One of the grossest things.

I’m beginning to have a taste of what life will be like after my surgery in July. I have basically been konked out these past three days, or, if not asleep, I’ve been lying prone on the sofa, either reading (Jodi Picoult novels have proven to be surprisingly satisfying; I’ve read Nineteen Minutes and am in the middle of Plain Truth), watching TV (have been sucked into the UK version of Big Brother again), or messing about on the computer screen, where I’ve been finding some very odd things. You know how it is - you’re looking up your medication to make sure that it’s not just sugar pills because HI, still ucky feeling, then you somehow end up on phenphedrine reviews, you quickly click away from that, and after like, six clicks, you’re on a video of some kind of unknown life form found in the sewers somewhere. Scary.

BUT! Today I actually dragged myself away from the sofa, and off we went to the veterinarian, who said all the puppies are perfectly healthy and can go home any time - which will be Monday for us. OH I AM SO EXCITED!

You should be fully tired of my health whining by now. But here’s more, just in case you aren’t.

So. My throat started hurting on Sunday evening. On Tuesday afternoon, I went to the doctor, who prescribed penicillin for the horrible stabbing burning pain in my throat. I started on it right away. I’m on my third day of this medication, and the pain is not getting any better. Impatient? Yes, maybe I am, but I’ve consulted Dr. Google and he says that I should feel better within 2 or 3 days of beginning antibiotics. WELL IT’S BEEN TWO OR THREE DAYS, PENICILLIN! Absolutely no better. Sleeping all the time. No need to even think about finding a diet pill that works because all I can eat is soup and popsicles.
Ugh. Can you tell I’m annoyed? I will try to cut it out soon but I hate feeling this way.

Busy day… and all done by 10 am.

I have been having so much sleep lately. I will nap all day, off and on, and then I will sleep all night. I’m still waking up at 5 am or 5:30, as usual, but, as I said, I’m sleeping all day.

It kind of worked out today, though. Rob was having another bout of insomnia (it happens sometimes - most nights he’s in bed between 11 pm and 1 am, but last night he couldn’t sleep and was up all night) so when I came barreling downstairs at 5 (”I GOTTA PEE, YO!”) he was still up, noodling around. We’ve been trying to get the house super-clean, with nothing on the floor that any dogs we happened to have in the house would find particularly chomp-worthy, and he’d been working at that all night (in between bouts of reading and computery stuff). I took my pills, put on some laundry, and sat down to get my knit on. At around 7 am, we went and showered, and then I peer pressured him into going out to run errands. He was finally at the point where he was tired.

First I dragged him to a local diner for breakfast (nothing on their menu is above $10. And their Wednesday lunch special is corned beef and cabbage for $5.79. This is my kind of place). Then we went to Canadian Tire and bought our tent. Which we found out was on sale - it was supposed to be $150 but it rung up at half that. Score! So we added a new air mattress to our loot, and some spray sealant, because that’s how we roll.

Next on the agenda was me completely blindsiding my husband. I was driving, so when we pulled up in front of the haircut place, he didn’t notice at first. Or maybe he thought I was just parking for my health. But no. No, I dragged him inside. Now, before you get the wrong idea, he has been kicking around the idea of getting a haircut (he gets about six inches hacked off at the beginning of summer every year, and that’s it. He just lets it grow for the rest of the year, and wears it in a ponytail most of the time. And it always takes him weeks of hemming and hawing before he gets up the nerve to go in for his annual trim) for the past two months. So once he had scoped out all the exit signs, and I made it clear to him that he wouldn’t be using any of the exits until he had been in the chair for at least five minutes, off he went with the hairdresser. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I could see him. He made all kinds of gestures toward his head, then closed his eyes and held on for dear life.

And came out looking like this:

I ABSOLUTELY EFFING LOVE IT. I still keep peeking at him and being all “OOOOOH!”… it’s a big change, but it’s a *good* change, I think.

Nota Bene: The beard will be getting a trim as soon as he wakes up from his “nap”.

Questions but probably no answers.

