Why me? Why now?

This is a line Heather and I have used quite often at the office. Anytime anything remotely bad happens to either of us, the line makes an especially dramatic appearance. Those of you who know Heather can imagine she is particularly good at delivering this line. 

Well, Heather's not at the office so much anymore, but this would so be one of those days. Why me...?! Why now...?! You'll have to  picture the dramatic hand to the forehead and sinking into my chair actions that accompany the words. 

In case you hadn't guessed, my sore throat is still alive and kicking. And throbbing. And making my right ear pound. And preventing me from one of my favorite activities: eating. When it finally comes to the point where I either need to eat or faint, I go through the food as fast as possible to limit the agony. I know, I know, you all feel so sorry for me. I feel sorry for me too. 

About an hour ago I actually looked up the prescribed dosage of Aleve. Did you know you're not supposed to take more than three Aleve a day? Since I took eight yesterday, and had just thrown back my fifth for just today, I'm now wondering what possible side effects I may incur. The only thing listed on the bottle is stomach bleeding, and how the heck am I supposed to know if that's happening? I think I'll back off the Aleve for now and run by Target to pick up some throat spray. Supposedly the main stuff, Chloraseptic, tastes awful and only works for half an hour, but that's got to be preferable to stomach bleeding, right?

As Ryan said yesterday, it's definitely a track four kind of day.

And we're back to finishing off posts with lines from Spring Awakening songs. Because I'm feeling particularly angsty this week, apparently.

It's the (bleep) of living,

(bleep), just the (bleep).

Boo for being sick

I woke up this morning and my sore throat was worse and had spread to take over my entire right ear. So I kept the promise I'd made myself, that if my mystery illness hadn't improved by today I would take myself over to the East County Urgent Care.

Oh, East County Urgent Care. It's been so long, hasn't it?

ECUC is where my parents took us anytime we were sick enough to necessitate actual medication (not just Dimetapp). It's where I went when I needed my knee stitched up in kindergarten. It's where my dad fainted when they injected a painkiller straight into the bloody gash while I took it like a pro. It's where I went when I burnt two of my fingers on Dad's rotiller when I was six. It's where I went again a few months laterwhen I burned more fingers on a hot bowl of fish sticks. (Man. I was a disaster that year.) It's where I went for the required TB tests for college, and where the school sent everyone with a minor emergency that they didn't want to deal with.

Anyway, so I was there, I waited, got called back, waited some more, got my temperature taken (100.2!), waited some more, got the dreaded strep test (How do you not gag during that test, I ask you?), waited FOREVER more (all the while contemplating just ripping my own ear off and saving myself the co-pay; it seriously felt like my ear drum was going to explode), and finally got to see the doctor. All of this just to be told I have an ulcer on my tonsil.

Now, dear reader, before you freak out like I did, and begin wondering what kind of terrible things I must go through to fix this, let me put your mind at ease: "an ulcer on your tonsil" is apparently the technical term for "you have a very bad sore throat." So no need to let your imagination run wild with all the horrible possibilities. Like a certain patient in Room 2 may have earlier today.

So. When all was said and done, I ended up with a prescription for an antibiotic that should help. It's been up and down for the rest of the day, depending on if I try to eat anything, how long it's been since I popped some Aleeve, and how long I can go before swallowing. Hopefully we'll see some improvement tomorrow, because seriously? I'm so over this being sick thing. And I really want some food without the additional ear drum explosion.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Battle of the Blogs

So that OSF boy is in Sedona, living it up by the pool and golf course, while I'm stuck here in our air conditioner-less townhouse, with the weirdest sore throat ever, and nothing but my two laptops to keep me company.

I needed some excitement, so I challenged the OSF to a little picture war. He's got this little Strongbad looking action figure that usually sits on a shelf in his room, which he took on his trip with him for taking fun vacation pictures.

Enter Grumpy Bear. Grumpy Bear is going to help me demonstrate how much fun we're having back here at home this week, while certain people get to sit in a jacuzzi in Sedona and not have a sore throat that's spreading to their right ear and making it hard to sleep in on Saturday mornings.

First of all, Grumpy Bear hopes everyone remembered to get their free 7.11 oz slurpee today.

Grumpy Bear stayed up super late last night, watching Anne of Green Gables and eating pepperoni pizza. That bear just keeps going back for more.

He spent some quality time helping me transfer the last of my music from the old laptop to the new one. Grumpy Bear is a lot more focused than I am. Probably because he's not fighting strep throat and an ear infection.

