Things that go dry in the night

A couple of weeks ago I had a really stupendous head cold. It was a real doozie. Sinus pain (yes, not just pressure but actual pain) like you would not believe and orifices that continuously dripped all kinds of nasty junk. It crept up on me and then, it seemed, disappeared after a few days.

Except it didn't disappear. It just migrated to my chest.

I now have a cough. It's not that bad and I must hack no more than five or six times all day. If you spent the day with me, you'd think I was just clearing my throat. No big deal.

But come the nighttime, well that's a different matter. I can sit in bed and read for a full hour without coughing once and then, as soon as I turn the light off to go to sleep? WHAMMY, this dry, prickly, tickley cough assaults me out of nowhere. I try sitting up, laying on my side, drinking lots... but it takes a while to dissipate.

Unfortunately, last Friday night and then again last night it did not. I had to get up and come downstairs to cough into a pillow (because, you know, you don't want to wake your toddler.) And finally, I had to admit defeat and take some Robitussin.

Cough medicine - pretty much any cold/flu medication - is an absolute last resort for me. It makes me drowsy and woosey for 24 hours after just one dose. So now I feel like someone stuffed cotton wool in my head and then made me down several shots of brandy. I am all warm inside, yawn constantly, and often find myself staring blankly into a void for minutes at a time.

So, I did stop coughing and finally got to sleep around midnight but the price to pay will be trying to power through a webinar presentation for 25 people this morning, when all I want to do is drop to the floor, close my eyes and drift into a morning snooze.

Random without photos

• I have my fancy new camera and I am without ideas or weather to put it to good use. It's too dark in the house with this dreary rain and wind to do anything really fun unless I get out the tripod. I just don't have the kind of hands that can hold steady under 1/50th of a second. And the tripod, well, it's a red rag to a bullish 20 month old.
• I don't have pink-eye again. I thought I did since I was experiencing all the same symptoms - red, puffy, goopy, itchy eyes and a feeling that I had an eyelash stuck in them. To boot my outer ear canal and nasal passages have been itching something rotten. I had to take a Claritin to get to bed last night. So I went to the doc again today. (I'm getting ready for them just to name one of their treatment rooms after me at this point.) He said I don't have pink eye but likely some kind of allergy. Oh sheesh. SOMETHING ELSE? No idea what I'm allegedly allergic to but I was sent off to the store for "Clear Eyes" drops and some antihistamine cream. At this point I'm beginning to wonder if I have Münchhausens.
• I'm considering a more distinct separation between my personal blog, Facebook, and twitter, and those of memories by michelle. Maybe even making this blog private. As who I am starts to become more of what I do, what I say has the potential to affect my business. I don't like this reality or idea but I also don't like the idea of feeling sensored or self-edited all the time. If I'm going to write, it's got to be real - blood, guts, and all. I just can't do the daily self-motivation thing. Life is not happy and peppy and a bed of roses all the time. I don't like reading those status updates (at least not all the time, when they begin to seem forced) nor reading those types of blogs and so I don't want to write one. But, it poses a problem. You see my problem? Phooey. No good choices here. I love this little place of mine online.
• I'm slowly getting to look forward to 2011. The second half of this year has been a mixture of joy and pain and it's all sort of coming to end with a quiet sigh. Anyone who knows me well knows that this does not come naturally to me. My instinct is to party through the season balls-out and skid to a halt on Jan 1, feeling totally worn out. So, I'm hoping 2011 brings more of the joy and less of the other crappy stuff. It's odd really that this artificial, annual clean slate we've created actually makes a difference, but it does.
• Speaking of which: new year's resolutions. I'm going to keep it simple this year. A subject for another post but I have a few things I want to get done in '11. I'm not going crazy, however. I have recently realized that too much planning and list-making literally makes me feel suffocated and induces a mini anxiety attack. What about you?
• I'm into tea. My friend, CJ, recently made me a cup of chamomile, vanilla, and honey herbal tea along with a spoonful of honey. I usually am not a big fan of herbal tea, being from England where tea comes no other way but with milk and sugar, but this was the right drink at the right time. I bought some and now I'm off to brew a cup. Or, as my little munchkin would say: "Make cuppateeee"

Eye of pink

I have pink eye (aka: conjunctivitis, to those of us who live in the non-parenting world.)

This is what pink eye looks like.



I caught it early, so, as pink-eye goes, it's not that bad. For some perspective, click here. Ack, right?

How does it feel?

Like someone is constantly poking me in the eye with a small piece of straw.

Nice.

There's also the pleasure of waking in the middle of the night to feel your eyelids glued together with yellow goop.

I also have a sinus infection and an ear infection. Fortunately for you, I don't have one of those little cameras that trails up my nasal passages to provide a pic of my sore and inflamed areas. Recognize, however, that if I did, I would post it. I have no boundaries. (OK, no pride too.)

On the plus side, before I began to feel like death-warmed-up, I managed to achieve this in the, currently-designated-as, "present wrapping room"...



Don't freak out. You're right. That IS the floor you can see.

I didn't get much wrapped but now it is better organized. And yes, for those of you with anal OCD, this DOES constitute organized for me these days.

Otherwise, not achieving much over here right now. My head feels like someone poured hot syrup into it and my body screams "lay down!" at me whenever I attempt to do anything other than sit and mindlessly stare at my computer.

Why can't the holidays happen in summer when we don't live in a vat of viruses and bugs?