strep, niece, eyes, salt, heart

I'm still doing battle with the remnants of strep throat - though it's now reduced itself to a sore throat and occasional cough. It's rare for me to be sick for so long - and it's making me cranky. Or at least crankier than usual.

My niece's birthday was last weekend and my sister threw a party. It was rubber ducked themed and my sister made cup cakes that looked like little ducks. My niece enjoyed the presents - or rather, the boxes they came in and the cards - and had a lot of fun running around. I tried to keep up with her - but she wore me out.

Earlier this week, I woke up with a sore eye - which swiftly turned red and started, well, oozing. Kinda looked like the squishy gunk when you fall asleep - but before it turns to "sand". There was a lot of it too. I bought some eye drops and an eye patch to try and give it a break. This has been a couple of days ago, and it's getting better - though this morning the gunk sealed both my eyelids shut until I could get some warm water on them. Gross and weird. My eyes are still pretty red, but getting better. It's most likely pink eye - which will go away by itself. I'm trying to keep from touching my eyes and I'm washing my hands like I've got OCD - so, I should be back to normal soon. Or at least as close as I ever get.

I watched Salt last night on DVD. Good stuff. Lots of action and some nice plot twists.

Finally, I've volunteered to make some origami hearts for a fund raiser dinner/dance coming up soon. I'm hoping to get the final count today before I can leave so I can get the paper cut and start folding this evening. It's not a very complicated fold, but it will take some time to get them done.

sick, birthday, paint, tron

I'm still sick. Can't remember the last time I was ill this long before. I'm better, it's just a sore throat at this point, but it's still bothering me. I finished up my antibiotics over the weekend and I'm still taking cold medicine. Tired of being sick.

My family visited on Saturday for my birthday. We had some cake, went to a Paint Your Own Pottery store, went out to dinner, and had more cake. My niece was there and did much of the entertaining - she's walking everywhere and with much more confidence.

The pottery store was fun - though as we getting ready to leave, I bent down to pick up my coat and gashed the side of my head on a display table. I didn't break anything, fortunately, but I was bleeding pretty good. One of the women that worked there said she hits that all the time. I think she was trying to make me feel better, but I just wondered why they didn't fix it.

Went out to dinner with some friends on Sunday evening. Had a nice time and the food was really good.

I was off work on Monday and went and saw TRON Legacy. The visuals were impressive, but the sound in the theater was really bad and the story could have used some work. Still, the 3D was fun and I liked it overall.

Back to work now with a short week. Just heard the boss come in - I should go look busy now.

very sick

Tuesday afternoon, I conducted two back to back training sessions at work and started to lose my voice. I didn't think much of it - I'm not used to talking for 3 hours solid. Once I stopped talking, though, it didn't get better. The next day at work, I had a sore throat and I sounded really bad.

Thursday morning I woke up and felt like crap. Terrible sore throat, horrible headache. I got out of bed just long enough to sent a "I feel like crap and I'm not coming into work" email and make an appointment to see the doctor that afternoon. One of my co-workers had to go to the emergency room with Strep throat recently and I was worried that I had the same thing.

So, Thursday afternoon I headed to the doctor's office and got the diagnosis - strep. He prescribed some antibiotics and sent me on my way.

I started taking them last night, but before they could do any good, I got much worse. I had the chills, some nausea, and my fever spiked at 100.5 degrees. Kinda scary. I went from sweating like crazy to shivering. All the while, I was in and out of this really messed up dream where I was trying to react to a constantly changing series of disasters.

I was still feeling rough this morning, but I took my medicine and tried to be productive. Got through most of my work email and I'm working on laundry now.

It's funny how quickly things can go from same old, same old to really, really bad. I'm doing better - though my throat is still sore - and I should be back to work on Monday.

Time to go gargle some salt water and see if that helps.

pothole

This morning, on the drive to work, I hit a pothole so bad it knocked the faceplate off my radio.

Welcome to Ohio.

holidays and back to work

It's back to work for me - feels a little weird after so much time off. We got out early on December 23rd and just got back into the office this morning. I kept up with a couple of email accounts from home, but it was still nice to be off.

I spent part of Christmas day with my room-mate and his family at his sister's house. The kids got a Kinect and I got in on some of that action - fun stuff. The sleeper sofa was... miserable, but I got though it. The drive there and back wasn't too bad - my room-mate is still recovering from the surgery and I did all the driving. For the record, though - he's a side seat driver. I figured he would be in charge of the money for the tolls (fail) and navigation. Instead, he commandeered the radio and we listened to 70's music the whole trip. Ugh.

After a week of doing pretty much nothing, I went stir crazy and cleaned up the office at home. (this was after an episode of Hoarders) and then I started on my building a desk-out-of-a-door project. I spent a lot of time on the legs and got them looking great - then realized they are too long - making the desk too tall. Oh well, it's fixable - though a lot of work.

I met up with my co-worker and his family for lunch at Chiptole. Their little one had a spectacular diaper blowout - but otherwise it was a nice time.

This past weekend I went to see my parents, my sister, and her family. We had a good time, played some UNO and hung out with my super awesome niece. She's crawling up a storm, starting to walk, and a great pile of fun. They'll be visiting me for my upcoming birthday soon and then I'll be headed back there for my niece's birthday in a couple weeks.

So, I'm back to work today and trying to get back into the swing of things - and getting back to the pool again after a break.