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Day Five

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Keeping it real.

Kleenex, cough drops, medicine. Repeat.

I’ve reached the stage where coughing keeps me awake at night. That’s what happened last night and I’m feeling exhausted today. But in other ways, I am getting better. I just need to rest and be patient.

With that in mind, I decided to opt out of going into the city today for the Meet and Greet for Anastasia. I’m sorry I’m missing it (you remember I went into the city a day ahead of time for the first scheduled Meet and Greet, which got canceled because of that snowstorm.) I seem fated to not be a part of that particular event.

Anyway, the thought of the commute, the worry about coughing jags and possibly infecting others, and my exhaustion made me decide to stay home. Darko doesn’t need me for a while so I’m going to be grateful for that and take care of myself.

I am finally able to read, which is a good thing. At least I’ve improved enough to be able concentrate on something in print. The big test today will be whether I can concentrate on the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Don leaves in three weeks. I’m starting to have an awfully hard time with that reality.

By the way, I actually saw a commercial last night plugging the FIC’s nominee for the Supreme Court. I might be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of thing before. We were dumbfounded.

Happy Thursday.

Comments

  1. Claudia I meant to send a note earlier to wish you well. Please know I am sending feel better wishes, positive vibes, and prayers for your speedy recovery.

    I had to laugh (cry really) regarding the doll clothes incident in a previous post! My sister and mom cleared my antique filled pink bedroom out when I left home. They also got hold and read my 5 yr through high school diary! Hurt my sense of trust so badly. To this day, I am cautious about keeping a journal.

    Canadian geese are a spiritual sign for me. Someday I will tell you several stories of why!

    Take care. Rub your chest with Vicks salve and put a warm cloth over that. Sip on hot liquids. And sleep, sleep, sleep. Love, Becky in OK

    • My mom was rather ruthless about all of that and I still mourn that doll and the doll clothes, Becky.

      I’m trying to drink lots of liquids. If only I could stop coughing!

  2. So sorry this bug has brought you down. Sounds like a perfect time to get lost in a good book and get your head in a new place. Why do those pesky bugs always hit when you haven’t the time for them?

  3. Hope you feel better soon.

    Boy! I can relate to Becky concerning the diary. My mom read mine after I left home. And she didn’t like what I wrote concerning her. Even now I am cautious about what I write. And pesky bugs hitting at the wrong time, we were in transit to our next duty station several years ago and I came down with some kind of coughing thing, staying in motels in strange beds,driving cross country is not condusive to being sick.

    Because of sort of your recommendation of the author Deborah Crombie, I am reading her very first book. I am looking forward to reading her next book when I finish this one.

    • I am a big fan of Crombie. I know you’ll love this series, Trina. Watching the characters progress and change is part of the fun!

      • One time I was away at work when my mother-in-law was visiting. I didn’t know her very well (she wasn’t likeable; my husband warned me about it before he and I married; sad, isn’t it).

        While I was gone from home, although I didn’t know it at the time, she helped herself to a book from one of my bookcases (I’ve always had A LOT of books; multiple bookcases and shelves…but of all my books, she chose this ONE). It was a bookcase in a back bedroom she wasn’t staying in, a kind of private nook; not the main living area either. It was a clear case of snooping. Some weeks/months later, I happened to notice the book was gone when I was cleaning in there. I finally figured out what must have happened – she had to have taken it. My book! She didn’t even ask! The book was given to me by a former boyfriend from my youth and had a very private, poignant, lengthy, PERSONAL inscription from him, written beautifully from the heart when we were going through a difficult time. The book meant a lot to me, still does; part of my past, some of the best of my past. My husband is cool with this; he has his mementoes, too (he’s even been married previously) .

        So, I had my husband call his mother; yep, she’d ‘borrowed’ it. Packed my old book in her suitcase that weekend and took it with her to where she lived in another state, far away.

        It took me a year to get that book back.

  4. I think that you are correct; it has never been done before.
    I am distraught at the threat to PBS, NEA, and now, AmeriCorps. This den of thieves plans to destroy everything! Then when they have taken away everything, they will expect us to be grateful for crumbs.

    • They are despicable. Everything that has led to a better quality of life for Americans is being taken away. I will do everything in my power to take back the House in 2018.

  8. Hi, i saw that endorsement/ad a few days ago. I was dumfounded and confused. Unless we have a vote now for Supreme Court Justice. Now that would be interesting. I read your blog but I am trying to keep if not calm not so outraged Still outraged though.. Which is why my comments have been absent. My husband is not the outrage type like me. I vent to my son and sometimes my Democratic Congressmen. Have you been reading Juanita Jean’s blog. I do not know how to send you the site but Juanita Jean’s dangerous beauty salon should get you there. She is right on and a hoot to boot. Hope you feel better soon, “rest is best”.

