Posts filed under 'Sickly'
It has been scorching hot here for the last few days. Somehow we went from two gloomy weeks of overcast skies, highs in the mid 60’s and chilly evenings directly to highs of 98 and little flowers that had just started to bloom being burnt to a crisp. Can I get something in between? Where are my gorgeous spring days that peak at 75 leaving the evenings blissful and breezy? Is that too much to ask for?
The heat has certainly not motivated me to run, nor has the 5 pounds of phlegm I feel like I’m carrying around in my sinuses and lungs from last week’s cold. So today, for the first time this season, I swam. And lo, it was pathetic. I haven’t done laps in our pool since last fall and you would think that since I just ran a half marathon a month ago and am in possibly better shape than I ever have been that swimming would not be the gasping, splashing, flailing struggle that it was today. But damn, swimming is hard. I need to work on that.
The other big problem with the heat is the fact that we don’t have air conditioning. And we live in a two-story house. AND we sleep upstairs (for now). Last year when we moved into this house, we didn’t bother trying to get the a/c fixed since we were planning on doing some major remodeling that would involve moving ducts and upgrading the current system. Of course, we thought that would all be done by now but sadly, it has even started. It just took much longer than we thought it would to get things in order before someone takes a sledgehammer to the walls. We have plans now, drawn up by a great designer but they are still with the city, a process that we thought would only take 3 weeks and has now taken about 2 months. We’re closer to finding a contractor, but still not sold on any one person. Of course, once all of that gets sorted out and we actually start the whole process, we’re probably looking at 3-4 months of living in construction, but I’m really excited about our plans and am pretty sure it will all be worth it in the end.
Work has been hell for the last couple of weeks and although I get a bit of a break this week, next week is right back into the fire. Luckily, once I hit June things will lighten up a lot and I’m hoping they’ll stay that way for most of the summer. The hardest thing about working at night, which I did last week Sunday through Saturday, is not being around for Ashok’s evening activities. Missing his dinner, bath and bedtime that many nights in a row really sucks after a while, especially since on many of those days I had some daytime work as well. Brian and I agreed that this last week was particularly bad. Obviously, it’s hard on him too since he has no one to help out at the crankiest time of the evening, and let’s face it we ALL start getting cranky as the day wears on, so I’m going to try and plan things out a bit better form now on. This is the pain in the ass with freelancing-all the work comes at once or doesn’t come at all so it makes it hard to turn things down, but I would gladly turn down a few gigs to spend more time with these guys:
At Hosmer Grove in Haleakala Park, Maui
May 19th, 2008
Thanks for all the well wishes in comments on the last post. It took a few days of clutching onto the walls every time I moved around, but the vertigo finally subsided. Once I was finally feeling better, I managed to get sick again so now I’m recovering from a cold which may be developing into a sinus infection. But, at least I can walk and drive and don’t need an escort every time I get up to go to the bathroom. That vertigo, she was a bitch.
Hopefully, this will be the last of the sickness for a while-I haven’t been able to run much at all in the last couple of weeks. I had plans to do a 10K on Memorial Day but I’ll have to see what kind of shape I’m in once this cold passes. It is starting to get hot here, which means I’m going to have to start dragging my ass out of bed at an obscene hour to be able to run at all, something I’m not looking forward to. Today though, I’m going to use sinus pain as an excuse to skip the run and eat a chocolate pop-tart instead. I hear they have healing properties.
May 15th, 2008
Now if only I looked as good as Kim Novak. I woke up this morning with a brutal case of vertigo. This has never happened to me before, although I am severely prone to all varieties of ear maladies (damn you, small eustachian tubes). When I got up from bed this morning, the whole room was spinning, a sensation I usually associate with drinking an entire bottle of Southern Comfort, and yet I had been respectably sober the night before. I blame allergies and my stupid middle ear. Thank goodness my mom was staying over last night-Brian was out of town on business-otherwise I don’t think I would have made it to the couch without barfing. She was also able to get Ashok out of bed and dressed while I sat in the living room staring at an electrical socket to keep myself from falling over. What a horrible feeling, and I didn’t even get to get drunk first.
Needless to say, I have been stuck on the couch for the remainder of the day. Brian is back now and being a great nurse and I am hopped up on Benadryl and feeling a little better. Standing up, or even moving my head too fast while seated, will send me reeling though, and I’m wondering if I’m going to be calling in sick for work tomorrow.
mmmm…..benadryl kicking in now…night ni……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
May 7th, 2008
Yes, it’s true. I was sick again! Just this week, another cold hit both Ashok and I but luckily no ear infections or other maladies requiring a doctor and/or antibiotics. I am soooo ready for the end of goddamned cold and flu season.
Happily, my ailment was waning by the weekend and I was able to get my 8 miles in. It was a much better run than last weekend, I averaged 10:24/mi which is about what I was doing before that sucky 10 miler. This weekend is 12, god help me. I am going to try and get it over with on Saturday (starting early this time-7am!) so I can spend the rest of my weekend eating the piles of candy that will be heaped upon Ashok this Easter weekend.
See? He’ll eat anything. He doesn’t need that candy. It’s bad for his teeth.
March 18th, 2008
…a week off from running somehow turned into a couple off from blogging. I just haven’t had much material lately and quite frankly, if I have to write another post about being sick, I’m going to slap myself in the face.
Because yes, I have been sick. Again. What was it last time, stomach flu? Oh yes, and then of course Ashok and I got matching ear infections. He’s doing much better but I’m still waiting for my doctor to call. Add to that equation a ton of work over the last couple of weeks, an unexpected bout of insomnia that had me sleeping an average of 3 hours a night while my baby boy slept blissfully through the night, lots of rain, and well….you get the picture. Not much to write about, just a lot of whining.
Sickness aside, Ashok has been really fun lately. He is learning new words every day, it seems. His repertoire now includes bye, box, duck, milk, and eye among others and he will also point to various facial features on request. We have recently discovered him to be bilingual-he says “agua”. I’m just waiting for him to bust out with “Donde esta la biblioteca?” one of these days and then we can make it official. Perhaps that would explain his fascination with Mariachis?
He was absolutely mesmerized by these guys. When he wasn’t staring with his mouth open, he was “dancing” in his high chair-this consists of a lot of thrashing, mostly. When I was his age (and older), mariachis made me cry, I was terrified of them for some reason. I’ve managed to get over my fear of singing men in tight pants but I’m glad to see Ashok hasn’t inherited that dislike from me.
I have managed to keep running despite all the many ailments. Today I did 9:
1 - 10:36
2 - 10:08
3 - 10:04
4 - 11:30 (stopped to walk and have water and gel)
5 - 10:20
6 - 9:47
7 - 10:29
8 - 10: 06
9 - 9:25
I did the three-ish mile loop at the Rose Bowl three times and my splits pretty much reflect the ups and downs of that route-1st mile up, 2nd mile half and half, 3rd mile down. I’ve come to accept the fact that I will probably be running about this 10:20 pace for my half in April. I would have liked to have done it at a pace under 10:00 but I don’t think that’s realistic and I don’t want to hurt myself either.
This week will be a little easier work wise although we are playing Bruckner Symphony No. 7 down in Orange County. For those of you unfamiliar with Bruckner, let’s just say that this piece is a very long song-about an hour long, I believe, and even though the music is nice, I think I would rather be playing an hour of Mahler than an hour of Bruckner. Anyway, this means late nights this week since I will be commuting but since the insomnia seems to have subsided, it shouldn’t be too bad.
I almost forgot! Brian is running the L.A. Marathon is weekend so I hope to have pictures and a report sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed for cool weather for him and all the other runners…..
February 25th, 2008