be let out. I figured that if I ignored him, he'd stop. No dice. He scratched at the door of his kennel for about an hour, and so I finally got up and let him out. All he wanted was to be petted, so in my state of semi-conciousness, I did. Everytime I'd doze off, the wretched beast would nose my hand (and he has a WET, COLD nose) and wake me up again. If I didn't love that dog so much, I would have shaved him out of sheer spite. I have no idea how long I petted him, but he finally decided that he wanted to go out. So I got up, let him and Bear outside, and couldn't go back to sleep. At about 4:00 am, I finally went back to bed and finally fell asleep.

Sunday I was too tired to move and my yuck feeling had come back. So I stayed home from church and my parent's house. I was able to drag myself about and work on homework, but if I got still, I'd fall asleep. I finally lay down on the couch to get a real nap and was out for several hours. When I got up, I worked on homework again and then worked on a gift I'm making. Then more sleep.

So this morning I got up and came to work, but I'm feeling better than I have been. Now I just have to make it through the day and try not to fall asleep at my desk...again. : )