And what's a July Saturday without some tanning out by the pool?

The perfect kind of Friday night

Mandy, one of my favorite roommates is over; we're watching Anne of Green Gables and studying/picture editing. Sigh. I miss nights like these with the old roommates, where it was just a normal night to be sprawled out in the living room with a movie, over at the old Rancho apartment.

I'm getting sick. Again. This will make the third time in the last three months, which is really messing with my once a year average. The OSF thinks it's because I'm so distraught that he'll be gone for a week. I think I'm allergic to him.

Really though, I think it's just stress catching up with me. I'm not the type who gets stressed easily, but even I can't ignore the economic crisis and it's ramifications on my day to day life. In other words, I'm broke. And while I truly feel every thing's going to work itself out, apparently my immune system's decided to crash every once in awhile instead. Excellent.

So I'll be keeping quiet this weekend, which shouldn't be too hard considering the OSF's absence and my lack of funds with which to do anything. I've got a lot to finish anyway: the transfer of my files from the old laptop to my new one, Sonia's wedding pictures, Jen's baby barbecue pictures, setting up an appointment at the DMV to get a new license (yeah 25th birthday), and refiling my 2006 taxes (long story).

Meanwhile, here are the POTD's from the past week:

#187: Self-explanatory. I feel.

#188: Ryan practices his golf swing with the only thing handy.

#190: We really like taking pictures + the OSF spends time in the closet packing for his Sedona vacation.

#191: Nemesised! But he still doesn't know what for!

POTD's

#186: This is real time, people. July 5, 2009 is Day 186, and it finds the OSF and I at our favorite activity: sitting at his amazing computer desk, laptops and computers at the ready, DVD's playing on the TV to my left, and a bag of Sour Patch Kids between us. I just love that he's as "boring" as me.

#185: Fireworks over Coronado. Ryan, Britt, Chris, and I spent the evening eating dinner at Miguels before walking over to the golf course for fireworks over the Marriott. Good food, good fireworks, great friends... it's all you can ask for in a Fourth of July, really. After Ry and Britt ditched us, Chris and I went on a hot geocaching date. Sadly, we failed in our mission to find the two geocaches we were looking for. Next time, Coronado....
#184: Sadly, this is my only picture of our trip to San Bernardino. The morning consisted of Chris golfing with his high school buddies (Kris and Chris), while I camped out in the neighborhood Starbucks. Then I got to meet the old buddies for a bit (they had to screen me for the OSF; I think I was cleared), before we headed to the parentals, where Chris' mom showed me baby pictures and taught me how to sew in a straight line. Very productive trip. AND I now know a secret of his that he detests, which has come in very handy for teasing purposes.
#182: Another afternoon well-spent at the glorious desk.
#181: Ryan's actual birthday, celebrated at Chevy's Happy Hour, complete with a sombrero!

#180: The surprise Monday night date. We went walking on the beach in Coronado, toured the Dr. Suess statues (which had disappeared on the Fourth of July!), and went to the movies. Yeah, this is a picture of the bank, but it's the only one I could get clearly from the moving car.
#179: The cute OSF modeling at Sea World. He, Ryan, and I headed to the bay on Sunday for some shows and to look at polar bears.

Day Off

Well, faithful readers, today I find myself with a lovely day off of work, thanks to that blessed holiday called El Cuatro de Julio. Or, as the Americans call it, the Fourth of July. Plans for tomorrow are still fuzzy, but I have high hopes for Coronado, fireworks, possibly some bike riding, and hopefully more friends who are up for actually doing something on this holiday.

You may have noticed, faithful readers, that it's really freaking early right now. Well, maybe not early for you right now, but early for me at this moment. It is in fact before 7am. And you don't know this, but I'm not even in San Diego right now. Nope. I'm blogging from the road today, up in San Bernardino. I tagged along with the OSF today for a visit to his Redlands home. We left at 4:45am. Why so early? Because tee time is at 7:34, of course.

Rather than pay to follow the OSF and his friends around on the golf course (though the OSF would have been pleased as punch for me to be his caddy), I requested to be dropped off at the nearest Starbucks to get some real work done. So while they're out there sweating it out on the green, I'm enjoying the pleasantly air conditioned coffee shop down the road. I've got internet, DVD's, books, my external hard drive, and plenty of projects to work on.

So I'll be here, dear readers. Think of me as you sit at home reading this later on this afternoon, or perhaps this evening, and remember that at whatever point in the day it is, I'm probably struggling not to fall asleep.

Updated Blog Entry (UBE)

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