My Cold by Ariana Deralte, age 25

[deralte]

Much to my annoyance, the water in my ears from Monday's lifeguarding lesson developed into an ear infection by the end of the week, and on Thursday I also woke up with a sore throat, tons of mucus sliding down my throat, nausea from the mucus, and a general malaise. I still had to go to work, and spent most of the day trying not to throw up on the toddler's whose diapers I was changing. By evening, the cold got worse, with a mild fever, severe ear pain etc etc. I switched to an all pasta diet to calm the nausea for the next several days (today is the first day since then I've eaten anything different) and called in sick to work. This was a good call since I was hacking up huge gobs of phlegm all Friday, trying not to be sick or fall over. The doctor took one look in my ears and throat and prescribed antibiotics immediately (after discussing my opinions on Clive Cussler, and the Japanese economy vs the American economy... methinks my doctor doesn't get a lot of intelligent conversation at home). Which I took, then sat through 2 1/2 hours of lifeguarding instructional videos (trying not to throw up and only using up about half a box of tissues). I got lucky since it was pouring and no one had to swim.

Saturday, Dad and I had planned for a week or two to visit Ikea and get some furniture for our rooms since I was in desperate need of bookshelves and storage space. I was still feeling pretty awful but figured as long as he drove and I only helped load the car, it would be bearable. And surprisingly, it was. We toured around a bit (I, like many, have always wanted to live in Ikea... not to mention this was the first Ikea I'd ever been to in the US), then had a ridiculously cheap pasta lunch in their cafeteria (with a view of Newark airport that somehow made the airport look good (rather impressive for that place)), and finally made our purchases. Or rather, bought two of mine since a) Dad's choices weren't there in the colour he wanted and b) we could only fit two things in the car at a time. The rest of the day was spent assembling the shelves (not the smartest of moves on my part since I was getting a pounding headache whenever I lowered my head), then filling them. I was very pleased with how many books and dvds I fit in my skinny bookshelf, so much so that I might not even be able to fill the larger bookshelf I still need to get (this isn't really true of course since I could always grab some of the hundreds of books at my mum's house and transfer them to dad's). I then collapsed and slept a good 8 hours.

Today, I was supposed to have a massive 6 hour lifeguard lesson which I wasn't looking forward to considering I still couldn't breath through my nose, was coughing up phlegm regularly and was just not at my best. And then the Lord intervened and I was called an hour before the lesson and told it was cancelled due to not being able to use the pool. Hallelujah. I still had to go out and do a run to my mum's house, get gas, return a library book, buy more decongestant (and a few other things), and attempt to buy a Star Trek glass from Burger King (alas, I have missed the promotion), but those were all minor errands done in one roundabout trip, so I got to spend most of my day clutching a box of tissues, coughing up my lungs, playing computer games and reading fic.

Here's hoping I'm feeling better tomorrow cause I have work and then possibly a lifeguard lesson. Joy.

Comments

[infiniteviking]

Ye cats. I hope you do feel better soon!

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The phlegm is a little clearer today (I know, tmi), so here's hoping.

[infiniteviking]

Awwww. As long as it's subsiding! *sends virtual soup with veggies and stuff~*

[uninvitedcat.livejournal.com]

That cold sounds awful!

Out of interest, what are your opinions on Clive Cussler?

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Well, I've never read his books, but my general feeling upon seeing Sahara was that he writes about treasure hunters, not archaeologists. And that he himself is a treasure hunter, though certainly not as bad as some (he knows how to play the game, so to speak).

[uninvitedcat.livejournal.com]

I've read most of his Dirk Pitt books (of which Sahara is one), but I enjoy them because they're ridiculous and bad and make me laugh for the wrong reasons. Sahara has a partciularly fine example, if I can remember the quote correctly...

"If anyone can walk into Hell and back out again carrying a tequila over ice," he said with renewed determination, "It's Dirk Pitt."

Hysterically bad!

[deralte.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I do plan on reading them eventually (if the prose doesn't put me off), and I doubt I'll have much trouble with them personally. But they offend the professional archaeologist inside of me;)