Week 4 - Fog Then Clearing

Instead of tackling a project like I'd hoped, I spent MLK Day catching up on chores, going slowly in hopes that I wouldn't need a nap. I went to knitting but felt like the conversations were swirling around me while I sat there in a fog. The foggy head continued at work on Tuesday and I was exhausted by 5:00 but I forced myself to swim, figuring I had to start sometime. I stayed as deep as I could and didn't participate in any of the group exercises, keeping my coughing as far away as I could. I didn't make it through the whole class but felt good for having made the effort.
 
Well, I don't know if it was the swimming or just time passing but my head finally cleared on Tuesday night. Don't get me wrong, I was still congested but I could think again, which was wonderful. But on the flip side, after my knee feeling great for weeks, on Wednesday it was twingy as all get out. Was it the swimming? I could only hope not because I had no intention of stopping swimming. I didn't swim again all week though, more because of working late though. My knee was still twingy, which was disappointing but what could I do?
 
I kept my weekend free, figuring I shouldn't push it until I was 100%, but when it was going to be near 50 on Saturday, I got busy. I cleared out my car, loaded up the recylcing and headed to the car wash to vacuum out the car, which was still a mess from the library grass clippings I'd schlepped last spring. It was like a new car when I was done. Then I headed to Dollar General for a big stock up then home to put it all away and knit. I finished a cape for Elise's American Girl doll for her birthday on Monday. I think it's the cutest thing I've ever knitted and perfectedly used up a skein of yarn from the thrift shop. Nice!
 
Something snapped in my knee while I was in bed Sunday morning and my knee was back to feeling great again, which was a relief. I spent Sunday doing chores, more knitting and cooking, which was perfect because it was a gloomy, rainy day. I had moved on to more cute knitting - this time blue striped baby booties for my cousin's daughter who is having a boy at the end of March. I was still congested a bit but it was minimal and the fatigue and foggy head were long gone so I ended the week feeling much better. After 2 weeks of feeling under the weather, I am more than ready for a normal week.

Week 3 - Down with Bronchitis

My fever was gone on Monday, so that was progress but my coughing was tearing up my lungs. I sat like a zombie all day, watching daytime tv and coughing. But at least I was sitting up and I survived the day without a nap. I hoped to feel even better on Tuesday but I didn't sleep well with all the coughing so was worse on Tuesday. More tv and no knitting for the fourth day in a row. Now that's sick!

By Wednesday I was beginning to feel human again and my cough no longer felt like razer blades in my chest. I was actually able to putter a bit and get some neatizing done, which was wonderful. Just running the dishwasher felt like a treat! And I finally picked up my knitting. Yes, I was on the mend. I set my alarm when I went to bed, intending to go to work on Thursday. Well, that was the plan but just trying to get ready left me exhausted so I decided to start with a half day and went in for just the afternoon. That was a good decision. Four hours was plenty to start.

I made it all day on Friday and lived to tell. I was dead tired by 5:00 but did manage to get quite a bit done and had a three day weekend to recoup. I had already bailed on spinning on Saturday and spent most of the day sitting and knitting. I had hoped for a productive Sunday so I could get all caught up on chores and have Monday for a project, like slogging through all the crap in the laundry room. Well, I started by taking the tree down and then moving all the furniture so I could sweep everywhere. Well, you would think I'd run a marathon! By mid afternoon, I couldn't keep my eyes open and went down for a two hour nap. So much for getting caught up. Clearly I was still not 100%. At least I had the extra day. I was going to need it.

Week 2 - A Bad End

The week started out normal but didn’t end that way. I guess I was due though.

I was looking forward to getting back to a normal routine but it didn’t go very well. I was literally half way to work, having ignored some symptoms, when I decided that it would not be a good idea to go to work with my abdomen giving me fits. I called Nora from the road and turned around. It ended up being a good decision and I layed low all day, happy to be home. I did make it that night to knitting at the library, bringing the cookies I’d baked on Sunday.

