Zeo's Thoughts and Wanderings

Well, we left the house early, because I wanted to price some ingredients at LeeLee (Oriental supermarket) and wanted Matt to come with me. We had to go early because it does have a very strong fish smell, and later in the day, he wouldn't be able to handle it. So, we did our pricing there (I want to make dashi, miso soup, and a broth for the soba noodles I got last time I was there, but with the smaller paycheck this time, not happening this week), then went on to The Dented Can, over in Peoria. We were out of xanthan gum, and it's over $10 a bag most places (close to $12 direct from Bob's Red Mill). The last time I'd been to The Dented Can (over a year ago), I saw xanthan gum there for considerably less.

We ended up spending $10 there. What did we get for our $10? THREE bags of xanthan gum (Bob's Red Mill, a bag of Bob's Red Mill GF chocolate chip cookie mix, and a bag of (yet again) Bob's Red Mill GF rolled oats. Definitely worth the trip.

The next thing on our agenda was going down to the Phoenix Matsuri Festival, downtown. Unfortunately, when we got down there, it was PACKED. What with how I'd been feeling the past week, we decided not to go. So, we went to finish our grocery shopping. Stops at Fresh N Easy, WalMart, and Safeway, and we were done. I didn't get to go to Ikea, didn't get the box I wanted to start bentoing, but I did get a three-pack of divided Rubbermaid containers that would actually work better (and be a better size: 800-some milliliters rather than 2 quarts). So, I have those, I have foods for lunches, and I have a drive to make "cute" lunches. We'll see if that actually happens.

I'm sick today. Last Friday, about half the staff was sick, and now it's my turn. I woke yesterday with a sore throat, that went away after about 2 hours of being upright, then came back about 2 hours before bedtime. I loaded up on Claritin-D and Singulair along with my other evening pills (Prilosec and lovastatin), and took a few hits of Chloroseptic. Woke up around midnight when Matt came to bed, throat screaming at me, nose alternating congestive sides. Got some bright yellow mucus through vigorous nose-blowing, but had to repeat the Chloroseptic, threw in some Advil for good measure, and a few shots of Afrin. I try to stay away from the Afrin, but last night, I needed it. Stayed awake/upright for a while; watched most of a program about Icelandic horses until my poor watery eyes demanded sleep. Slept restlessly until the alarm went off, then with how rotten I was still feeling, called off and tried to sleep some more. I dozed until about seven or so, when Patch realized it's the time I normally leave, and hadn't left yet, so she started clawing at the bedroom door. Matt went out to pacify her, and I dozed a little more, until about 15 minutes ago.

I still feel like crap, and my left eye is still watering up a storm. My throat isn't screaming at me anymore, but it feels thick. My nose is still halfheartedly-clogged, just enough that it's tricky to breathe through it.

Matt and I haven't left the house since we got home Friday night. We need to go out today, though (or at least one of us does); we didn't finish our grocery shopping Friday night, and we're down to half a roll of toilet paper.

My fever spiked again yesterday; after getting down to 99, it went back up to 102. I stopped taking the anti-nausea pills after a major vomit session last night, and haven't thrown up since.

Fever was down around 100 this morning, but I'm still dizzy and lightheaded when I sit upright. On the plus side, it seems like I can take normal-sized swallows of liquid again rather than sips. I practically chugged a glass of water this morning, I was so thirsty.

I have to try to go in to work tonight, fever/dizzy or no, because there's no one else to cover. I e-mailed my department to ask the one girl to stay til 5. I don't trust myself to drive out there in one piece, so I have to wait for Matt to get home to take me to work.

I'm sitting here sweating, my head spinning. If it doesn't get any better by two, I may have to call off anyway. (sigh) I hate that the first thing I get asked when I say "I have a fever, I'm throwing up, leaking from both ends and I can't stand up without passing out" is "Well, do you have coverage?"

