Foggy

I'm sick for the second time this spring. The first time came to a head around spring break when I spent nearly the whole break trying every crazy concoction possible and hacking my lungs up. I actually thought my current suffering has been from spring allergies, made severe by the high winds we've had in the last few weeks.

Friday night and Saturday I suffered through a SNWP retreat where the prevailing question was, "What should leadership look like in the SNWP?" I haven't been very involved in the last few years, and there I found myself among leaders, wanting to be more of a leader--or at least participator --and my brain is just full of drugs and the goop that's hanging around in my sinuses. Oh, so pretty!

I still wasn't feeling very well Monday and Tuesday, but I was functioning. Not living, mind you! The head congestion moved into an occasional cough, and that's when I thought things were worse than I thought.

Honestly, I was hoping to hold on a bit longer because I knew dying on Wednesday was out of the question. The foreign language teachers had an exciting field trip planned for our team, and because the whole plan had gone through so much strife and so many changes, I wasn't exactly sure what the trip was anymore, but if I died I would probably need to find new friends. (These two are my best friends in the whole school.) I survived the day--like a zombie--and it was a nice day for our students--spent mostly outside--but by the end, the right side of my face felt like it was being pinched by pliers. As I was driving home, I could barely see out of my right eye because it was so swollen and, well, uhm...drippy.

Suspecting that I was suffering from a head cold exacerbated by allergies--or vice versa, I pulled into the nearest Walgreens and stocked up on the new allergy pills and the kind of cold medicine that lets you sleep. I picked up the kids from school, and when we arrived home, I told them I felt awful. I think they got the message when came downstairs with my pajamas on and my make-up off. "You look really sick!" they told me. Thank you. I thought my eyes were black because of melted mascara, but once I took off the make-up, I discovered my eyes were still black and red. I think I resembled the Juan Wijngaard's Loathly Lady.

I requested a sub for today and drank tea on the couch until my sweetie came home.

When my sweetie came home, he said, "What's wrong with your eyes? You look rough!"

Don't you love my family?

I ate dinner with them and then I went upstairs to read. For about five minutes. Twelve hours later I woke up feeling much better--probably well enough to go to work, but I didn't. Yes, I think I have a little cold, but my allergies are worse than they have been in years!

I need to bank up wellness--and fast. I'm going to the MSA Conference next week, and there is no way I want to be alone and sick in some hotel room in Tennessee! After the conference, I'm back to teaching my own class for the rest of the year, so my game needs to be ON!