In Sickness & in Health, We Celebrate Number Five

Today I decided to stay home from work and bask in the pleasures of being ill, which pretty much consists of laying around, moaning, groaning, sneezing, blowing my nose, and coughing. I won't complain too much, though - the last time I was ill I spent the day puking, nauseous, and bed-ridden. Give me a cold over the stomach flu any day. Needless to say, things haven't been very exciting around here the past week. Stephen was sick with the same crud last weekend that lingered around for the majority of last week. Lucky me - I read that, because pregnancy lowers the resistance of your immune system, illness tends to last a little longer in pregnant women, so maybe I'll get to experience two weeks of sick. Lovely.

In the midst of The Sick, Stephen and I celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary on Friday, the 28th, by bargain hunting for summer clothes on the clearance rack for Baby Neener at Old Navy and eating Papa John's pizza in the comfort of our living room while watching Law & Order. I can't say it was the most romantic evening we've ever spent together, but that two hours out of the house was pretty wild, indeed, considering the fact we were both feeling like crap. Stephen was very sweet, however, and brought home an autumnal bouquet of flowers for me, which are pictured below. (Notice Charlie in the picture, trying to gobble up leaves, who I tried to push numerous times away from the flowers but was unable to due to his insanely strong greenery obsession. This is why the flowers are being kept on top of the mantle, out of the reach of kitties' mouths.)

It's hard to believe it's been five years since our wedding day, but then again, it's also hard to believe we've only been married for five years since we've been together for eleven years total. I think the fact that we've been together since the beginning of our senior year of high school, back when we were still kids, makes it feel like we've been together all our lives. People have asked me whether I ever feel like I missed out in college and in my early twenties, not getting to date around and really become my own person. Honestly? Sure, occasionally at the time the grass would seem greener and I'd be envious of my friends who were dating lots of guys and partying and having fun. There were even a few times in early college when I struggled with the decision of whether or not to stay in my relationship with Stephen. But, luckily I was a smart girl and realized what a good guy I had. I often think about the fact that having found each other when we were so young probably also kept me out of a hell of a lot of trouble. Just think of what a giant whore or drunk I could have become! (Because, you know, that's so in my nature to be those things.) Looking back, I don't regret in the slightest my decision to stay with Stephen, rather than to "live it up" during my college years. I feel very blessed that we were able to sort of grow up together during that rocky transition from the teenage years to young adulthood. I'm happy that we were given the chance to grow slowly as a couple over our high school and college years so that when we finally were able to get married, we had already established a strong foundation between each other. And, as I sit here and feel Baby Neener kicking inside of me, I'm happy we waited five years into our marriage before having children so that we had plenty of time to mature into a couple wanting to start a family, wanting to further expand our relationship, rather than a couple feeling like they ought to start a family.

Anyway, happy anniversary to my Neener - thank you for putting up with me and my insanity over all these years and for being such a wonderful husband. I honestly can't wait to enter the next phase of our marriage in January.

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Pros & Cons of Being Sick with a Cold

Pros

1. Staying home from work.


2. Not feeling guilty for calling in to work because this time I really was "that" sick.


3. That almost-drunk feeling the first hour after taking cold medicine.


4. For once, having a legitimate excuse to whine and cry.


5. Sleeping all day with the kitties.


6. Being waited on hand and foot.


7. The appreciation for the simple act of breathing I obtain during that first hour after taking cold medicine before my sinuses plug back up.


8. Not feeling obligated to shower, get dressed, put on make-up, or brush my hair.


9. Sympathy from others.


10. I am "allowed" to eat in bed.

Cons

1. The fact that the cold medicine says to take it every four hours, but in actuality I only get congestion relief for one of those four hours. The other three hours are spent blowing my nose in vain while watching the clock for the fourth hour to strike so I can get another measely hour of having the ability to breathe through my nose, the way God intended.


2. That feeling I get from cold medicine, where I still can't breathe because the medicine is crap and for some reason it also makes me feel like I'm trying to swallow my tongue.


