COMING UP FOR AIR

When I was in Fort Myers, Florida, I had the opportunity to see a manatee.  He (she?) was in an inlet pool.  The water was really murky and you had to stand there and just hope to catch a glimpse of one of them coming up for air, an event that lasted approximately 4 seconds.  Fortunately, there was one who surfaced twice while I watched.   


I feel like that is what I'm doing right now.  Coming up for air.  I've been in a cesspool of illness for the last 24 hours.  Actually, I've been "sick" for almost a week.  I just did what I always do.  I denied that it could ever happen to me.  I went into a firm state of denial about anything which would suggest that I could ever get sick!   Because I really don't get sick.  Part of that, I guess, is that I'm lucky.  But the other part is because I invest a lot of energy in being healthy.   I eat really well, exercise nearly every day,  limit my wine intake, get plenty of sleep,  floss. . .you know. . all the major things.  Except that since I've been living in someone else's house the eating healthy thing has gone the way of the dodo.  I don't eat unhealthy.   As a matter of fact, ask my friend Sandy and she'll tell you that I'm OBNOXIOUS about my healthy eating.  But still,  finding healthy items at a restaurant twice a day, every day, is not the same as stocking the refrig with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables,  making nutritious soups from scratch, and generally embracing the super foods as my main cuisine.  Haven't been able to do that.  Need to get back to that.  So maybe that's why I got sick. Or maybe I'm just like everyone else. . . .no. . .that can't be it.


Anyway. . . . . in retrospect, I probably should have bagged the whole MLK concert experience.  It is a grueling schedule, especially when one is driving 3 1/2 hours each way for practices.  But I knew I could soldier through.  Well I awoke in the hotel the day after the concert and I felt like someone was sitting on my chest.  I did not have the strength to even get out of bed after the previous day's schedule.  But I had to check out, so I dragged myself out of bed, got the car and hit the road.


I arrived here mid-day, and could only make it from the car to my bed.  I didn't even get my suitcase out of the trunk because that would have required too much energy.   I climbed into my Forever Lazy and pretty much passed out.   I couldn't believe how much worse I felt.  I had thought I was on the uphill swing.  WRONG!


Awoke this morning still feeling bad, although my breathing was easy and my chest clear.    So I stayed in bed and called in to the gym saying I would not be in (unheard of!),  called Choral Arts and said I would not be coming to practice tonight (impossible!), and put Dave on notice that I was iffy for the Wednesday night performance of La Cage aux Folles at the Kennedy Center (No!  Not that!).  


Not only do I think I won't get sick, I eschew any drugs of any kind.   So I was forcing fluids and using hot packs and drinking grapefruit juice and all the other non-drug remedies I normally use when I need them which is hardly ever.  But I was still  suffering from a throbbing headache.    So picture me at 1:00 this afternoon, still in my Forever Lazy,  having ventured down the stairs, holding a roll of toilet paper because there was not any Kleenex in the house (you don't need Kleenex if you're not going to get sick!) and I'm really tired of the headache.  So I ventured into Jean's bathroom and found a bottle of Aleve which had not expired. I bit the bullet and had ONE!.   And an hour later,  I perked right up.   An accident?  Perhaps not.  Anyway, I felt good enough to get dressed and venture out into the world.  To come up for air.


I drove to the Crappy Little House to see what was cooking.  Not a soul there but the flooring had been delivered and the drywall was now primed white.   Duncan the Builder showed up about 10 minutes later.   And then I got the call that the kitchen cabinets were a half hour away.  I was starting to be glad that I had not been able to hit the road!   I got to see the cabinets delivered!

Cabinet truck arriving!

Hard to see, but big strong man carrying one of the cabinets into the house.


This was pretty exciting, even if I was a little out of it.  Tomorrow the laminate floor will be installed in the living room/kitchen and 2nd bedroom.  Other flooring to follow.  The kitchen can go in after that.  This is huge progress.


So I'm sitting here painfully aware that the choir will be beginning to rehearse Beethoven's opera, Fidelio in about an hour and a half and I will not be there.  And I wish I was.  But on the other hand, I will be able to do something I have not been able to do for the last six years. . . . watch the State Of the Union address live.   He's my president, and I'm looking forward to hearing him.


The jury is still out about whether or not I'll venture north tomorrow for the show.  But in the meantime besides bringing in my suitcase, I've bought a box of Kleenex, another bottle of grapefruit juice and some Hall's lozenges.  Only one pill per illness.  And only if absolutely necessary.