    • Well, I haven’t really posted anything to do with politics for a while, Mary. I’ve been too tired/busy/sick. This is the first little tidbit I have tossed into a post for a while.

      I know. Trying to keep calm in the midst of all that’s happening is a real challenge! I’m trying, too.

  9. So happy you can stay put and hopefully recover! I saw the ad you mentioned while we were traveling….it was either in Ohio…no surprise there, or Indiana. Haven’t seen it here yet…but it wouldn’t surprise me either.

    I understand the feelings you are currently experiencing regarding Don’s departure in 3 weeks. My London son is coming home on Friday….I get one family dinner for sure, have to share the remaining day with his friends. Then he works for 5 days, and we get to take him back to the airport, and I’m already dreading it! But….it will be good to see him if only for a bit. It is what it is!

    You know the drill…drink plenty of fluids, and feel better! ;)

    • Well, this was in NY of all places! A Blue State.

      Separations are hard, indeed. I’m glad you’re going to see him, but sad that it all goes by so quickly. In my case, Don leaves mid-March and doesn’t come home until July. Too long. It’s really hitting me now, and I know it’s made even worse because I’m feeling sick at the moment.

  10. I ‘ve seen that ad for Gorsuch for about a week now – and believe it IS a first. Also read a few days ago that the RNC had a record-breaking month in January for fundraising – apparently about $19M. So it seems they’re putting that money to use. Not GOOD use mind you, but nevertheless. I’m willing to bet we see a lot more of this kind of thing while Trump is President. It’s clear he’s a child of the television era [emphasis on “child”] and views TV as one of the best ways to get his messages disseminated, such as they are. Glad you aren’t having to trudge into New York right now. Devoting a few days to solid rest and trying to get well is ALWAYS the more effective plan. I’m thinking of SO many co-workers who dragged themselves into work when really sick – wheezing & hacking all over the place etc. These folks not only spread illness around BUT kept themselves sicker longer than necessary. Um-day! So you’re not only more considerate, you’re smarter! May the Force zap your cough etc tonight!! 💛 Peace.
    #Resist

    • It’s unseemly to have advertisements for a Supreme Court Judge. But then again, we’re dealing with someone who gets his information from Fox News. No class, of course, and making what should be the most coveted and honored of positions – Justice on the Supreme Court – something that is hawked and advertised like an episode of The Apprentice.

      I’m coughing quite a bit today and I’m just realizing how weak this has left me feeling. So I’m really glad I stayed home, Janet.
      Thanks!

  11. So glad you didn’t have to go into the city. I know how those coughing spells ruin your sleep. It will get better but gosh it’s not fun while it’s going on. I know you will miss Don. I was thinking how much I miss Ashleigh, haven’t seen her since Oct. I think she will come visit in the spring but if not I’ll fly to Cali!!

    I have not seen the ad, and I’m surprised but not at the same time. It’s not the way I see our government working. I have the window open for fresh air and Annie is enjoying it very much. The birds are starting to come to the feeder and so she is also enjoying ‘cat tv’!!

    • Especially the tickle in my chest, non-productive cough of today. So frustrating and just plain tiring.

  13. Dear Claudia, you’re so sick. Very wise decision to not push yourself; you MUST get well! Our bodies try to tell us to rest; heal. So many years when I worked outside the home, when I’d be very sick and having to keep working…ugh…how I remember it. Sometimes, depending upon the job, being able to go home at lunch, wrap in a blanket and think, ‘how can I possibly go back to work in 30 minutes?’ But I’ve had employers who were heartless. I actually worked through a phase when my cough was so bad at night, I felt like my lungs were ripping apart but, still, I’d go into work the next morning because, again, my boss was a brute about absenteeism. My doctor told me six months later, on xray, that he thought I’d actually been suffering from pneumonia; my lungs were scarred! I needed that job; I couldn’t jeopardize it with the boss’ ire or censure but, today? I’d tell him to go take a hike; it’s just stupid to make employees work when they’re sick; yes, infecting everyone else but also getting no productivity from the sick person, so what’s the point?

    I’m doing this with my knee; I stayed off of it completely yesterday and although it’s still stiff and painful (going to the doctor today about it), I’m getting around better. I just stopped everything; had to; walking is so labored. There’s a time to tough it out, but then not!

    We have beautiful sunshine after an abundance of rain here in SoCalif today. We are wet and soggy, though, and the nights are in the 40s. More rain, unbelievably, coming in on the weekend. In wet years, my part of the state can still get a lot of rain in March.