3. Not being able to use most cold medicines that have lasting decongestion effects longer than an hour due to being very sensitive to such medications and their overwhelming "medicine head" side effects, which feel almost worse than the sickness, itself. The feeling that I'm swallowing my tongue is mild in comparison to laying in bed nauseous because the room won't quit spinning.


4. Husband starts avoiding me and has been caught rolling his eyes due to said whining and crying.


5. Sleeping all day with three kitties who don't care that I'm sick and may not want to be a junglegym on which to play and climb.


6. Daytime tv. It sucks balls. Large balls.


7. Feeling exhausted and sore from sleeping all day.


8. That dried, cakey feeling I get in my mouth from breathing through it.


9. Waking up in the middle of the night in a pool of drool and snot from breathing through my mouth because my nose is clogged, yet draining...and then also finding a used tissue tangled in my hair.


10. If I do get wild and crazy and choose to leave the bedroom (as I have done in order to write this post), I have to drag around with me: a big box of Puffs with lotion, my bottle of water (mouth breathing dries your throat), my jar of Mentholatum ointment (so to avoid an embarrassing chapped, red nose & upper lip), and my snot can (a trash can designated just for my piles of used tissues).

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Get Well, Get Well Soon...We Want You to Get Well

Reading the most recent post on Angie's blog makes me cringe. In it, she has some pretty rotten things to say about the year 2006, and was thrilled that 2007 is here. Surely it will be a much brighter year; after all, a year with butt surgery as one of its highlights shouldn't be too hard to top.

And I thought I was the only one with the special powers of jinxing myself.

Though it wasn't surgery on her rumpus, this past Tuesday she had to have an emergency appendectomy. As if that wasn't bad enough, she got so sick after the surgery that she had to make a second run to the emergency room yesterday. I spoke with her this evening, though, and she sounds 200% better than she did when I spoke with her last on Thursday night. My fingers are crossed that this is an indication that she's going to make it, because I really wasn't looking forward to having to take the poor gal out back and shoot her Old Yeller style to end her suffering. That would just be quite the bummer.

I feel just awful that, being several hours away, I can't do anything to help her. I am thankful that she has a few good friends up there who have been taking care of her, but then my territorial side also rears its ugly head whining, Hey, that's supposed to be MY job! Because, once again, you know it's all about me. How dare she get sick when I can't be there for her! Doesn't she know that makes me feel like a bad friend? The nerve of some people.

This is a picture of me and her from last month when we went to Chicago to visit her. Ang, I hope you'll be in good spirits again soon, but in the meantime, when Becky and Sarah are taking care of you, I hope you're picturing it's me.

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I Hate Sick

Apparently, there's this intestinal bug that's going around that I was unaware of until yesterday morning when - lucky me - I started showing symptoms that I'd caught it. Wednesday was my first day back to work from a week and a half break I'd taken for the holidays, so even though I felt a little icky yesterday morning, I figured I'd better sack up and go in anyway. Let's just say things progressed negatively, and I ended up leaving at noon. Throughout the evening, my condition continued to worsen and around 10 p.m. I decided I must be dying. I left what I'm sure is a pretty pathetic message at 2:15 a.m. on my boss' voicemail telling him I wouldn't be in today, which probably left him thinking, "TMI!" At 3:30 a.m. I finally fell asleep and then awoke around 6:30 to overwhelming nausea (which I'm sure you can guess what that led to). I napped for a few hours this morning and actually awoke feeling quite a bit better. So, maybe I'll make it after all! I'm still only eating Jell-O and Saltines, washed down with Powerade and Sprite, but this "diet" has thus far been keeping my nausea away. (Knock on wood.)

Anyway, I'm publishing this "poor me" post because: (a) I thought it would be quite a funny follow up to my last posting about the new year (I really know how to start off the new year on a positive note!); (b) I wanted to forewarn all of you (the whopping two or three people who occasionally glance at this!) about this bug so you can arm and protect yourself, *melodramatic tone* as I didn't find out about it until it was too late; (c) being confined to my bed for 24 hours straight has not been fun for the mind, body, or spirit, and I needed a break. I just don't know how the grandparents on Willy Wonka supposedly spent all those years in bed...

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