The Plague = Norovirus. There was an outbreak on campus around Sept 30 & Oct 1. I spent most of Oct 1 in the ER, and 10 days later I'm still not back to normal. Something about a preexisting sensitive stomach thing, stress, and an apocalypse in my GI tract. Apparently my body can not be normal in any way.

However - I am starting to feel sort of human again. I'm something like ambulatory, and I can eat food things - like plain white bread. And eggs if I feel like pushing it and being a rebel. Feeling sort of human again may or may not be good, as it comes with the awareness that I am seriously, frighteningly behind on schoolwork.

It's frustrating that my new purple sweater doesn't fit right anymore, though. Actually, nothing fits right anymore. And I really really miss vegetables. There's a bag of broccoli in my fridge mocking me. Bah.

Also, I think I'm going native. Maybe more on that later.

Meanwhile, I'm still exhausted all the time, so I'm going to get back to napping before I embark on the three-day-weekend-of-many-papers. But first - a story about Mister Bones:

My father is digging holes in the backyard for fence posts. (Hurricane Ike > the fence) Mister Bones is following behind him and filling them in. The end.

I can say that in all seriousness.

Taking a shower at school is always a mistake - I took one today with the idea that taking a cold temperature shower might lower my fever a bit. Or at least relieve the icky hot scratchy fever-ness of fevers. But no - I forgot that the showers here only have one temperature setting, no matter where the knob is. They start out pleasantly cool and then by the end of the shower the water is scalding hot and there's nothing you can do about it, and you just have to put up with it anyway because you've still got soap and hair conditioner on. Didn't help with the fever any.

English essay due tomorrow. I finally got the second theology essay done this morning, a full twenty four hours after I was supposed to get it done. It turns out the sleepiness was just a precursor to my allergies going haywire. The toxic mold in my room doesn't help. Opening the window doesn't help because yesterday there was lots of lawn work done in the Quad. So, still definitely allergic to inside and outside, except now sometimes I get strangely short of breath. It's sort of like that feeling you get when you hold your breath just a little too long underwater, and let the air out of your lungs because you know there's no oxygen in it so there's no point making the effort to hold it in anyway.

Other things I accomplished today that were not my paper:
Calling L--- to tell her I finished my paper
Finding out I got an A in philosophy
Turning in some library books
Forgetting that Chicken Finger Thursday means that there are Chicken Fingers on Thursdays
Getting distracted by a blog which is, in part, about the non-misogynistic performance of butch gender identity
Returning the 5th grade science poster to the Observatory
Breathing
Unfortunately there was no way I could go to the final project presentation thingy with free pizza last night. Not enough breathing, too much coughing. I was really looking forward to seeing some of the presentations, too. H---- had told me about some of her ideas for a presentation when I saw her in Saxby's on Tuesday and it looked awesomely interesting and funny.

Sunday I go back to Texas. I have settled on one large suitcase, one duffel bag, one small suitcase, and my green canvas bag. Everything else is going to fit into ten storage boxes or be, in the words of J-- (remember - J-- is not Joe!), purged. I think the bold really makes it better; purged isn't nearly as dramatic as purged. I have a plan for Sunday; it goes like this:
Go to Texas
Say Hi to Mister Bones
Sleep
Shower
Eat
Sleep
Play with Mister Bones
Sleep

Maybe some more sleeping. There might not be enough sleeping in that. Also a visit to my allergist, the Apple store, and my hairstylist. Love the jewfro, but it's just too hot in Texas to be practical. Even if I were to keep it, it needs some shaping. It looks weird in the back and around my ears. The photo is of me with a not-really-an-allergy-mask allergy mask the other day. They didn't have allergy masks at CVS or the hardware store on 35th st, and this was close enough. It actually helped a lot for the time I wore it. I am aware that the jewfro doesn't actually look like a jewfro in the photo - I had slept on it and it got all crushed. Also when I'm stressed I have this habit of pulling the curls out of my hair, and they tend to loosen up a lot into waves. Right now, because I took a shower, I am totally rocking the jewfro. Hah! Anyway, about the allergy mask - I was letting my air conditioner dry out (after Lysoling the mold) and had my window open. It was kind of heinous, especially since I'm now immune to my antihistamine. Yay Alien Blood!

I hate being wet. I hate being wet so much that it is impossible to describe how much I hate being wet. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to bring an umbrella with me this morning when I went to Baked and Wired to finish my last philosophy paper. It wasn't raining when I was on my way there, but there was a pleasant cool mist.

After a while, I finished my paper, and was triumphant! Until I looked outside and saw the rain. Then I realized that because I had decided not to bring my umbrella, I would have to walk almost a mile back to my dorm in the rain with various electronics in a leather portfolio. Said leather portfolio is waterproof enough, but not entirely waterproof, and this would have caused me more anxiety had I the energy for it.

But I did not have the energy for it, because I was (and am) exhausted. And still sort of sick. Exhausted and wet. Very very exhausted and wet. In order to take my mind off of the exhaustion and wetness and in order to make sure I actually got where I needed to go in a timely fashion, I resorted to singing Air Force cadence songs in my head.

I used the shortest Air Force cadence song I ever learned in Air Force ROTC, which also happens to be the only one I still know. It's the one that makes fun of the Navy pilots, the one that doesn't take any effort to recall - remember the exhaustion?

Now, it's stuck in my head.

And everywhere I go, I have to think consciously about not marching with a military expression on my face. I've found that marching with a military expression on your face is acceptable to other people if you do it in a group, but not so much when you're alone.

Still miserably sick, but I love this. I really love it because I can watch it in bed while sick. And I am not afraid to admit that I first found it in the comments of this Gawker post, and had somehow managed to not ever see it before ten minutes ago. Intrepid young thinkers [or intrepid blog readers or intrepid cupcake googlers, insert as appropriate] will note that one can also read Gawker in bed while sick, and that being in bed while sick has a whole lot to do with this post. Onwards to the cats!



The Evil Demon Kitty wouldn't put up with this shit for even a second. Also, the almost-but-not-quite deadpan delivery by Mr. Klusman is fantastic.

P.S. - go here, to my friend Rob's awesome blog! L--- and I had a hand in encouraging him to restart it and blog his way through the perils of law school. From now on we shall take credit for all of his accomplishments. When we feel like it. And aren't in bed while sick.

P.S.S. - This is my favourite hit of recent memory. I tend to like the random ones; here it's the combination of poetry, Canada, and fisheries that makes me happy. I hope you found the interpretive poetry you were looking for, Canadian person who spends time in the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans!

I actually got through my whole shift at work today.

This makes it just that much harder to believe that after actually starting to feel better - wait for it - I just got fucking food poisoning fucking again. So much for going to class tonight, and talking about New York.

I can't even believe this. At this point, I wouldn't believe emails from me if I were my professors.

Also, one of my goals was to not have food poisoning or become otherwise sick from something I ate long enough to eat more than one actual meal in a twenty four hour period. So much for that one, too.

Fuck! Back to bed with me...