I was back at work, good as new on Tuesday. I had decided to skip swimming for the week, despite desperately wanting to be back in the water, because class was in the lap pool due to a problem with a pump or some such. And since my knee had been feeling great lately, I didn’t want to put it through the ultra shallow water workout so would just wait another week. I hit Joann’s after work on Tuesday and got a big score of sock yarn that was on sale plus I had a coupon for 20% my entire order. I had plenty to share with the knitters.

Darla and I went to Lincoln after work on Wednesday, which was wonderful. It was 2.5 hours long but it went by in the flash. It left me feeling horribly ignorant of American history. I guess that’s easy enough to remedy.

The rest of the week flew by and it was Friday night before I knew it. After stopping at the market, I headed home. I had a little cough starting but was hoping it was nothing. I was going to meet Darla for lunch and Les Mis on Saturday. Well, it was clear when I woke up Saturday that I had something going on. The cough was worse but so far that was it. I actually considered still going but am glad I decided against it because by lunch, a fever and chills had set in. It was bad and came on so suddenly that I was sure I had influenza. After a few hours shivering in bed, I drove myself to the ER, which was my only option on the weekend without driving to Lincoln or Omaha, which I wasn’t up for. Well, I was there for a couple of hours and had a flu test, which came up negative. They gave me 2 days of antibiotics and a prescription for 3 more days worth and sent me on my way.

Sunday was more of the same but by the end of the day, my fever had broken. I was exhausted, achy and still coughing but no longer freezing. I slept on and off all day and found a care package in my side door – orange juice, 7 Up and chicken soup – when I was looking for the newspaper. It ended up being from my neighbor Judith. I called Nora only to find out that Mary and Josh had come down with this same crap and Cheryl had a confirmed case of the flu. I called in for the duration, watched Downton Abbey and went to bed. At least the fever had broken. How was that for looking for something positive?

Week 1 - Happy New Year

I was starting the week on a fun note with the knitters coming over in the afternoon. I’d done all my chores on Sunday so just had some cooking and tea stuff to do. So, when Lorri called and asked if I wanted to go out to lunch at Chips, a newish restaurant in Wahoo that I’ve wanted to try, I said “Sure.” Then I stopped at the optician’s just to drop off something and ended up trying on glasses so went right to lunch from there. Chip’s was closed so we went to the Wigwam, which has great food but seemed to be lacking wait staff so wasn’t quick. After waiting 20 minutes for our check, I bailed at 1:00 and ran home with less than an hour to get everything done. SO typical.

The scones were still in the oven at 2:00 but no one seemed to mind. I mostly served stuff I’d gotten for Christmas and there was plenty. The chocolate panettone from Deanne was a big hit. By 2:30, we were enjoying yummy food and knitting in the sun. It was a lovely way to end 2012. After everyone left, I had a snacky dinner with some wine and was in bed early. No ball drop for me. I’m totally over that!

Wednesday was the last day of break. Where had the time gone? I had hoped to get the laundry room cleaned out before going back to work but couldn’t muster the energy to even start. It just seemed like a dismal way to start the new year so after I inventoried my freezers (how's that for a lame attempt at getting something done?), I spent another day knitting in the sun. Go figure.

It was back to work and monthly reports on Wednesday. They didn’t go well but we figured it all out and it made the time fly. Since there was no swimming, I went home and got some stuff done. I brought banana bread to work on Thursday, which made the boss very happy. I had lunch with Layton on Thursday and Darla on Friday. The weekend was here in a flash. You gotta love a 3 day week, right?

But get a load of how it started. I was going to hit my favorite thrift shop, alas, without Darla, on Friday. On 16th Street there was someone driving super slow in the middle lane so I passed him, a tatooed guy with a cow ring in his nose who was ON HIS PHONE. A few blocks later, I'm on O Street (Lincoln's main drag) and 2 cars in front of me someone stops to let someone get into the car. The whole string of cars stops and then I hear the screech of tires and the idiot on the phone rear ends me! Now the frantic braking worked so he was barely moving when he hit me but I got out of the car, checked the bumper (keep in mind this is rush hour on the main drag!) and screamed like a banshee "GET OFF THE PHONE!" and waved him off. Do you think he learned anything? I can only hope.

