24 hours: a recap

Yes, I am still sick. This is what my life has consisted of for the past 24 hours.

• Blow nose
• Cough
• Sleep
• Blow nose
• Check email
• Blow nose
• Cough
• Make tea
• Cough
• Work
• Blow nose
• Address Christmas cards
• Cough

[repeat]

When work catches up

I'm sick and it sucks. In between having a two-year-old around all last week (which was awesome, except for the fact that she's germy) and working almost every waking hour of the day, I got a cold. It creeped up on me one day last week and it took a week to get to full-blown cold status. Lovely.

I called in sick to work today to spare my co-workers from the constant hacking and blowing of my nose. Here's hoping that I go in tomorrow, but I am not making any promises.

When I finish sampling various cough and cold medicines, I'll share my findings of the best. I took Nyquil Cough last night and I'm relatively convinced that it made me more sick. Last night when I went to bed I just had a cough and today I woke up with clogged ears, a runny nose and all sorts of other problems. What gives? The cough did go away, though...

The best place to shop

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Buddha knows what's up

Chad's fortune cookie tonight said the following:

Now is the time for peace in your life. Go along with others' ideas.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I knew that $20 I slipped to the man in Chinatown would pay off eventually. For $50, perhaps he would have ended the fortune with "...especially your wife's."

Dad's favorite t-shirt

When I was a kid, my dad used to wear a ratty gray t-shirt with a picture of a pig in a scarf and earmuffs that said, "Oh No! Not Another Midwest Winter!" It was just the right amount of worn, with a stretchy fabric that screams 1980 and faded lettering which proves how many times it's been washed. I'm pretty sure it was dad's favorite t-shirt. I have no idea how he got it. But I have a lot of memories of dad in his younger days (to be fair, I was much younger too) lounging around watching football on Sundays or helping us brush our teeth or trying for the fourth time that month to clean his office while wearing that well-loved t-shirt.

Several years later, I found it in a Goodwill pile that mom had started in the upstairs hallway. I pulled it out and it's traveled through many cities and lots of places in my life. Sometimes when I start to miss being home or need to remember the simplicity of being a kid, I'll pull it out and put it on. I'm wearing it now, in fact.

Rachel saw it once and asked why I always got the good stuff. (She's still bitter that I have that rocking chair...) Mom was here and seemed baffled that either of us wanted the old thing. But I guess she just didn't understand.