Friday

Ah, so it's my last day of being home sick. Maggie's insistence that I pet her must, indeed, have cured me. And I celebrated this morning by...running errands. You know, in public. I even encountered a small child.

I still tried not to cough on her. I mean, I try to employ that as a general rule.

So I'm officially crusty. And thus in theory not contagous anymore. And I also have a giant bruise on my lateral left knee that I can't explain. I don't think that's related.

And as yet another bit of randomness, I'm watching the Psych season finale. Generally speaking, I don't entirely love this show. And right now I'm ten minutes in and a little annoyed. The mummy got up and walked out of the exhibit. Duh, because the actual mummy was replaced by a guy wrapped in bandages who probably was trying to steal something else. They did this already on CSI. It was a fake ancient Japanese suit of armor, but, nonetheless. And it was probably an inside job.

I went to the Walgreens and the Whole Foods this morning, and the yarn store in Raleigh, which didn't have the yarn I needed. I also stalled at the cute little bookstore where my aunt and I went to the book signing last week. And then I came home and napped and read and knitted until I ran out of the yarn I couldn't get any more of this morning (they had the right yarn - I mean, please, it's Lamb's Pride - just not the right color. And I was trying to explain to the saleswoman exactly the blue I was using, which just happened to not be any of the six shades of blue they had in bulky. It's Cubbie Blue. But, you know, that doesn't mean anything to anyone down here...) and then I watched a lot of Law and Order. It was a lovely day.

I did talk to Original Robin today (as opposed to Other Robin), and she told me, well, a, the baby's gestating well. But b, her mother-in-law's really, really sick. Which makes me sad, because you'll remember that Original Robin married another of our friends from high school. I've known her MIL a long time, and she's a great lady. Some of my best memories of high school involve Original Robin and her now-MIL and her now-SIL and me freezing our butts off in the stands at away football games senior year so we could cheer on Original Robin's now-husband (Number 64). So I dug through my stash and started a shawl/lap robe for her. It's a nice Cherry Tree Hill merino worsted in this marl color I don't know what else to do with, and it'll be a good color for her. I'm going to try and visit her next week when I'm Chicago for like ten minutes (literally between prep and court, over that stupid suit about my old house. Run, run, run). I'm going to be really sad when she dies.

A Happy Single People Awareness Day to you

Ah, Valentine's Day.

So I'd been meaning to swipe adopt this Love Thursday thing from Barb for a while, because I like the idea - what I got from her blog (Barb, correct me if I'm wrong here) was that somebody at some point declared that Thursdays were a day for accentuating the positive and discussing what all is good. What I got from a quick Google search trying to decipher the origins of this thing is this, that the original charter was from two women who don't seem to be blogging anymore who advocated the posting of pictures reminiscent (see, this is why I need the spell checker to start working again!) of hearts and love and loving things. Eh, whatever. I like my interpretation. And it seems (again from said Google search) that many other Bloggers out there share my take on the topic.

I thought about being all "different" and going with Love Tuesday or something like that, but since it happens to be Valentine's day, and I discovered I was writing a whole post full of things I love, it seemed like a good time to initiate Love Thursday on my own blog.

So, without further adieu, here's ten random things I love today:

1. My dog. You know that I could not possibly initiate something called Love Thursday without starting with my dog.

The rest are in no particular order or actual relevance to my life. Obviously.

2. Oprah. I have been an Oprah resister for a very long time. I roll my eyes when people say "I saw this or that on Oprah". Please, Oprah. I mean, I'm from Chicago, where Oprah is even more of an institution than she is in the rest of the world. But come on, she's just Oprah. She's so overdone and really, what-ever. And so then I'm quarantined and trapped in my apartment home sick all week, right, and my aunt, the one who isn't really my aunt but I grew up with them and they live down the street from me now and who is a HUGE Oprah fan, is like, oh! You have to watch Oprah! She's on every day at four! Alright! Okay! Bye! (That's how she ends every phone conversation. I also love having them so close, in case you missed that)

I'm hooked. ::sigh:: I'm so going to have way too many things piling up on the DVR that I'm never, ever going to have time to watch...