I had lots to do on Saturday – a Friends of the Library meeting, bank deposits, the bag sale at the senior center thrift and stopping at Andrea’s. After that I was going to go home and be productive. Yeah, right. I was actually feeling good about my day and had extra time before Friends so decided to prep my door prizes for the Wine & Dine. Well, in attempting to wipe down a nice bottle of wine from the wine rack (to go in the cute wine bag I had), it slipped out of my hands and smashed all over the kitchen floor. Did I mention that it was red wine? Yup! All over the floor - wine and glass. So all my spare time was taken up washing the floor. Twice. Oh well. I ran to Friends, getting there just in time and with a good story to tell. Now the question is, can I do a tax deduction for the broken bottle of wine or just its replacement? Any thoughts?

My last stop of the day was Andrea's shop and Lori was there picking up yarn. She was so hungry we could all hear her stomach so I suggested we get some lunch and when Andrea suggested Chips, which I still hadn’t tried, we all agreed. Lori and I headed there to wait for Andrea, who had a customer in the shop so couldn’t duck out early. Well, the customer, who heard our plans for lunch, didn’t leave at 1:00 so I called Andrea and told her to stop being a door mat and kick her out. She did it reluctantly and met us close to 1:30. We had a lovely lunch of fun beer and delicious food. It's practically a miracle that there's such a good restaurant in Wahoo. I need to do my bit to keep it there so plan to frequent it a lot. Anyway, after lunch, Andrea and I went to Dollar General to split the $30 required to save $5. By the time I got back home, stopping on the way in the door to chop some ice in the driveway, it was 4:00. So much for getting anything done! I had some tea and read in the sun beaming in the front windows. There's something so therapeutic about getting sunshine in winter. It makes it hard to get anything done but I'll chalk it up to a health benefit and call it good.

Sunday was chores, chores and more chores. I did manage to get some knitting and more tea and reading in but also cooked up a storm - quesedillas for lunch, a big pot of red sauce, another pot of chili and compost cookies (don't give me that look! Compost is good and these used up old pretzels and chocolate covered raisins - delicious!) So I ended the week with a frig full of food and restocked the freezer with easy meals for busy nights. How wonderful is that! Now to keep up the positive things for the rest of the year.

2013 - Just One Word

The work for this year is SHAKE!

Huh? I know. I struggled with how to articulate this and did consider DIFFERENT but I settled for shake as in SHAKE IT UP! Because in 2013 I need to shake it up and get out of my rut. 2012 was a wonderful year but I feel like I've been doing the same things over and over again so this year I'm going to explore new things. There will still be plenty of knitting but I'm going to expand beyond socks and look for different things to try. It's also time to get out of my travel rut. I'll being going to Ireland in May on yet another knitting trip but beyond that, I'm going to make sure I find some new destinations. Maybe this will be the year for Colorado? I'm open to anything new and different so if you have any ideas for me to try, do let me know. I'm up for anything in 2013.