I hate being sick.  It wouldn't be so bad if we were still in NC and I was still at my old store.  But being at a new store, and needing to take a day off three days into my first week?  I hate it.  I'm wracked with guilt because I seriously believe I need the day off to rest and recuperate, but I know how crazy that store is right now and they can't afford to have me, a new supervisor, call off right now.  But I have to.  I'll apologize right and left, but I just can NOT make the 40-minute drive into Scottsdale today.  Not when I'm out of meds.  I'll make my hoarse, scratchy. apologetic call, then find some clothing, go put gas in the car, and get some heavy-duty medications so I won't have to do this again for at least a few months.  At least by then, I should have found a doctor in the area.  

This happened when I started at the Cary store, too.  Had to call off sick my second day because I literally could not stand up.  Dizzy.  I need to find a primary-care physician.  Finding _a_ doctor won't be hard.  Finding a _good_ doctor that I like?  Might be harder.  Add in a good doctor that I can understand....I have a LOT of trouble with accents.  Pretty much any accent other than Pittsburgh/Cleveland/Buffalo throws me for a loop.  So if the doctor I found happened to be Indian/Asian/etc, with a thick accent....he/she could be the best doctor in the world, and I'd still have to find a different one.  And yes, I've encountered doctors and other professionals with accents SO thick, I had to ask them to write out what they were saying.  And yes, I realize their English is much better than whatever I'd attempt in their native language.  But I just can't make out accents.  Heck, I've had people with thick Southern US accents I had to have repeat themselves multiple times before I could figure out what they were asking for. Throw in dialect differences, and it's just one big linguistic jumble.

So, yeah.  Calling off sick.  Means I need to find the phone, and the number.  Sigh.  I hope they understand.  They all heard me hacking and choking yesterday, they should understand. 

Well, I didn't spend ALL day yesterday updating the Castle. I got through the MMPR, Zeo and Turbo universes, though. I would have made it through more, but I was still sort of bummed about the whole feature vs. cheat code thing, so when Matt came home, we got caught up on the two hours of Gilmore Girls we'd missed Friday and Monday, then went out to lunch, then came home and watched that day's ep of GG. So, about four hours there not spent on computer.
( Boring website ramblings )

I woke up about ten minutes before Matt's alarm went off with a screaming headache. I'm wondering if what I read in a fic is true, if your brain membrane actually shrinks a little when you're dehydrated, causing massive headaches. If so, that's probably what this is. I know I don't drink nearly enough water. Yesterday, I had maybe 16 oz of diet Sierra Mist (can be comparable to water, no caffeine) and maybe 16 oz of water at the restaurant. That's only about half the daily amount of water, and I did have a little coffee at home, so that negates some of the water.
But anyway, it's 3:40 in the morning, I just had a glass of water and two Excedrin, the headache is fading, so I'm going to try to grab another 2.5-3 hours of sleep before I have to be in to work.

Okay, I see what sparked Jack's arrogance, but really. The ep resolved too neatly. It was like, "Okay, we always need an arrogant Red ep, so let's get it over with." I was almost rooting for Kreuger to give the Red morpher to Sky right there. :-P

Still not sure on Sydney. Again, all I saw of her was "ditz."

In other news, Thursday morning around 1 am, I woke up ill. I figured it was stomach flu. It hit my husband an hour later. :-P I got over most of the leakage by noon, feeling somewhat better. He was still incapacitated til later that evening. I got the chills when he started feeling better, ended up retreating to the nice, warm, heated waterbed and the flannel comforter. Next morning, he was fine. Me, I had screaming pain fron the base of my skull to the tip of my tailbone. Still had it this morning with the added bonus of burning pain, like someone whacked me on the back of the head with a baseball bat.

But on the plus side, I managed to eat a burger, fries and a coke.

I hate being sick. For the last week, every time I eat, no matter what I eat, I get nauseated. Feel like throwing up, sweating, the whole nine yards. Yuck.