The Joys of Being Sick

Yes, I am sick again. After finally getting over my cold, or so I though, I started running a fever on Saturday evening, and feeling much worse than I ever did with my cold. This all really sucks because I am missing class and am way behind in school work and paper, but my particular drug cocktail makes it hard for me to focus and/or stay awake.

And yes, I’ve been to the doctor. I hate going, but I will go if I'm sick enough. Or if my friends browbeat me into going. But my visit to the health center was not all that helpful. The doctor told me “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but we’re seeing a lot of it.” Apparently people are getting sick with what appears to be a cold and are sick for a few weeks, then the feel better, and then all of a sudden get sicker than before. (which is exactly what happened to me). The doctor said she was not sure if people are just catching one virus after another because their immune systems are down or if everyone’s got some super virus or what. Comforting, eh? My friends and I who are similarly afflicted have started calling it Katrina Kough. EZ has worried that I/we will get meningitis since its going around and a kid died last week at our neighbor school, but EZ tends to worry enough for three people. D has actually been the most helpful making me fresh squeezed orange juice and helpful gargles, which I have at least had the sense to take.

I also complained to the doctor about the cold in the library and how I felt like that was contributing to my Katrina Kough, and she said half her patients had complained of the same thing, and she said that definitely makes it harder to get well so I have decided to complain with the head librarian and work from there.

Big N was making fun of me tonight as she came over to visit me and D. I was telling her some story and then half way through went on a couching jag and then finished the story without missing a beat. She started laughing because I was so blasé about my coughing fit and she said “I guess this is just normal for you now, huh?”

On the upside, this has provided me with some truly quality TV time. Since my fever tends to spike about 3am, I wake up then and watch a couple of hours of TV until I can fall back asleep. The 3am to 5am slot provides the best in C Span viewing, Jean Claude Van Damme movies, and infomercials. Honestly, did you guys remember that JCVD made a movie with Dennis Rodman? I didn’t either! The villain in the movie was played by Mickey Rourke no less. I think my fever actually helped this horrible movie make more sense by fogging my power of deductive reasoning. Of course someone would kidnap JCVD’s newborn baby and put the kid in the center of the Colosseum surrounded by landmines and a tiger. Doesn’t Mickey Rourke do that like once a week anyway? The best part of the movie was that they actually had the audacity to blow up the Colosseum in the end.

The infomercials on at this hour are also quite seductive. Are you familiar with Chef Tony and his bakeware? Well neither was I until 3am! Sure, my sis’ British boyfriend is obsessed with it – not ever having seen the infomercial I couldn’t understand -- until now that is. I’ve caught the fever for sure. See, the bakeware is flexible. No more taking a wet knife to your cake or muffins or banana bread to separate them from their intractable pans. Now, just twist and pop out your perfect muffin/cake/bread!

I mean, I am a cook, not a baker – they are very different skill sets I assure you. While I can cook a meal with nothing other than condiments, stale bread, and cheese (ask D, I made some amazing stuff when we were trapped in Austin with bad weather), I can’t bake from nothin'. I remember trying to make these lemon bars from a mix in high school and invariably I would screw up mixing the filling with the crust or the topping with the filling. It took 4 batches to get it right. Who knows why baking leaves me so flummoxed, but I’m kind of pleased it does otherwise I would be just a little to Suzy-homemaker for comfort. So I can’t bake worth a damn, but by god, Chef Tony makes me want to try. And you know, who cares if I mix the crust and the filling if I can just pop it out of my flexible bakeware. I don’t know what the stuff is made of, probably cancer, but I want it anyway. My birthday is July 24th people.

Of course, that is probably just the fever talking and once it abates I’ll be over it.