Week 53 - Christmas and Home

First thing on the list for Christmas Eve morning was to get Auntie Margaret’s Christmas pudding steaming by 9:00. Check. Then it was just a matter of getting ready to be gone all day and watching the pudding. Clearly there was some knitting time in there. I was out the door shortly after noon to pick up Aunt Margaret for lunch. We went to the Crow’s Nest for belly clams (me) and lobster roll (AM) before heading the church. I was taking her to the children’s service at St. Luke’s – the church I grew up in where she still goes. I had hoped for all kinds of warm and fuzzy nostalgia but got nothing out of the service. Maybe I would have at the 11:00 p.m. service, which has all the mystery of night time with only candles while singing Silent Night and that kind of thing. Since I can’t see that in my Christmas plans anytime soon, I’ll just have to wonder. From there I dropped AM at my cousin’s and then headed to John’s mom’s for dinner. Normally I would have been at David and Ronnie’s but AM had called specifically to tell me it was off so I made other plans, only to find out it wasn’t off. Oh well. I was more than happy to be at John’s, enjoying a delicious meal cooked by Brian, John’s step dad, Christmas crackers (not the eating kind) and libations galore. I had to abstain from most of it but did enjoy sips of all but the aquavite (think Norwegian grain alcohol.) We had shrimp and squid curry, which was what John had requested. Hmmm….. From there I drove to Tracy’s to pick up Carolyn and then it was home to fill stockings. But Matt was still upstairs wrapping presents so it was a VERY late night. I guess that’s to be expected on Christmas Eve.

 

Aaron had set an alarm so we were up at 7:00 on Christmas. The stockings (3 – one from Carolyn and each of my sisters) were the usual hit. I got lots of fun stuff, as always. After all the stockings and gifts were opened, we had French toast for breakfast then started in on dinner prep. We had the roast in the oven on time and had some down time while that cooked. As usual, we had issues with the oven and it was cooking WAY too quickly. We ended up turning the oven off and it was just one degree off perfect when it was time to eat. Carolyn’s parents and her neighbor Jen joined us for dinner, which was at 4:00 because Ed and Helene had gone to the first matinee of Les Mis. As I suspected, once dinner was done and cleared up, there wasn’t a chance in hell that we were going to the movie, especially because I was leaving the next morning. It was a lovely Christmas.

Leaving so soon after Christmas meant that there was none of the usual shopping but that was clearly unacceptable. Carolyn and I got up early on Wednesday and were at Job Lot by 8:15. The store was deserted and, as usual, I nearly filled a cart. There was the usual leftover Christmas stuff but lots of other stuff too, including a few stocking stuffers for next year. We headed home so I could pack. I popped my suitcase (gotta love that function) and managed to fit absolutely everything, including the huge panetone from Deanne and yummy lunch in my carry on. Then it was off to the airport. My flights were uneventful but full, of course, with only minimal delays so I walked in my door just after 7:00. Considering it was the day after Christmas, it all went swimmingly. I let the cats out and unpacked. It felt good to be home and I was excited for six days at home before I had to go back to work. Time to make a list.

Despite being home in my own bed, I didn’t sleep well, mostly because Pie was outside all night in the frigid weather. Tot, my youngest cat, bullies Pie and so I actually gave thought to finding a new home for Pie, who would do better as an only cat. I couldn’t believe I was even thinking it but I was. Being awake since 4:00 left me energy free and I didn’t do much that day, never leaving the house. It was more of the same on Friday but I did run some errands in the afternoon. I did spend a chunk of time on the phone with my sisters, Auntie Margaret and a few others too. And shock of all shocks, there was lots of knitting going on. : )

Saturday was Christmas at Brenda and Michael’s so I got up early and made an apple pie. On the way there, I stopped at the market for ice cream to go with the pie and picked up a few groceries while I was there. We had a nice turkey dinner and then opened presents. Yes, they bought me presents! Now we hadn’t exchanged gifts for years, even when Norm and I still did Christmas with them, so I was unprepared for that. I had given Brenda a knitted ornament when I walked in but that’s it. I was completely blindsided so didn’t feel too bad. I did have Brenda try on the socks I was working on and promised them to her when they were done. Anyway, it was another fine Christmas and it was nice to see their new house.

 
Since I hadn’t accomplished much of anything since getting home and the knitters were coming to my house on Monday, I was a machine on Sunday. I got all my chores done and picked up the entire house. I do work better with a deadline and it helped that I’d had a few nights of good sleep in my own bed. It felt good to be ready to ring in the new year but where had break gone? My six days at home were two thirds gone and I’d accomplished NOTHING. Time for some resolutions maybe? Nah.