The 12 Days of Sickness

It's beginning to look like people are ready to keel over and die everywhere you go. Take a look at the stress of work (or school), compounded by the Christmas search [for presents], and add to that the cold air and the snow - and well, it's beginning to look like flu season.

Anyways, it hit me pretty hard over the weekend, and I don't get sick very often. Thankfully, I had a three-day weekend to recover (gotta love going to a Catholic school that celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception!). What started out as a sore throat in the mornings turned in to an all-out war for my immunity system, including unending coughing throughout the night and that lovely goo that shuts your eyes shut by the time you've gotten out of bed (that reminds me, one time, when I was a little kid, I woke up and both of my eyes were sealed shut with eye boogers and I tried to feel my way to the bathroom. Needless to say, I smashed my forehead into the doorframe!).

Finally, I'm starting to feel better after a "witch's brew" including:

12 Ricola lozenges,
11 [more] Ricola lozenges (which just about finished off the bag),
10 Halls cough drops,
9 tablespoons of Theraflu (or 2/3s of a bottle),
8 [more] Halls cough drops,
7 [more] Halls cough drops,
6 Sudafed PE pills,
5 Mucinex tablets,
4 Vitamins,
3 Cups of tea,
2 Bowls of Chicken noodle soup (note to self, when you have a sore throat, don't add pepper to your soup),
And a trip to get a Douglas Fir Tree.

[Did I mention zero trips to the doctor??]

Thankfully, I had my papers all out of the way before all of this hit. Now, I just have a Latin final exam on Thursday morning (and I must say, its extremely difficult to study Latin while drugged up!). This semester has been a good one, although it didn't turn out entirely how I had expected. My two philosophy classes, Islamic Philosophy and African-American philosophy, were both very interesting although not exactly the subject matter I had assumed beforehand. Hopefully, in the coming days, I'll have the opportunity to share some year-end thoughts on the subjects that will be of value to whoever is out there reading this blog.

In other news, Amber and I crazy busy these days. If there's not a Christmas party we have to go to each night of the week, its something else. Last night, for instance, we had a "meet the Midwives" where we got a chance to ask question and get a tour of the hospital, so, whenever this baby is born I'll have some clue as to what to do when my wfe is in labor (I can see it now...). Tonight, we have a church leadership meeting, tomorrow a Christmas party at our house for our small group, and two parties on Saturday night! Somewhere in here I'm supposed to finish applying to PhD programs, do some Christmas shopping, and finish planning our pre-Christmas trip to NYC with Amber's parents. Whew!