    I’m glad if Don has to go to Calif, it’s March and not January. I would shudder to think of you in a whole lot of snow, alone again, like you were that one horrible winter when I think Don was in Boston, away from you and Scout weeks on end. As I’ve said before, you were climbing up trying to get ice/snow out of rain gutters and the like and, my gosh, I was feeling so wary about all that as were your other readers! You were wearing out; it was really getting to you.

    But I can relate to the feelings because my husband has been gone on jobs the better part of the past 7 weeks and, you know, if you’re married, you’re conditioned to BEING married and having that other person with you day-in/day-out so, when it’s not that way, you feel out of your skin; things out of sync. You get through it, but wish it could be otherwise. It’s rough out there, though; gotta make a living; gotta pay the bills! My husband’s just glad, in his 60s, that he can still work and earn a paycheck!

    • So tired of coughing, which seems to be going on non-stop today. A tickle in my chest but nothing productive. I’m tired and ready for this to be over, Vicki. But I’m sure glad I didn’t go in today.

      I’m glad Don and I can work too, but over 3 months away from home seems too much for me at the moment. We’ll survive, but I’m really dreading it.

      • We’ll be there for you, here on the blog, Claudia! Maybe your readers can be a little company for you…maybe the time will go fast. Besides which, you’ll get to join Don at least once and you’re coming to a California that looks like Ireland at the moment; we’re so green and pretty after YEARS of looking brown and ugly. It is GORGEOUS with the blue ocean and green hills. And we already have yellow wildflowers on the coastal cliffs. VERY scenic. I noticed so much of it as we drove through Malibu on Monday…rainy Malibu with no cars, no people; it was glorious because it can get so congested on Highway 1 through there, especially on a holiday weekend…and I may be wrong but I think the native yellow, because it’s not yet mustard (that comes more in April), might be coreopsis. I’ve had the fun in previous years of visiting SoCalif’s offshore Channel Islands (this isn’t Catalina Island, but instead Anacapa Island, Santa Cruz Island, San Miguel Island, etc.) and, around this time of year in a ‘normal’ rain year, the coreopsis has been a carpet of yellow on those islands. With all this rain in SoCalif, I expect to see whole meadows of blue lupine and our orange poppies and probably stuff we haven’t seen in years, even growing off to the side of the roads here. Can’t wait! In my yard right now, I have tulips forcing, and the daffodils are lovely.

  14. We saw that commercial as well as one for your Secretary of Education… we also thought it strange… It seemed odd that there would be commercials for confirmations…
    Wishing you well as you recover, Claudia!

  15. So sorry this cold goes on and on; patience is the order of the day but that is hard to come by when you find yourself constantly coughing…..

    Well, every time you think Orange Man, fake president, can’t go any lower, he and his gang of thugs manage to find new lows. Have to pay attention each day with this evil and the followers.

    Hoping you will be able to visit Don at least twice; I know this is especially a miserable time to face this separation. Thank heaven for cell phones, and computers; especially Skype!

    Wishing you a peaceful night, Dianne

    • They are beyond despicable, Dianne. Today, I had to stop reading about the thugs because I can’t take it and this cough, as well.

      Thanks, Dianne.

  16. I think I get something every time you do. How does that work??? We’ve seen some pretty odd commercials here too. I guess everyone wants their voice heard. It is just pretty hard to listen when I feel like I have heard it all before. All we can do is just keep on and keep voicing our feelings. Everyone has a right to express their views I just wish people would think how their views affects each and everyone of us from the handicapped child, to the young girl who has to give up her scolarship because she happened to get pregnant, to the foreign born student who only knows our coulntry as his own, to the numbers of us who depend on Social Security. It’s about all of us not just some.

    • We must be so strongly linked genetically that we come down with something at the same time!

      You’ve said it very well, Eileen. It’s about all of us. xoxo

  18. So sorry about your infection/flu/whatever, Claudia…it is going around here, too. Sounds like you are doing as much as you can to get better. Sleep is good. I’m battling something myself and I should get the blood test results tomorrow. Long story short, I don’t have much of an immune system now so I’m fighting off germs every freaking day. I don’t even bother taking OTC meds. Since September ‘sick’ has been the norm. I hope you are well by the time you have to travel. Home is so comforting when you feel like crap.

    Read your post about Don at the nearby protest near your home. The eagle flying overhead~~~it made the hair on my arms stand on end. I saw an illustration on FB right after the election. It was of the Statue of Liberty. There was a tear rolling down her face.

    All the best,

    Jane

    • Oh, have to say, such an illustration I haven’t seen but to show our Statue with a tear rolling down her beautiful face, could anything else capture how so many of us Americans feel right now? That’s an image straight to the heart.

  19. Been reading your lovely blog for a while now – just wanted to let you know how much pleasure you’ve given me and to wish you well :)

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