1) Say you went on UsedPEI (pretty much the same as craigslist or kijiji or whatever, only local) and found a tent that you thought would be a great tent to have. And it said “NOT SOLD” on it. So you emailed the owner, asking them to contact you about the tent because you’re interested in buying it. How long do you wait to hear back? Because it’s been going on 4 days, and no word, but the ad is still up, with “NOT SOLD” written on it.

2) I have been awake for approximately 3 hours, and am ready to go back to sleep. Would that be wrong? Our sofa is just so comfy, and sleeping on the couch doesn’t count like sleeping in bed counts, right?

3) Speaking of sleeping… we have an old most-of-the-time-deflating air mattress that we’re planning on bringing with us on our trip. When should I inform my husband that I’d like to spend $900+ on a sleep number bed for camping? When he’s sleeping? Or, you know, probably never. But it would be nice (it would also be nice to have one of these for camping, but it’s not really camping if there’s a plasma TV involved, is it?).

4) The biggest question today is “Will the Canada Day fireworks be tonight?” because: RAIN! AGAIN! But maybe not tonight maybe just for the morning! Here’s hoping!

I’m going to sleep now again.

SUMMER VACATION!

When I was in sixth grade, I got strep throat. It was horrible, but I got to stay home from school for a week (because I had a fever the whole time and when you had a fever, you had to stay home) and read “Flowers In The Attic”. Then I had another two weeks off for Christmas break.

It seems that 22 years later, history is repeating itself. No, I haven’t gotten to stay home for a week (in fact my throat only started hurting on Sunday), but I do have strep, and now I also have vacation. So yay!

Today: Our staff went to a local diner for breakfast (it was delicious. And my two eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, toast, and tea cost less than $5. Of course my throat acted as a pretty effective appetite suppressant, but the food was good and when I’m feeling better I’ll drag Rob there). There are 40 teachers on staff, plus custodians, secretaries, administration, EA’s… so it was pretty crowded. Afterwards we went back to school for presentations to anyone who was retiring or leaving to go to another school or whatever. And, since I (with plenty of Rob’s help) had finished cleaning up my classroom yesterday, I had nothing left to do so I went and helped the Sewing teacher cut fabric for the next two hours.

There is a baby shower this afternoon for a staff member, but I thought it would be a better idea to go to the walk-in clinic and get myself checked out. Which I did. And so now I have my freedom, but I also have little horrible strep animals living in my body, strepping it up. But I get to take penicillin for it. Strep while you can, streps, because I am going to keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel you!

bla-bla-bla

I have never had tonsillitis, so I don’t know what that’s like, but oh holy lord does my throat hurt right now. Enough so that I was actually crying a bit this morning. Go ahead, call me a wuss (no, not really). Anyway, today and tomorrow are my last days of work for the year and I am super excited about that. Even though this is the forecast here for the rest of the week (and has been pretty much the weather for the past week, as well):

Hopefully the rain holds off for one of those days, because we want to set up our tent in the backyard and give it a good spray with some sealant before heading off next weekend for our little trip. Of course that means that first we have to actually purchase a tent. Technically we already own a tent but we left it at Rob’s parents’ last summer on our exodus from NL, and it was stored in their shed all winter, where mice decided that nylon was a tasty snack. Anyway. I have been teasing Rob by sending him links to $400, 10-person tents with pet dens and attached foyers, which horrifies him because when he camps, he’s like “We’re camping! Sleep on rocks! pull a tarp over our heads! That’s ALL!”. If he could he would be like that guy who went out and lived with the bears. I just have to keep reminding him that the bears, they killed that guy (how … I don’t know the word… is it that he had digital camcorders running in his backpack at the time of his death - which means there’s probably audio of the bears eating him. But no one has ever listened to the audio). So, although we won’t be getting the super-deluxe ten-room tent of doom, we *will* be getting something other than a tarp strung up between two trees. And I’m bringing the dang air mattress.

Okay yeah, that’s the end of that for this morning. I a going to pick up some Chloraseptic on the way in to work, and whine like a big baby all day.

Ice cream cured NOTHING!

NOTHING!