3. That Oprah did a whole big segment on shelter dogs as part of her Valentine's Day show. That, truly, is what did me in.

4. Sassy comebacks. Like this line, from the episode of CSI I'm watching right now. Kathryn and Warrick have just shown up at a scene thinking they were working a missing persons case, and discovered that the missing Paul Sorenson was in fact, a painting, not a person. And the homeowner looks at them and says, like they should've known, "Paul Sorenson was an artist." And Warrick says to Kathryn, "Yeah? What does he know about the forensic analysis of a friction ridge?"

5. This line, from this email I got today. Apparently NaBloPoMo rides again, on a month-by-month basis, encouraging members to blog daily for a month on the given theme of the month (i.e., March is "lists"). And in their email they say,

This is not the same as Blog365 (http://blog365.ning.com). Those nuts are blogging every day FOR A YEAR.

Please. I've been called a nut for lesser things than that.

6. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.

7. My new felting buddy. Look, there he is on the washer!


So you know I've been having trouble felting with the frontloader. And yesterday, I finally managed to finish a project I've been working on (that is several months overdue and no, I can't show you yet, 'cause it's a gift), and was like, crap, how am I going to felt this? And I haven't really liked the results I got with the complex's Speed Queen. And my afore mentioned Oprah-loving aunt has offered me her washer, but you know, if you're not a knitter, and you've not felted before, you don't really know what you're getting into, what with all the fuzz and wet wool and whatnot. So I started thinking. I used to toss my Downy Ball in for added agitation. And I thought, hmm. Maggie's not really the tennis ball type, but I bet we've got something...

It's an old toy. She doesn't really like it anyway. I? Love it. It felted, um, my felting project, SO WELL. Oh, my gosh, it was a beautiful thing. I can't wait to show you how this thing turned out.

8. Crusty pox. I have TWO pox now that are all crusted over. Hooray!!! Finally.

9. This quote, which I found on the Center for Mindful Eating website:

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent.
- Epictetus, Greek philosopher

Sage advice. And further proof that way back at the beginnings of recorded history, the Greeks were still saying "just shut up and eat it."

10. Y'all. Sappy, I know, but I do.

Nurse Maggie

My dog has done a good job of taking care of me the past few days. So today when I scuttled off to the PetsMart (I thought we had enough food to get through the week, but, sadly, not so much) I picked her up a couple of little presents.

My aunt and I went to this book signing last week for Best Hikes With Dogs: NC. The author was at this cute little independant bookstore that's in the same strip mall as my secondary LYS, giving a talk with some reporter from the local paper who also wrote a book about hiking in NC. She was very sweet and has a very cute black lab named Shelby who apparently hiked all the trails in the book with her as research. Consequently, there are a lot of trails with lab-friendly things like water and ducks.

But regardless, Maggie's always been up for a good hike through the woods, whether we were on the paved forest preserve trails in Chicago or slogging through the mud in the woods behind our house in NH (once, we went for a "walk" and ended up exploring the woods and got so muddy that as we came into the house, I took my shoes off, threw them in the garbage can outside, rolled up the bottoms of my scrubs, and hefted Maggie onto my shoulder before we went in. I then walked straight upstairs and dumped her into the tub before she could get muddy paw prints on anything but the bathroom tile. I spent a lot of time working the caked mud out of her paw pads that day. She was NOT pleased). She's a little afraid of the beach, but, you know, whatever, she'll get used to it. Anyway, in said book she talks a lot about the proper gear for taking your dog hiking. She recommended two things for the dog in particular - a pack, and boots. Not for all the time (the boots), but if you get into rocky areas, or need something to hold a bandage on a hurt paw, or the weather turns suddenly, they're good to pull out.