I have been laying around and feeling yucky since I wrote my last post. My throat is horrible, I have a fever, and let’s just say that the running back and forth to the bathroom has me seriously considering adult diapers. Either that or setting up a little bed in the bathtub.

As I lay here, languishing, I’ve been watching Season 1 of Maude. I remember seeing it in reruns when I was a kid, but I didn’t really remember any of the episodes. My favourite part of the whole experience is that Rob has decided that the show would be better if, instead of Bea Arthur, the show starred the Prince of Wallachia.

Lady Godiva was a freedom rider
She didnt’ care if the whole world looked.
Joan of Arc with the Lord to guide her
She was a sister who really cooked.

Isadora was the first bra burner
And you’re glad she showed up. (Oh yeah)
And when the country was falling apart
Betsy Ross got it all sewed up.

And then there’s Vlad.
(And then there’s Vlad).
And then there’s Vlad.
(And then there’s Vlad).
And then there’s Vlad.
(And then there’s Vlad).
And then there’s

That old compromisin’, enterprisin’, anything but tranquilizing,
Right on Vlad~!

La peste

This afternoon, my brother, his wife, and my parents needed to go out to Home Depot (which is an hour away) to pick out flooring and glass tile for the bathroom in their new house. And so, they asked me to take care of my two nephews while they were gone.
I always say yes - I love these kids and I always have fun with them. Today was no exception: we played “chess” (basically them moving the pieces all over everywhere and yelling “Check Mate!” every 3 minutes), watched Michael Jackson videos (”I saw a picture of my daddy wearing that jacket when he was little!”), and drew some pictures.
And then little D puked his pants. At which point he just wanted apple juice and naps, which was fine by me, but now that I’m home I’m starting to feel a little weird. And my throat hurts. I think the only cure for this could be ice cream.

Any other man would stop and talk, but the walkin’ man walks…

When I was out today I saw:

roadkill
potato fields
an eagle
airplanes
a black and blue butterfly
used condoms (or at least, condoms that were out of their protective packaging. I didn’t get close enough to them to know with 100% certainty that they were used)
a dog
a fox

… and this was all within an hour. I’ve been looking at treadmills online lately, because I am a sissypants crymonkey and hate being out there in the rain/wind/heat/humidity/bugs and seriously, in the winter when the snow is up past shoulder height I am not going to want to be outside, but most of them are either $2000+ (yeah right!) or the more affordable ones are really not well-made and have a weight limit that is much too close to my current weight (as in, I gain 2 lbs, I’m not allowed to use the treadmill) for my liking. So, I will keep walking outside for now, and see what happens in the future.

It slices! It dices!

I am having surgery at the end of July. Have I mentioned that? What’s that? Only about 9000 times? Well then I should probably mention it just once more!
I am, at the moment, fairly calm about it all, simply because I don’t allow myself to think about it. When I do try to think about it, all I do is think about what could go wrong.
Aside from the obvious (them finding out that my insides are all kinds of mental), there are plenty of things I’m worrying about.

1)Anesthesia Awareness. Oh my God. I mean, I woke up halfway through my wisdom teeth extraction and I was still frozen, couldn’t FEEL anything, but was freaked out nonetheless. If I actually had this and could FEEL them poking around inside me? YIKES.

2) The after-surgery shoulder pain from the gas escaping. I just basically don’t like pain. Pain is not my friend.

3) Will I have to use Colonix or something, and have a bowel cleanse? Urgh. Not something I look forward to.

4) DYING. They said that since I have asthma, I have more of a chance of dying. DYING IS NOT MY IDEA OF A GOOD TIME.

5) Two weeks of laying around on the sofa? I like laying around enough, but not two weeks worth of enough. Hopefully this doesn’t take 2 weeks for recovery, but that’s what they told me to prepare for.

BUT! Casey had the same surgery as I’m having, just the other day. And while the surgery will likely be different for me than for her, because my doctor is pretty sure I have different stuff going on in there, following her story has given me some reassurances as to my fears. Also it has reassured me that (unless Canadian health care cheaps out, as it is wont to do) I might get Vicodin! And that sounds pretty interesting.