Now, of course, you can't just whip these out on the trail and expect your pooch to be like, oh, okay then. So I was like, I really should get her a set soon and then acclimate her to them. Ditto with the pack, but that can wait a while. Anyway, wouldn't you know it, dog boots were 70% off at the Petsmart today. Can't go wrong with that, right? Even if she refuses to walk in them, it's less than a $5 loss.

Let me also say I've tried to put boots on Maggie several times in her life. She has not, um, historically done well with them. She did a little better today.

Of course, she readily struck a pose for the camera....

But this more accurately sums up how she really felt about them...

There was still a lot of goose-stepping and sad-puppy eyes, but at least she walked around in them for a while.

She also got a new toy that seemed particularly appropriate for the season....

Because you know that my dog is a democrat....

Now all we need is for me to stop being contagious, and we'l be trail ready.

I'm feeling a little better today, I guess. Really achy. Still really tired. Not crusty yet. My aunt brought over cookies and spaghetti pie, so that will definitely make me feel better.

The pox, day 3

I think I'm a little better today.

I'm still itching. A lot. And really tired. But I only took one or maybe two naps today. I even went to the grocery store (with my sweatshirt zipped up to the neck and covered to the wrists) and managed to load the dishwasher. And I washed the new sheets that I bought last week. I even knit a little bit. And I made dinner (which involved boiling. It was soup mix).

Honestly? All that wore me the hell out. Oy.

Maggie thinks this is the BEST THING EVER, though.

Tell you a secret

So I've spent most of my time awake today on the phone. I've talked to my chief resident, I've talked to my folks, I've talked to my aunt, I've talked to about half the intern class (we all change services tomorrow, so today is the day we all clamor to hand off patients and get tips and compare notes. Well, and Mike called about his patient who died Friday, and PenuinShrink called just to see how I was doing with the pox). And I've been trying so hard to be congenial and pleasant and upbeat and put up a good front.

But...I have a confession to make...

Holy cow, I'm miserable.

I'm itchy. I'm running a fever. I'm so tired I can't even tell you. I've been too tired to knit, too tired even to read. I'm all achy. And I think my spleen hurts. I finally have a pock on my face, but it's little, which is helpful, but it also hurts. Actually, most of them are pretty small, except the weird ones on my elbow. I'm a little woozy. And a lot cranky. And I can't seem to stop scratching, particularly while I'm asleep, and don't anyone dare say anything about putting socks on my hands. I can't even keep socks on my FEET at night.

The first few times I had the pox I was mostly just itchy. Seems like the older I get the more "ill" I actually feel.

And, I think my bottle of white wine turned.

Grumble, mumble, whimper, groan. Mmmmm, I'm so crabby. Stupid pox.

Why yes, I would like a little cheese with my whine, why do you ask?

Maggie's been pretty cute, though. Every so often she comes over to the couch and nudges me - to make sure I'm still alive, I think - and then licks whatever exposed skin is available and insists that I pet her. Because that cures everything. No really, just ask any dog.

A pox on my house

I was on call today.

I got sent home.

Why?

I have...........the pox.

Yep. I got the bloody stupid motherfucking chicken pox again. This is, I think, the fifth time I've had them. According to one of my cell bio profs in med school, I likely have an apparent T cell defect which is either too efficient at actually eliminating a virus that's supposed to lie dormant in your nerve roots forever (until you get shingles) or is too inefficient at turning this particular virus over to the B cells so that they can confer a longer-lasting immunity, so that when I get exposed to the virus again (say, from my AIDS patient with fulminent shingles, or the family practice resident who's just getting over the chicken pox she didn't have as a kid), my antibodies whallop the new invading virus instead of letting it manifest again. And no, it's not shingles, because it's everywhere.

At least I never get a very severe case. The worst I've ever had was I think 25 pox. So far I've counted 11 this time. And it could be worse. I could have smallpox. Or cowpox. Or I could get indolent, repetitive courses or leprosy or something. But I haven't had it since medical school and then I got the vaccine and I thought I was safe....

Stupid pox.